a bit lost

[jferland1]

I am trying to research handheld scanners to give to my father for his birthday. My husband had thought he found one for a certain price and I got most of the family to pitch in.....BUT, now he can't find it again. ANYWAY, I've looked into his city of residence and all channels currently use analog except 2 (police dispatch 1&2-the more important ones for him), they use mixed analog and digital. So, my question is, will an analog scanner (I was looking at the Uniden BC346xt) pick up these two channels or am I looking at asking my family to pitch in more for a digital scanner?

Also, A LOT of the reviews for either scanner state it's difficult to operate and program for novice users...any suggestions as to what is a good, user friendly scanner for a reasonable price (350 or under)...

Thanks for any information you could provide!

 

[ka3jjz]

It would be much more helpful if you could be more specific about what you are trying to hear, and where you are (city/county/state is fine) - however the 346XT won't copy those 2 channels when they're digital.

Your better bets to cover the digital (and they would play just fine with the analog stuff) would be the Uniden HP-1 or (if you can find it) the GRE PSR-800. Both are about as near to plug -n-play as you're going to find. The Uniden DMA scanners (of which the 346XT is one) and the RS/GRE object oriented scanners have a fair learning curve

HTH...Mike

 

[W8RMH]

Providing his location could also help as there may be an existing Live Radio Feed for his area, which would allow him to listen on an existing computer or smart phone and he may not even need a scanner.

If he were my father I would highly recommend the Uniden HP-1.

If cost is an issue you can often find good deals on pre-owned units on Ebay and here on the RR classifieds, as many people purchase these units only to have difficulty programming and operating them, resulting in selling a good radio well below retail to recoup some of their costs. At times there are factory refurbished units available as well.