ronkane said:
Troymail, thanks for the reply. Is there an advantage to the BCD-396T over the BC-796D? I always heard the the speakers were weak on the handhelds.
Generally that's true - but let's take a very quick look at the 2 scanners. You can make the choice for yourself...
a. The 396 has 6000 memory channels available; it doesn't use the conventional banks like you would on the 796, which only (!) has 1000 channels. Instead, you allocate the banks into systems and groups, which leads me to...
b. If you haven't been scanning long, there is a learning curve to using the 396. Personally I'd like to see someone write up a definitive FAQ on the Dynamic Memory that the 396 uses.
c. The 396 can do 380 Mhz trunking; necessary if you want to listen in on the mil bases that use this band (at least, those that aren't encrypted...). The 796 can listen to the individual freqs as conventional freqs, but not trunked.
d. A lot of folks like the Close Call feature of the 396; something the 796 doesn't have. Ditto on the Fire Tone Out feature.
e. To be fair, it's an invalid comparison - the 796 is a base/mobile model, the 396 is a handheld, with a setup and firmware which is very different. However, the 796, having less capability then the 396, might be easier to learn to use.
f. The handheld brother to the 796 is the BC296; similar firmware to the 796, and by extension, would be somewhat easier to learn than the 396.
g. On the other hand the PRO-96 and PRO-2096 can also listen in on the Harford county system. However, there are a few gotchas; Neither the PRO-96 nor the 2096 are particularly good in the UHF milair band. Neither can be computer controlled; they only support up/downloading. Finally, like the 796 and 296, they cannot trunk in the 380 Mhz band; they can listen on this freqs in a conventional mode.
Both scanners can use the PRO96Com utility on those systems that are utilizing 9600 baud APCO25 systems. This is a Trunker like utility that some folks like to use when working on these newer 380 mhz systems.
These are far from complete summaries; we have very complete Wiki pages on each of these radios that you can use to help do research, along with the various boards on this site. These are simply meant to give you something to think about. Feel free to ask more questions; I have no doubt that we have numerous users of each of these scanners on this board, and, as is always the case, YMMV 73s Mike
