EBRCS ... New Scanner Suggestions

[1BMG1]

Live in the East Bay Area (Danville) and my last Scanner was a Radio Shack PRO-18. Worked really well until EBRCS and Simulcasting started making many (not all) of my local agencies transmissions garbled.

Gave that scanner to my son in San Diego. Now, thinking about replacing it with a scanner better able to handle the Simulcast transmissions. See the Radio Shack 668 all over the place for sale because of what happened to that company.

Questions : Would this be a clear upgrade versus my previous PRO-18 ? Or, do I need to spend up $$$$ for a Uniden , and if so which model handles Simulcast transmissions well ?

If the RS 668 would be better than my PRO-18, that would be my preference because they are available very reasonably right now.

Any advise, suggestions, to bring me up to speed with current state of things here in the East Bay is appreciated !

Thanks

 

[1BMG1]

Maybe I should rephrase my question ... Anyone have a Radio Shack Pro 668 in the SF Bay Area, particularly in the East Bay (EBRCS) area ?

If so, how do you like it , and how does it handle these Simulcast transmissions ?

 

[bharvey2]

I've had a PRO 668 for a few weeks now and use it mainly between San Leandro and Fremont. I do get some garbled sounds that I assume are caused by simulcast distortion but have been using it either in the house or in the truck with a Radio Shack 800MHZ duckie. - Garbled sometimes but usually readable.
The only comparison I have is to some SDR dongles and Unitrunker/DSD+. which I've used with anything from the antennas that came with the dongles to 800MHZ yagis and a home brewed corner reflector. The PRO 668 usually has a better decode rate. These are the only two sources I've used to monitor the EBRCS system so I can't compare it to say, a Uniden. I'm not sorry I purchased the PRO 668 however.

bharvey2

 

[SCPD]

Live in the East Bay Area (Danville) and my last Scanner was a Radio Shack PRO-18. Worked really well until EBRCS and Simulcasting started making many (not all) of my local agencies transmissions garbled.

Gave that scanner to my son in San Diego. Now, thinking about replacing it with a scanner better able to handle the Simulcast transmissions. See the Radio Shack 668 all over the place for sale because of what happened to that company.

Questions : Would this be a clear upgrade versus my previous PRO-18 ? Or, do I need to spend up $$$$ for a Uniden , and if so which model handles Simulcast transmissions well ?

If the RS 668 would be better than my PRO-18, that would be my preference because they are available very reasonably right now.

Any advise, suggestions, to bring me up to speed with current state of things here in the East Bay is appreciated !

Thanks

You are setting yourself up for disappointment. No scanner is able to reliably decode LSM. It is a hardware limitation, and nothing more. Directional antennas, attenuation, magic beans, and Pringles cans may help a little, but the real issue is hardware.

Read more:

Communications.Support Forums (in particular, posts 8, 21)

http://forums.radioreference.com/vo...digital-demodulation-hardware-discussion.html

Dump the scanners and invest your research time and money into using real equipment.