396xt-true confession

[mainetrunk]

I am currenly running a T to split to the pro 106 and 396xt to get the truth about sensitivity. Well, after 30 minutes of scanning towns 30 miles plus away,Straight analog signals.No trunk-or LTR... I HATE to admit it. The 396xt catches the UHF-T signals better than the pro 106. I switch the bnc's from 1 to the other to make sure it is not the T connection. I have a few problems with the 396xt, but hands down-Uniden wins this round. O.K Uniden-you win this round, but the shack will be back..LOL...(you were right Brian)-guy I know that LOVES Uniden.

[mainetrunk]

However-I just got an intrusion.. Rochester N.H --D.P.W is 151.100-107.2...Cumberland County Maine is 151.1075--107.2.. Yesterday the D.P.W came over the Cumberland channel--real Clear.. I doubt theres a way to sepparate the 2.. Especially when the 396xt has a 30 foot LMR 400 leading to a 12 inch long rubber ducky at 150feet above sea level. F.Y.I--that ducky is an excellent antenna. Real conversation peice.

[W5JER]

What's funny is I was just contemplating on buying a 396xt soon. The only thing stopping me is all the reports from savvy scanner users and radio users saying how hard it is to program. I'm a bit worried but then again my savvy side says "do it! do it!". It's always reassuring to see a post like this.

[JnglMassiv]

It would be cool is someone with access to a calibrated service monitor and a bunch of common radios would do this type of thing without having to rely on antennas and distant signals.

[kruser]

Using a T to split the signals is not a good test. You have no isolation between the two radios. One could be loading down the antenna input on the other.

You need something like a passive two port multicoupler for this test.
Or a true active multicoupler. Those both provide port to port isolation.

[awattam]

Originally Posted by KD8CHM

What's funny is I was just contemplating on buying a 396xt soon. The only thing stopping me is all the reports from savvy scanner users and radio users saying how hard it is to program. I'm a bit worried but then again my savvy side says "do it! do it!". It's always reassuring to see a post like this.

Buy the BCD396xt, add on the USB-1 cable, download Freescan (because its free and works amazingly), look on here for someone to post a file that covers your area (or ask nicely for someone to create one) and then you're off. Thats what I did and loving every minute of this scanner.

[mainetrunk]

I got the gps cable-assembly for the 396xt.I got an adapter from cable to port..It didnt recognize the 396xt as being hooked up.. Thats o-k as far as sensitivity goes. See-last year it got dropped, antenna mount broke off.. I sent it out-4 weeks later it came home. Now-6 months ago a friend was trying to program my name into it--got the program> His computer didnt recognize it either. He thought they disassembled it to get me to send it back--$$$$.. Thats my story,and I'm stickin to it. We be listenning tonite-for sure!

[Boatanchor]

Originally Posted by JnglMassiv

It would be cool is someone with access to a calibrated service monitor and a bunch of common radios would do this type of thing without having to rely on antennas and distant signals.

Unfortunately, I can't tell you exactly what the sensitivity of the 396XT and PSR500 is, but I have done bench testing comparisons of the 996xt and the PSR600 with a calibrated Aeroflex service monitor.
In all these tests, the 996xt was the clear winner by at least 1-2dBm on all bands.

However!

Raw receiver sensitivity is not the most important aspect of any receiver.
A difference of only 1-2dBm, when signal levels are down around -118dBm, really isn't that noticeable.

Interference rejection and strong adjacent signal handling is by far the most important factor in these scanners.. This factor is even more critical when monitoring P25 signals since in many cases it is interference rather than weak signals that is degrading reception. Unfortunately, due to the characteristics of P25, it is never obvious that this is the real problem and people often assume that putting a 'bigger' antenna up will solve the problem when in fact, it can make the interference and reception much worse.

A case in point..

If you live within a few miles of a high powered FM broadcast transmitter and you own a PSR600 which is connected to a discone scanner antenna, you will find that reception on the 108-170Mhz band is severely degraded, if not impossible. You may even find you have to turn the attenuator on just to get the squelch to close, due to the noise!

A 996xt scanner connected to the same antenna will not suffer any interference from the FM transmitter at all and even very weak signals will be received with no problems..

The same holds true on the UHF bands. If the receiver doesn't have good bandpass and IF filtering, your reception will suffer when there are multiple strong, nearby signals. Problem is, on digital at least, it won't always be obvious that it is even happening.

I have the 396xt and am currently trying to get hold of a PSR500.
When the GRE scanner arrives, I will do some sensitivity and interference rejection measurements.
I too am curious to see if the handheld scanners match the performance of their mobile/base siblings.














And by this measure, I'm afraid the Uniden was still a clear winner.

[mainetrunk]

True..Ive seen things go bad. Yeah-well, back on key here...I just think the subbanks are a pain to switch back and forth. Depending entirely on your programming. Other who-I am surrounded by cell phone towers that create a little static-especially when youre at thier height and path. Those radio phones also make a racket-ghost signals if you will.Its all good. Oh wow--they are good enough to recieve a signal that indicates someones in custody..I'm hearing my cuz get tagged--N.H sp.....great scanner!!

[pdfdems286]

A 996xt scanner connected to the same antenna will not suffer any interference from the FM transmitter at all and even very weak signals will be received with no problems

i very respectfully have to say "bunk". i live pretty close to a fm broadcast megawatt tower. i have a psr-410, and 3 unidens <including a 996xt> hooked up to a stridsberg mounted to an attic antenna. all 4 overload.

the bc898t overloads the least of all 4. my former bc780's and 785 overloaded less then all,except for the bc898t.

i have to say, i still think the older ones had better front ends. the place where i really get clobbered is civil airband reception. filter needed.

i can hook up a commercial vhf portable,with no overload.

[mainetrunk]

If you wanna decrease your sensitivity, goto RadioShack and get 1 of those stub antennas. Its an inch and a half tall-all bands. I live 600 feet away from my repeater, and it throwsnoise into searches. Where as when I work in the yard and dont care to hear the rest of the area at once, I put that stub on and it gets only what I want. Still has a good signal stalker on it. My friend laughed... He's got static as well, now I laugh.. But if you are trying to get past your area on a search-you gotta get out of town and go to a high spot. Right here-I can hear Ma.state trunk on -good nights- not any other. If I walk 600 feet towards my high spot, the trunk systems start coming in. But thats with a little help fron an 800mhz antenna ( which takes all freqs, I think ) Location,location, location...

[pdfdems286]

the stubs not going to help my 996xt. i don't have any portable sensitivty issues. well i do,but thats another issue. i just have to get off my arse, and get a par notch filter,tuned for the offending frequency.
i'm not trying to go off on a tangent here. as great as some portable scanners are, i would rather listen on a commercial radio.

[XTS3000]

Originally Posted by kruser

Using a T to split the signals is not a good test. You have no isolation between the two radios. One could be loading down the antenna input on the other.

You need something like a passive two port multicoupler for this test.
Or a true active multicoupler. Those both provide port to port isolation.

Good point. Receivers have an input SWR. One receiver could be 42 ohms while the other receiver at 58 ohms. Without proper splitter, one receiver could be detuning the other receiver simply due to impedance mismatch.

Depending on receiver design, the input impedance could change depending on band being used. Someday I'll put my 396XT on the spectrum analyzer and check its antenna input impedance on all bands and post it here.

[rugrat5288]

swr is a measurement between the match of a transmitter and an antenna system.

[mainetrunk]

how about 2 pro 106's on the same T? That would tell me -somthing?- or the same with the 396xt, and bct15x, splitting at T? I dont wanna spend money just to end the great debate--who is the Scanner Master? Not the website.lol