SDS100 or compatible
- Thread starter kreibman
- Start date
No, BCD436HP is as close as Uniden has but if simulcast is in your area it will not perform as well. And they really aren’t that much cheaper.
wtp
Member
for the system you want to listen to, is it on simulcast ?
wtp
Member
better to save up the pennies and get a good radio.
if you spend less, you might be disappointed.
unless you buy from a place that lets you trade up.
my county is on 700 and is simulcast.
the wife and i bought a 325P2 as the 396T and 396XT would give us 1/4 of voice and then 1/4 of silence.
then 325 did the same thing.
then we bought an SDS100 (on a credit card points thing) and hear everything. we use the 325 around town and it does OK.
but we were willing to take the chance as there are a bunch of radios here already.
if you spend less, you might be disappointed.
unless you buy from a place that lets you trade up.
my county is on 700 and is simulcast.
the wife and i bought a 325P2 as the 396T and 396XT would give us 1/4 of voice and then 1/4 of silence.
then 325 did the same thing.
then we bought an SDS100 (on a credit card points thing) and hear everything. we use the 325 around town and it does OK.
but we were willing to take the chance as there are a bunch of radios here already.
Based the city in your profile, Coplay, you are in Lehigh County, PA. Looking at that county in the database, there is not a "countywide" system with simulcast sites. Allentown does have their own system. Their site is not tagged as "simulcast", but I do see two sites listed on the license. One site is in Allentown, the other in Salisbury.
Neighboring county Berks does have two simulcast sites on their system.
While, at present, you do not have simulcast sites in your county, that might change at some future date. As far as hearing simulcast sites from neighboring counties, it's a coin toss as to whether you'd have problems. Simulcast issues are extremely location specific. Due to the distance, or other factors such as hills, you might not have problems with the more distant sites. But there is no guarantee either way. Should you elect to travel, and take your scanner with you, the odds are about 100% that somewhere on your trip, if it goes to or through a large urban area, simulcast issues are waiting for you.
As wtp has noted, the only scanners that can successfully handle simulcast systems are Uniden's SDS series. If you are mainly interested in monitoring from home, with a PC available, you can use one of the SDR songles & (free) downloadable software to listen. That requires the use of the PC, so is not something that is easily portable. There is a forum dedicated to that if you want to investigate how that works.
Zip Scanners has an online tool to help you decide which scanner will work for your area:
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Smart. I started with a 996 and was very disappointed, so I pulled the trigger on a SDS200. Huge difference, as I really never searched much into what I needed. I now use the 996 dedicated to air, forestry, some rail and other analog stuff.
I pretty much did the same thing. I started with the 325p2. Then I sold that, to get my 436HP. I do listen to some digital on my 436HP, but no Simulcast. I listen to Simulcast on my SDS100.
