Hello All, I appreciate you taking the time here to read my post and hopefully offer up some assistance in this decision I am looking to make here in the near future.
I am currently the owner of a Uniden HomePatrol-1 (Yes I know it ruined scanning for some of you, made it available to the masses blah blah blah, I just needed a car unit and this baby fit the bill.) as well as a RadioShack Pro-94. While the HP1 is and will more than likely remain for awhile my car and desk unit, the Pro-94 used to be my go to handheld unit, easy for when I traveled or for when I was actually on the scene doing photography but it is now showing its age, and I want to get a newer little more sleek unit, something with a PC interface that wont chew up batteries like the HP1 (which is a terrible unit to carry with you.)
I currently reside in Dallas, TX where to my great pleasure the FD and PD are still able to be picked up on everything I own, including a cheap little Baofeng UV-5R I picked up a while ago, but (and this is a big but) I go on trips that often take me to locations such as Waco where there is a MotoP25 system in place, and all of our surrounding DFW cities are trunked, but trunking is not a huge deal for me to deal with. I also work in Cedar Hill, TX where the locals use a NXDN NEXEDGE system, which I thought was unmonitorable but some ff's I know swear they get it on their personal scanners. I am still green enough to admit that even with an understanding of radio comms the Nexedge stuff is lost on me so I do not know if there is anything out there that could or if monitoring Nexedge freqs is ever achievable.
BOTTOM LINE:
What is the best bang for my buck in a PC interfaceable, easy to program and scan handheld unit??
I am currently the owner of a Uniden HomePatrol-1 (Yes I know it ruined scanning for some of you, made it available to the masses blah blah blah, I just needed a car unit and this baby fit the bill.) as well as a RadioShack Pro-94. While the HP1 is and will more than likely remain for awhile my car and desk unit, the Pro-94 used to be my go to handheld unit, easy for when I traveled or for when I was actually on the scene doing photography but it is now showing its age, and I want to get a newer little more sleek unit, something with a PC interface that wont chew up batteries like the HP1 (which is a terrible unit to carry with you.)
I currently reside in Dallas, TX where to my great pleasure the FD and PD are still able to be picked up on everything I own, including a cheap little Baofeng UV-5R I picked up a while ago, but (and this is a big but) I go on trips that often take me to locations such as Waco where there is a MotoP25 system in place, and all of our surrounding DFW cities are trunked, but trunking is not a huge deal for me to deal with. I also work in Cedar Hill, TX where the locals use a NXDN NEXEDGE system, which I thought was unmonitorable but some ff's I know swear they get it on their personal scanners. I am still green enough to admit that even with an understanding of radio comms the Nexedge stuff is lost on me so I do not know if there is anything out there that could or if monitoring Nexedge freqs is ever achievable.
BOTTOM LINE:
What is the best bang for my buck in a PC interfaceable, easy to program and scan handheld unit??