Rooster1 said:
Hello, I'm interested in buying a scanner and need some advice. I'm pretty sure my area is analog since the town is small. (5,000 people)
Should I get a Pro-97 or try to go digital? Of course I will primarily be in the Decatur area, but Denton, Ft. Worth, Dallas are all travel areas.
Next question: Do digital scanners pick up analog frequencies?
Thanks guys.
Rooster,
Your county is not digital at this time, but Tx DPS is converting to digital in this region. I believe the Decatur DPS repeater is already digital. The rest of the area should follow within a few months.
Parker County's current system is analog, but it's LTR. The Pro-96 will do digital, but not LTR. You'd have to go with one of the Uniden radios (BCD396T, handheld, or BCD996T, base/mobile) if you want to be able to monitor Parker County. However, Parker has announced plans to
change their system from LTR to P25 Standard. That's a digital type the Pro-96/-2096 covers (as do the Unidens).
Note that
Decatur uses an
MPT-1327 trunk system. That is not digital, but is a trunk system that cannot be monitored in trunk tracking mode by any currently available scanner. There are some software packages available to monitor this type using a computer. Not sure, as I'm out of range, but you might be able to catch much of the traffic by programming all the frequencies & listening conventionally (you would lock out the active control channel). I do much the same thing on
this system. It's an LTR-Passport system used by Careflite for dispatching their medevac copters.
As Jon mentioned, the digital scanners will pick up analog systems. The Ft. Worth/Tarrant County public safety, Denton County & Denton City, and most of the other systems in the DFW metro area are analog. The only digital (actually mixed digital and analog) systems in the area are Grand Prairie & Mansfiled. DFW Airport is Provoice w/ESK, a digital encrypted type that nothing can monitor.