What AP25 Harris Digital Scanner to buy HELP

[BLKEP]

Hi as of 10 AM tomorrow my small town of Medina NY is switching to digital for our fire and police scanner and I am so sad I enjoy listening to my scanner. I am in need of help here I know nothing about this. I need suggestions of what scanner to get at the very cheapest price. My neighbor is the police chief and was nice enuf to tell me today this was happening. PLEASE I beg you all HELPPPPP!!!!!!!!

 

[captclint]

Hi as of 10 AM tomorrow my small town of Medina NY is switching to digital for our fire and police scanner and I am so sad I enjoy listening to my scanner.

Welcome to RR. This should be posted in the New York Radio Discussion Forum - , but here's a discussion on it. http://forums.radioreference.com/new-york-radio-discussion-forum/291535-orleans-cutover.html

Taking an educated guess, I would say this is the digital system for Orleans Genesee, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans Counties Public Safety Trunking System, If so, it indicates Phase II TDMA, which limits the choice of scanners
There are 2 digital scanners in the range of $500-600.
http://www.scannermaster.com/Uniden_Bearcat_BCD536HP_Police_Scanner_p/10-501854.htm Base
http://www.scannermaster.com/Uniden_Bearcat_BCD436HP_Police_Scanner_p/10-501853.htm Portable

Digital is not cheap. IT looks like your county was just entered into the database today(which tends to confirm my guess), so there is very little known about it. However, you should be able to monitor it using a search function( IDsearch). However, I seem to recall that systems without any talk groups do not get downloaded (these scanners get updated every week from a download from this site) into your scanner, so you may.have to either wait until other users add at least one talkgroup (likely to happen soon), or enter Oleans site yourself. This is a whole new world, so you now need to read about: Trunking_Basics and if you get a scanner, Uniden_DMA_FAQ

 

[N8IAA]

Hi as of 10 AM tomorrow my small town of Medina NY is switching to digital for our fire and police scanner and I am so sad I enjoy listening to my scanner. I am in need of help here I know nothing about this. I need suggestions of what scanner to get at the very cheapest price. My neighbor is the police chief and was nice enuf to tell me today this was happening. PLEASE I beg you all HELPPPPP!!!!!!!!

As captclint posted, the x36HP scanners from Uniden are the only current production models that do Phase II. The GRE PSR-800 is the only other model that does Phase II, but the company closed its doors over a year ago.

Looking at the TGID's, they are not Phase II, but Phase I. This means, that until the system changes over, you could use a less expensive model. Look in the Radio Reference For Sale forum to find either the RS Pro-106/197, Pro-18, Uniden 396T, 396XT/996XT, or even the HP-1. These range in price from $200-$350. The x36HP scanners are $500 for the handheld, and $600 for the base mobile.

So, unless you have the funds, digital is expensive.
Larry

 

[jaspence]

Digital scanner

Whistler bought the intellectual rights to the GRE products and their equivalent of the GRE 800 and GRE 500 are/will be back in production. The first batch will be available soon, but no firm date as of yet. The 800 was the first scanner to handle Phase II and is very capable. Whistler has not made any changes in the product other than cosmetic and renaming, so the performance should be as good as the originals.