Hi All,
Well it is now 2 years since I got my first 396T (the US version) so I thought now would be a good time to give a bit of an overview on what I think of it after long-term use and what features I find most useful .
First I am very impressed with the physical size and construction, my 396T has been dropped, stepped on ( A few times) and gone pretty much every where with me and other then a few marks on the back it is in great condition, this is partly because of the cover I have it in and also because I carry it around in a very strong hard carry case.
I was not a huge fan of the belt clip system which has two parts when I first got it but I have really grown to like it and I find it very handy, especially being able to mount the 396T in my holder in the car.
The stock aerial is not great but suitable for most general use, I have invested in a number of different SMA aerials and these allow me to trade off between size / performance depending on what I want to listen to. I have found the SMA aerial off the Icom R5 to be about the best trade off between size and performance.
The 396T comes with 3 x 2300mAh NiMh batteries and I have found these to be good performers, only lacking in standby capacity (they seem to go dead fairly quickly between uses) I have purchased some powertec 2500mAh cells and these have a much lower self discharge rate so they are more suited to how I use the 396T where it is some times a few days between use’s. (but not often)
As far as actually programming and using the 396T I have very happy with it and have really started to use most of it’s features.
Dynamic Memory: To start with this was a bit tricky to figure out but now I am happy with how it works and find it much better then the old banks system. Being able to have system’s with the correct number of channels is a real plus and makes arranging groups very easy.
PC programming: I have done a bit of programming by hand but find the PC software much easier / quicker, you can also share your files with other 396T owners and this is good for helping out new owners to get up and running.
Close Call: I have found this to be a great feature and really useful when attending events where radios are in use but you don’t know the frequency they are on, simply putting the 396T in to close call mode and as long as you are fairly close to the user you will find the frequency.
Search / Search and Store: 10 custom search ranges plus you can set it up to search a give range of frequencies and store what it finds, it is even smart enough to know if it has stared a channel before and will only store each frequency once.
Alert Tones: On both trunking and non trunking systems you have a choice of 9 different alerts tones that you can assign to channels, this is great for making you aware of if an important channel is in use, especially useful for those channels that don’t get used very often.
CTCSS: The 396T can search for CTCSS tones in use and display them on the screen for easy saving, you can also set it up to auto store the CTCSS tone while doing a custom search range.
Repeater Reverse: The 396T is smarter enough to know the band plans and while searching it will check the output frequency if you get a hit on the input frequency, great for finding if a channel is simplex or via a repeater.
Priority Plus: You can tag channels as being priority and with this feature turned on it will only scan those channels, I find this useful by having all my important channels tagged and then I can simply scan them by turning this on.
Back light options: The back light can be turned on manually or by a key press or squelch break. This is very useful for night time operation.
So overall I am very happy with the UNIDEN UBCD396T and I would recommend it to anybody interested in the “best hand held scanner” you can buy.
Paul
www.geocities.com/paulgblundell
Well it is now 2 years since I got my first 396T (the US version) so I thought now would be a good time to give a bit of an overview on what I think of it after long-term use and what features I find most useful .
First I am very impressed with the physical size and construction, my 396T has been dropped, stepped on ( A few times) and gone pretty much every where with me and other then a few marks on the back it is in great condition, this is partly because of the cover I have it in and also because I carry it around in a very strong hard carry case.
I was not a huge fan of the belt clip system which has two parts when I first got it but I have really grown to like it and I find it very handy, especially being able to mount the 396T in my holder in the car.
The stock aerial is not great but suitable for most general use, I have invested in a number of different SMA aerials and these allow me to trade off between size / performance depending on what I want to listen to. I have found the SMA aerial off the Icom R5 to be about the best trade off between size and performance.
The 396T comes with 3 x 2300mAh NiMh batteries and I have found these to be good performers, only lacking in standby capacity (they seem to go dead fairly quickly between uses) I have purchased some powertec 2500mAh cells and these have a much lower self discharge rate so they are more suited to how I use the 396T where it is some times a few days between use’s. (but not often)
As far as actually programming and using the 396T I have very happy with it and have really started to use most of it’s features.
Dynamic Memory: To start with this was a bit tricky to figure out but now I am happy with how it works and find it much better then the old banks system. Being able to have system’s with the correct number of channels is a real plus and makes arranging groups very easy.
PC programming: I have done a bit of programming by hand but find the PC software much easier / quicker, you can also share your files with other 396T owners and this is good for helping out new owners to get up and running.
Close Call: I have found this to be a great feature and really useful when attending events where radios are in use but you don’t know the frequency they are on, simply putting the 396T in to close call mode and as long as you are fairly close to the user you will find the frequency.
Search / Search and Store: 10 custom search ranges plus you can set it up to search a give range of frequencies and store what it finds, it is even smart enough to know if it has stared a channel before and will only store each frequency once.
Alert Tones: On both trunking and non trunking systems you have a choice of 9 different alerts tones that you can assign to channels, this is great for making you aware of if an important channel is in use, especially useful for those channels that don’t get used very often.
CTCSS: The 396T can search for CTCSS tones in use and display them on the screen for easy saving, you can also set it up to auto store the CTCSS tone while doing a custom search range.
Repeater Reverse: The 396T is smarter enough to know the band plans and while searching it will check the output frequency if you get a hit on the input frequency, great for finding if a channel is simplex or via a repeater.
Priority Plus: You can tag channels as being priority and with this feature turned on it will only scan those channels, I find this useful by having all my important channels tagged and then I can simply scan them by turning this on.
Back light options: The back light can be turned on manually or by a key press or squelch break. This is very useful for night time operation.
So overall I am very happy with the UNIDEN UBCD396T and I would recommend it to anybody interested in the “best hand held scanner” you can buy.
Paul
www.geocities.com/paulgblundell
