Hi All. I'm looking for thoughts on repair or replacing my old 296D. It doesn't run at all. I'd like to get back into monitoring. The caveat, I'm in Central Florida where MOST PD is encrypted. There aren't many "newer" scanners that will cover everything in the Orange/Polk/Osceola/Lake/Seminole/Brevard area.
What are some viable options for this old retiree on a fixed income? Send it to Uniden and cross my fingers??? (That's kind of where my head is at now).
Thanks In Advance.
Congratulations on your first post in 20 years of membership on radio reference. I also live in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I still own my bearcat 250d which is essentially the same radio you have introduced in 2003. It runs great even though it's somewhat useless and I don't use it but it's still can receive certain analog frequencies in this area like Coast Guard.
Unfortunately, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Burlington County, all the systems in my area are tdma Phase ll that your radio will not receive. The police are completely strapped.
If you want to pick up anything that's not encrypted it's still going to be tdma Phase ll and you really don't have many options other than purchasing a new radio. I'm going to guess that Uniden probably doesn't have anybody left that can repair your radio but that's just a guess depending on what's wrong with it.
Because of a widespread phenomena called simulcast distortion you really need the latest and greatest Uniden scanners that employ an SDR chip or a unication pager or a non affiliated receive only professional radio. None of which are cheap.
Forget about your non working scanner from 2003, pretty much a doorstop. It was a great performer in our area back when digital Motorola type ll smart Zone systems were introduced. It was a miracle.
GRE also introduced digital scanners at the same time under the Radio Shack label that were far superior audio wise than anything Uniden put out at the same time.
Just have to face reality regarding your 20-year-old scanner.
