Which scanner would be best?

[c0wb0yup]

I used to be knowledgeable in the area of scanners back in the EDACS days when I lived in south Alabama. Moved to East Tennessee some years ago, and after some aggravation trying to listen to anything in Sevier county, i kind of gave up the listening hobby. Recently I pulled the old BC785D out of storage and programmed in some VHF frequencies. That led to installing an antenna in my attic. Which fueled the desire to get back in the hobby for my area. After seeing the sticker shock on new scanners that *may* or *may not* work for me, I skimmed the info for the new types of trunking systems, and honestly its just a lot to comprehend. Maybe I have hit that "Hey you kids, get off my lawn" old man stage of life. I know my children now have to show me things on the cell phones that I didn't know, and I used to be the person that others would come to years ago for electronics help. So, I don't want to buy something that won't work or I can't use, seeing as how there are some "non refundable" upgrades on some of the scanners i looked at.

I want to be able to listen to mainly Fire/EMS for my area, maybe some law enforcement. I understand a lot of LE is encrypted now, and not monitor-able. I am assuming these new scanners still do VHF and UHF simplex, that is also a must.

The area I want to concentrate on is Knox, Sevier, and Blount counties, as well as anything around those that my attic antenna is picking up (working really well on VHF at the moment).

I am leaning toward a base/mobile type of scanner, similar in size to the Uniden BC785D. I am familiar with programming on the computer so any scanner that would be able to be programmed on a computer then uploaded is a plus.

I am sure some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking "just read through the information", I get that. And I used to be that way as well. I did read through it and am just not comprehending all the changes since I stopped listening. I am just hoping someone will tell me which scanners work well for this area. I am still competent enough to figure out programming and setup with my one track mind once I am locked in on an idea. Just looking for some help deciding which track to take.

Thanks in advance
Tony

 

[jblackst]

Except for Pigeon Forge and Seymour FD, most of Sevier County is still a black hole of business radios being used for public safety (non standard or scannable protocols) or Big E. Knox County LE is all E. Knox County Fire/EMS is still mostly clear. Same with Blount County LE, Fire, and EMS (clear). Except for Pigeon Forge, most of the Public Safety agencies in Knox/Blount have moved to TACN and that BC785D likely won't be able to hear it without the add on BCi25 card installed.

VHF was the last bastion of Public Safety in East TN, and with Rural/Metro and Seymour recently moving to TACN there went the last big VHF users. TN Div Forestry still uses VHF in these areas, but their traffic is sparse most of the time.

If you're willing, you might consider getting some SDR sticks for your computer. A good set of SDRs can be had for about 25-30 each, and with two you can easily download free software to let you listen to TACN sites in the area. There are several freeware software packages to decode and monitor P25 trunking systems (UniTrunker, DSDPlus).

If you're wanting to stay with a traditional scanner, then something like the following (from the TACN wiki at RadioReference):

Scanner Support for TDMA​

The following scanners can decode P25 Phase I, Phase II, and Motorola X2-TDMA systems.

• GRE PSR-800 2
• Radio Shack Pro-18 3, Pro-668
• Uniden BCD325P2, BCD436HP, BCD536HP, BCD996P2, HomePatrol-2, SDS100, SDS200
• Whistler WS1080, WS1088, WS1095, WS1098, TRX-1, TRX-2

Notes

2 Requires latest firmware update.
3 Requires Whistler Official Upgrade (WOU).

The Uniden BCD996P2 might be the 'cheaper' desktop listing, at around $420.

 

[Tomcu96]

what I would recommend is to listen to the fire-ems tone out and I agree that the bcd325p2 is a good one for the help on it. the pigeon forge is now on an nxdn. but the countywide fire and EMS is on analog. but most of the systems are either analog or like digital you can find your info at the following Sevier County Radio reference page Sevier County, Tennessee (TN) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference those are some if you would like I could make a youtube about it tonight, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvog9hwwEeVN0DtN8CW7CAw

 

[c0wb0yup]

Thank you both for your replies. At the moment I want to stay with a traditional scanner, just in case i decide to put it in the truck. I was looking at the BCD996P2 in particular, it seems like it will listen to most of what I am looking for. Your list above helps confirm that.

My 785D is mostly broken, half of the buttons don't work anymore (And I never had a reason to buy the P25 card for it, where I moved from everything was on standard EDACS and i could listen to that with no problems). I have it connected to an OLD computer I pulled out of storage, an XP, and with the software I am able to control all the buttons on it and program it. I use it mostly for Ham anymore, I was listening to Seymour VFD before I heard half of their traffic seem to stop. I still hear the Sevier county stuff but anything in Knox county must be on the new digital system.

I will check out these scanners, I just didn't want to invest in something that wasn't going to work. Seems as though I have more options than I originally thought!