thinking of getting a 396t

[rvawatch]

I currently have a Pro-96 and use the thing religiously. I monitor local 3600 baud and 9600 baud systems the most. I'm looking at getting a 396t since I want one scanner to stay with me and one at home hooked up to my computer. I really like some of the features that the 396 offers such as the close call, etc. Anyways...the wiki here says that the lowest step size that the 396 accepts is 5 khz. For Virginia State Police stars system, it says that some of the spacing required is 2.5 khz. The pro-96 wiki says that it only goes down to 5 khz as well, but I ended up entering the table info through win96 (the great software for custom programming). Does anyone know if the Virgina State Police will work even though there is this issue with the step sizes?

Any other things that someone might know off the top of their head that I might consider when going from the pro96 to the 396t?

Thanks everyone in advance for your help.

Andrew
www.rvawatch.com

 

[dtscho]

Yes, the 396 will work with STARS. You don't have to worry about the 2.5 kHz spacing. The 396 doesn't need the custom tables that the Pro-96 does; the 396 reads all the data it needs from the control channel.

However, even though the 396 will track STARS, most users (myself included) have noticed that it misses considerably more transmissions than the Pro-96/2096. Someone reported that the Pro-96/2096 got about 95% of the State Police traffic, and the 396 got only 70-75%.

Dave

 

[DaveIN]

Yes, the 396 will work with STARS. You don't have to worry about the 2.5 kHz spacing. The 396 doesn't need the custom tables that the Pro-96 does; the 396 reads all the data it needs from the control channel.

However, even though the 396 will track STARS, most users (myself included) have noticed that it misses considerably more transmissions than the Pro-96/2096. Someone reported that the Pro-96/2096 got about 95% of the State Police traffic, and the 396 got only 70-75%.

Dave

So your saying using the 396 in the trunktracker mode it skips 25-30% of the traffic? Is this the only system being monitored with no other systems selected to be scanned?

The PRO-96 can only scan 700MHz P25 conventionally, so I am curious if your comparing apples to apples?

If you were to park on a 700MHz voice frequency with both radios, or both scanning conventionally with the same frequencies, will the 396 still miss traffic, or is this a P25 trunktracking problem?

 

[LordJ]

If you are going to leave one at home hooked up to the computer, I would suggest the 996 with ARC996Pro

 

[dtscho]

First of all, see the Virginia forum for much more discussion on STARS.

Yes, the 396 will miss traffic even when STARS is the only system being scanned.

STARS is a VHF P25 system.

The reason the 396 (and to a lesser extent, the 96/2096) misses traffic has to do with the "multipacket" issue. Basically, non-voice data is sent on the same VHF frequencies used for voice traffic, and this sometimes causes the 396 to miss voice transmissions.

There are people on the VA forum who have explained the multipacket issue in much more depth, so again, you might want to check out the threads over there.

A few users in Alaska were also having issues with that state's VHF P25 system for the same reason.

Dave

 

[DaveIN]

First of all, see the Virginia forum for much more discussion on STARS.

Yes, the 396 will miss traffic even when STARS is the only system being scanned.

STARS is a VHF P25 system.

The reason the 396 (and to a lesser extent, the 96/2096) misses traffic has to do with the "multipacket" issue. Basically, non-voice data is sent on the same VHF frequencies used for voice traffic, and this sometimes causes the 396 to miss voice transmissions.

There are people on the VA forum who have explained the multipacket issue in much more depth, so again, you might want to check out the threads over there.

A few users in Alaska were also having issues with that state's VHF P25 system for the same reason.

Dave

OK, now I understand what your talking about. I did not know that you were working with a VHF trunked system. I'll take a look at the VA information, thanks.

 

[rvawatch]

First of all, see the Virginia forum for much more discussion on STARS.

Yes, the 396 will miss traffic even when STARS is the only system being scanned.

STARS is a VHF P25 system.

The reason the 396 (and to a lesser extent, the 96/2096) misses traffic has to do with the "multipacket" issue. Basically, non-voice data is sent on the same VHF frequencies used for voice traffic, and this sometimes causes the 396 to miss voice transmissions.

There are people on the VA forum who have explained the multipacket issue in much more depth, so again, you might want to check out the threads over there.

A few users in Alaska were also having issues with that state's VHF P25 system for the same reason.

Dave

does the 396 only have this problem with state police's frequencies? Chesterfield uses 3600 baud system in the 800 mhz range, does the 396 have problems with that too?


Also to the other post...I am looking at the base version too. I really like alot of the features on the 396 though and that it would be portable to take those features with me (like close call).

Thanks

 

[dtscho]

No, the 396 has no problems with Chesterfield's system. It will also work fine for Richmond, Henrico, Petersburg, Hopewell, Hanover, etc.

Dave