What Radio to Choose
- Thread starter zman099
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Southern California is a HUGE place. There are a lot of different systems and agencies all over the place. Please narrow down your location, and also tell us what kind of thing you are interested in listening to. Some people only monitor aviation, some only railroads. There is a lot of law enforcement down there, so if that's what you want, give us a specific agency/etc. Some stuff is digital and will require a digital scanner. Certainly you can find stuff to monitor with a PRO-97, but it might not be what you want.
Everyone has their opinions, but I would look at Uniden's radios as well. I had a PRO-92B ( I know, that was a long time ago ), and it sucked. It didn't track the OC system well at all.
Something else to consider is that the PRO-97 does not support rebanding, which means it will likely be useless within the next year or so for monitoring Orange County stuff.
THE PSR-300 won't do digital and about 75% of OC's radio system is digital. About the only thing you'd be able to listen to is Fire stuff and pursuits, which suits many people just fine. It's not likely, but if the county decides to "flip the switch" and make everything digital, then you are SOL, although you could still listen to CHP and UCIPD.
With all that being said. All OC law talkgroups are encrypted (except for RED channel) and there is no chance of listening to them whatsoever. You can look in the database and see what is monitorable. Note that anything that has an "A" means analog, which you can recieve with any trunking scanner, "D" means digital, which requires a digital-capable scanner and "E" means encrypted, which can be translated as and cannot be listened to. A colossal waste of my tax dollars!!!!:evil:
Something else to consider is that the PRO-97 does not support rebanding, which means it will likely be useless within the next year or so for monitoring Orange County stuff.
THE PSR-300 won't do digital and about 75% of OC's radio system is digital. About the only thing you'd be able to listen to is Fire stuff and pursuits, which suits many people just fine. It's not likely, but if the county decides to "flip the switch" and make everything digital, then you are SOL, although you could still listen to CHP and UCIPD.
With all that being said. All OC law talkgroups are encrypted (except for RED channel) and there is no chance of listening to them whatsoever. You can look in the database and see what is monitorable. Note that anything that has an "A" means analog, which you can recieve with any trunking scanner, "D" means digital, which requires a digital-capable scanner and "E" means encrypted, which can be translated as and cannot be listened to. A colossal waste of my tax dollars!!!!:evil:
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