Looking to purchase a 996P2. I was only able to find it at Scannermaster and Bearcat Warehouse. Huge difference in price. $100 more at Scannermaster. $75 for each upgrade at BW.
What other places sell the 996P2 and are all updates (DMR & NXDN) $75?
Thanks
The 996P2 is currently $411 @
Amazon. (Sold by & shipped from Amazon, not one of their "marketplace sellers".) At that price range, shipping would be free. (Amazon prices often fluctuate up or down.)
As noted above, purchase upgrades from Uniden, after you get, & decide to keep the scanner. Don't add upgrades until you're sure that it won't need to be returned. (Amazon is straightforward on returns.) Some dealers charge a restock fee for returns. Regardless of whether the dealer does, or does not, charge for returns, you'll still be on the hook for return shipping. In most cases, except Amazon, you'll initially pay to have the scanner shipped to you, so potential shipping costs may be a factor in your decision.
The reason I mention "returns" is that you'll need to be sure that the 996P2 will work for you. Your profile indicates that you are in St. Louis. Looking at St. Louis, both city & county, there is more than one trunked system you might want to program. For the systems,
SLATER (covers the metro area) and the statewide system,
MOSWIN which is used in the city itself. At least some of the sites in these two systems have Simulcast sites. Simulcast can cause problems receiving a trunked system. It may make what you hear sound garbled at least part of the time, or, in some cases, even though the scanner is receiving the system, you may not hear anything. More on simulcast issues are in this Wiki article.
Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki
Simulcast can be extremely location specific. You might be in a location where you can't get clear reception, or perhaps your exact location does not have any problems. In some cases, moving the scanner only a few feet one direction or another is the difference between working, or not working.You might request that your thread be moved to the Missouri forum, where someone in your area can advise what works for them, as well as which systems to monitor.
One other point: Don't pay your selling dealer to program the scanner for you, Most charge $40 to $50 for
one county, with additional fees for additional counties. There's a number of videos on YouTube on programming your scanner, as well as the "how to" steps in the online "
Easier to Read" manual. You might also find someone (from your state forum) that will send you a programming file to get started. FreeSCAN does work for programming the 996P2. There is a
User Guide for FreeSCAN in the Wiki. While FreeSCAN does work for programming, it has long been abandoned by the original author. Also, FreeSCAN does not properly support DMR system programming, and has zero capability if dealing with NXDN.
ProScan is a much better software package than FreeSCAN, and supports DMR & NXDN. ProScan also includes logging as well as virtual control capability. ProScan has a 30 day, fully functional, free trial before you need to purchase it. Purchase cost is $50.00
ARCXT Basic includes programming, and has a trial period. Purchase cost is about $40.00. If you want the virtual control option, you'd need the
"Pro" version, about $70.00.
You show to be a Premium Subscriber. All three of these programs include the ability to import system data from the main RadioReference database.
