I am thinking of getting a second scanner mostly to have a permanent setup at home. I already have a 396t and it's a great little scanner and I'm thinking of getting another scanner for traveling by either getting another portable (like the 396xt) or a base unit (like the 996xt) to keep at home and use the 396t when I'm out and about. I only bought the 396t last year (Fry's apparently wasn't carrying the 396xt until very recently and it was too late to return the 396t by the time I found out about it) so I am having a heck of a time deciding what to get. Here are my considerations:
I could get a base unit for home and for that I'd either get the 996t or 996xt or I could another portable which would likely be the 396xt
I can get the 396xt or 996xt for the same price at bearcatwarehouse.com (are they good?) at $486 which is less than I'd pay Fry's for an 996t or 396xt at $549 (Fry's apparently isn't selling the 996xt yet)
About the only new feature on the XT's that I think I'd use right away is the different colored backlights (Being visually impaired it's hard to read the LCD at a distance) and since the GPS feature requires a seperate GPS unit I probably won't be using that. Other than that the other new features are all scanning functions that either I don't need here in my area or don't know enough yet to know what I am missing
so here are my questions:
- Does the XT series have better pickup of the Digital systems? I just had my first encounter with one this month in San Mateo county and my 396t was struggling a bit with it (although in all fairness to the 396t I hear the police and ems services using that system have had a lot of problems with it as well.) so I am wondering if a 396xt would have an easier time decoding the signal.
- Are there other features of the XT series that I haven't already mentioned that are important for someone who is on the novice end of things? I'd like to eventually start reading the digital data streams of some of these channels but I am not quite there yet but if this can be done without too much trouble on an XT that would definitely help decide. (This is what the discriminator tap mod for the 396t is used for right?)
I can get another 396t from Fry's for $300 but I'd rather get a newer model especially since they already sold me one at full 2005 price only 6 months ago and bearcatwarehouse is only a little more for the XT models.
Thoughts?
I could get a base unit for home and for that I'd either get the 996t or 996xt or I could another portable which would likely be the 396xt
I can get the 396xt or 996xt for the same price at bearcatwarehouse.com (are they good?) at $486 which is less than I'd pay Fry's for an 996t or 396xt at $549 (Fry's apparently isn't selling the 996xt yet)
About the only new feature on the XT's that I think I'd use right away is the different colored backlights (Being visually impaired it's hard to read the LCD at a distance) and since the GPS feature requires a seperate GPS unit I probably won't be using that. Other than that the other new features are all scanning functions that either I don't need here in my area or don't know enough yet to know what I am missing
so here are my questions:- Does the XT series have better pickup of the Digital systems? I just had my first encounter with one this month in San Mateo county and my 396t was struggling a bit with it (although in all fairness to the 396t I hear the police and ems services using that system have had a lot of problems with it as well.) so I am wondering if a 396xt would have an easier time decoding the signal.
- Are there other features of the XT series that I haven't already mentioned that are important for someone who is on the novice end of things? I'd like to eventually start reading the digital data streams of some of these channels but I am not quite there yet but if this can be done without too much trouble on an XT that would definitely help decide. (This is what the discriminator tap mod for the 396t is used for right?)
I can get another 396t from Fry's for $300 but I'd rather get a newer model especially since they already sold me one at full 2005 price only 6 months ago and bearcatwarehouse is only a little more for the XT models.
Thoughts?
