Wanting to convert from Radio Shack Scanner

[Circa]

I want to get a Uniden BCD396xt and get rid of my radio shack Pro-651 Scanner.
I miss Close Call and FREE programming software of Uniden scanners. And want the fire tone out feature.
The scanner will be used for Analog channel and trunked systems and for Digital (P25 P1) Trunking.

Hoping that someone else has switched from a PSR500, Pro-106, or Pro-651 to a BCD396xt or have both and might be able to give me some hands on advice on what I might lose by going to a bcd396xt.

Would going from the Pro-651 to a BCD396xt be an upgrade or a downgrade?
Could anyone help me compare the differences between the two? (Display quality, Sensitivity, Audio Quality, p25 decoding quality, Quality of Life features, etc)

Thank you.

 

[chipl57]

I have BCD396xt that is less than a year old and I am not happy with it. Compared to my pro-106 and pro-197 the Uniden is deaf as a post. The RS units are far more sensitive in side by side comparisons. I miss a lot of traffic on the Uniden that I can hear clearly on the 106 and 197. And that is mainly local stuff. I put all three scanners on a control channel of a site (Hoosier SAFE-T System) about 20 miles away. The 106 and 197 caught it with no problem. (4 bars signal strength) The 396, nothing, even with an antenna optimized for 800mhz. Moved it around, nothing. The 396 also has very short battery life. As i sit typing this my 396 just died after 8.5 hours of use on a 16 hour charge. The 106 will last 12 to 14 hours on a 16 hour charge depending on how much I use back lighting, LED's; etc. I am seriously considering sending the 396 in for repair to make sure there is not a defect before it is out of warranty. It doesn't like to stay on the belt clip either, but that is minor compared to the performance issues. If I were buying a new scanner today, it would not be a Uniden. Just my $ .02 worth.

 

[Circa]

I have BCD396xt that is less than a year old and I am not happy with it. Compared to my pro-106 and pro-197 the Uniden is deaf as a post. The RS units are far more sensitive in side by side comparisons. I miss a lot of traffic on the Uniden that I can hear clearly on the 106 and 197. And that is mainly local stuff. I put all three scanners on a control channel of a site (Hoosier SAFE-T System) about 20 miles away. The 106 and 197 caught it with no problem. (4 bars signal strength) The 396, nothing, even with an antenna optimized for 800mhz. Moved it around, nothing. The 396 also has very short battery life. As i sit typing this my 396 just died after 8.5 hours of use on a 16 hour charge. The 106 will last 12 to 14 hours on a 16 hour charge depending on how much I use back lighting, LED's; etc. I am seriously considering sending the 396 in for repair to make sure there is not a defect before it is out of warranty. It doesn't like to stay on the belt clip either, but that is minor compared to the performance issues. If I were buying a new scanner today, it would not be a Uniden. Just my $ .02 worth.

That's what I was afraid of. I had to do the potentiometer mod on my 246t to make help with reception.

Problem is I am out of memory on my pro-651, love having a whole 1,800 slots per V-scan (sarcasm).

I've never had my 651 die on me, but it's mainly plugged in or runs on battery for only a few hours at a time. I charge with a hobby charger so I can charge a 2,500mAh battery quickly, so charge time isn't a big deal.

Maybe I should just wait to see if the bcd436hp drops to the price of the 396xt.
When it comes to functionality(651) vs convenience(396), functionality wins.

Thank you for sharing your experience.

EDIT: I forgot to ask, which firmware version was your 396xt on when it was having reception problems?

 

[Nasby]

I own both the 396xt and the PRO651.

As mentioned earlier, the 651 receives MARCS better than the 396xt.

But I love the size and display of the 396xt.

How in the heck can you run out of memory for the 651 in BFE Columbiana County?

 

[ecps92]

All depends on your expected use

For me, having the GRE models save channel / object space.
I've got frequencies that are used for both Analog and Digital and the GRE is set for Auto
where-as the Uniden needs to be programmed for 2 channels - One Analog the Other Digital

I want to get a Uniden BCD396xt and get rid of my radio shack Pro-651 Scanner.
I miss Close Call and FREE programming software of Uniden scanners. And want the fire tone out feature.
The scanner will be used for Analog channel and trunked systems and for Digital (P25 P1) Trunking.

Hoping that someone else has switched from a PSR500, Pro-106, or Pro-651 to a BCD396xt or have both and might be able to give me some hands on advice on what I might lose by going to a bcd396xt.

Would going from the Pro-651 to a BCD396xt be an upgrade or a downgrade?
Could anyone help me compare the differences between the two? (Display quality, Sensitivity, Audio Quality, p25 decoding quality, Quality of Life features, etc)

Thank you.

 

[Circa]

How in the heck can you run out of memory for the 651 in BFE Columbiana County?

Haha, this made me laugh! You must be familiar with the county! (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFE)
But seriously, trunked system's talk groups take up most of the memory. Even just the entire MARCS and Marcs-IP system take up a huge chunk.
I've not used the V-Folder thing, so I have I think 6 counties using up the 1,800 slots, plus some duplicate banks for local only frequencies.

I like that the 436 is P25 p2 capable. I read that Pennsylvania is supposed to be converting from their OpenSky system to a P25 P2 system eventually, so the 436 would be future proofing.

How does the BCD436hp compare to the Pro-651? Same sensitivity problems?

 

[KMG54]

why not grab a pro668 off of amazon for 180 or less. They work great are phase II to capable and if you run out of memory get a bigger sd card.

 

[Circa]

why not grab a pro668 off of amazon for 180 or less. They work great are phase II to capable and if you run out of memory get a bigger sd card.

That's actually an option I've been debating.
I really want the Fire Tone out feature, but I think I might have to give that up for something that actually works well (i.e. the pro-668).

I'm going to search real quick and if I don't find any threads comparing the pro-651 to the pro-668, I'm might create one in the Radio Shack forum.

 

[KMG54]

I think you can get the 668 for almost the same price and the 668 is much better in my opinion than the 651. I have a pro106 and the 668 smokes it on VHF. Plus if you ever change to phase II your ready. And if anybody has simulcast problems check your programming,most software will let you choose just the main control channel and a alternate for each site, If you don't check that it will load multiple frequencies that will slow down scanning and cause multipath.

 

[ratboy]

I bought a 396XT a few years ago, and it was OK, but I didn't like the audio on P25 much at all, and so I sold it and stuck with my 106/PSR-500 twins. The 668 is a great radio, but is super sensitive to RFI, and in my car and at work, it's not really worth even having on, as VHF, which is a large part of my listening, is pretty much gone. At home, it's great, I hear things on VHF with the RS 800MHZ antenna that the 500/106 twins don't hear with even a big whip antenna on it. Once I played with the settings on the digital trunk stuff, it does a great job on that, slightly better than the 436's I've had here to play with and fix, and vastly more sensitive on VHF. Every radio I own, with any decent antenna is better than a 436 on VHF. The measurements I've seen do not correlate with the real world results I have had with multiple 436's. I get around the memory limit on the 106/500 by simply putting wild cards in for MARCS and deleting a lot of the programmed talk groups. Then I resist saving them as they pop up constantly. I do the same with MSPCS. I have about 400 objects available.