A sweet question all of us should be asking

[jimyleg]

I needa scanner that has wide band coverage, i'd love to have somthing from khz's to 3 g's. I need digital trunking and cell unblocked.
I'v been searching the net for a few weeks and haven't come to any conclusions on any thing. If i cant get a new digital trunking scanner that has cell unblocked, i would like to know what scanenrs past or present do. I'm sure there all in Europe. In which case i'll order it. I thought about this... I was looking at the european model aor8200 IIIb i think thats the new model, vs the bcd396t????
I think the aor 8200 IIIb is cell unblocked, but does it scan digitally? Is it as good as the new bcd396t??? Basically i'm looking for a bcd396t with cell unblocked. So i guess i could go with 2 scanners one digital trunk, and one cellunblocked? money isnt really an issue
Please if you would take a minute or two to send me in the right direction.

 

[fmon]

Hooked on illegal scanning eh? Cell technology in the 870-896 band is nearly dead today and this is the only "blocked" range in the US (not blocked in Europe). Scanning that range in the US today is like watching grass grow. Cell technology in the upper bands cannot be monitored with any scanner (even Europe from my understanding), not because of any design "blocking" but because the digital is not the same as digital used in scanner decoding.

Regarding your "dream" scanner--covering ranges from Khz to 3 gigs, imagine the antenna(s) required to cover this range properly in one receiver.

Comparing an AOR scanner to newer GRE or Uniden scanner technology is not realistic. Key words are trunking and digital. Though comparing the latter two scanners can lead to heated discussions.

 

[W4KRR]

I don't think there are any scanners that trunk track and are also cell unblocked. Of course, you can purchase a cell unblocked scanner from overseas or Canada, like the AOR AR8200MKIII, but it won't trunk track.

Why is being cell unblocked so important? Almost all cell phones these days are digital, and no scanner can receive such calls. It's only a matter of time before analog cell phones are no longer supported at all. Looks like you will have to buy two radios to do everything you want to do. I wouldn't spend $650 just to have a radio that will tune in the cell band. Just my opinion.

 

[jimyleg]

Yeah, thats pretty much what i thought.
I was more curouse if they sold them overseas than any thing else.
I might as well come clean and end the mistery...

http://www.snapshield.com/www_problems/Inter/All_you.htm

I read that and became more and more curiouse abuot it...
So i started looking into it, to see if it was still possible.
Do you guys think this article is bunk?
I'm going to buy the bcd396t for digital trunk capabilities.

 

[jimyleg]

Ps. i know the 396 has the cloe call feature, but is it possible to attach a frequency counter to it?

 

[JnglMassiv]

*before the lock*

I dispute that the question is 'sweet' or that we should all be asking...

If you really want to try to monitor analog cellphones (boring beyond belief and uncommon), just get an older unit manufactured before the blocking legislation. Then, get a nice modern scanner for the rest of the spectrum. Your article is rife with spelling and grammer errors and doens't address the fact an the vast, vast majority of mobile phone traffic is digital.

 

[W4KRR]

Yeah, thats pretty much what i thought.
I was more curouse if they sold them overseas than any thing else.
I might as well come clean and end the mistery...

http://www.snapshield.com/www_problems/Inter/All_you.htm

I read that and became more and more curiouse abuot it...
So i started looking into it, to see if it was still possible.
Do you guys think this article is bunk?
I'm going to buy the bcd396t for digital trunk capabilities.

I don't know when that article was written, but I think the figures quoted are exaggerated. It doesn't change the fact that most cell phones these days are digital, and no scanner will receive them. But, you're certainly free to try! :?

 

[DonS]

Your article is rife with spelling and grammer errors and doens't address the fact an the vast, vast majority of mobile phone traffic is digital.

Now I'm left wondering: who's the pot and who's the kettle?

 

[JnglMassiv]

Now I'm left wondering: who's the pot and who's the kettle?

*Slaps forehead*

[weak backpedaling]In this part of the country, those are acceptable alternate spellings for those words.[/wbp]

 

[jimyleg]

I almost never type in conversation. Howver i do want to be active on these forums because scannig is one of my hobbys . So from now on i'll whatch my typing and refrain from asking stupid questions. I have owned a couple scanners before like the pro 91. Nothing to seriouse. I live in minnesota and since i'v been out of the scanning world for a while I could use help from people here.

I am free to trY.... USA! USA! USA!

 

[n4voxgill]

If you will look at www.javiation.com you will see that there is one trunk tracking scanner that is not cell blocked. It is

Uniden Bearcat
UBC-3300XLT
A long awaited follow on from the UBC-3000XLT the new UBC-3300XLT is what could be described as the European version of the APCO capable BC-250D distributed in the USA.

In addition to its conventional scanner features the UBC-3300XLT is the first handheld scanner available in Europe that will TrunkTrack EDACS™, Motorola and E.F. Johnson trunking systems.

Frequency coverage is 25-512MHz, 806-960MHz and 1240-1300MHz. User programmable modes of AM, NFM & WFM together with programmable increment steps of 5, 6.25, 7.5, 10, 12.5, 20, 25, 50 & 100 kHz. 1000 memory channels are available to store frequency and mode and a easy to use Search facility allows any upper and lower frequency limits to be searched between in any mode or increment step.

The UBC-3300XLT core features are identical to the BC-250D that is available in the USA. There are however several differences as detailed below:

The frequencies 824.010 - 849.00MHz and 869.010 - 895.00MHz are not "Blocked"
There is only one Service search - the VHF airband (Refer to P43 in the BC-250D Operating Manual)
8.33kHz steps are available on the VHF airband
The mode and step size used in "Auto" mode differs - this can be easily overcome by manually changing the mode and/or step if required
It is not supplied with the RS232 cable or software

The UBC-3300XLT is supplied with a 1500Ni-MH Battery pack (BP250) and requires an external Power Supply of 12v DC. Within the UK and Europe a suitable 220/240v AC Power Supply is included.

NOw the 250/3300 will not track 9600 baud trunked sytems so it leaves a lot to be desired.

The big advantage to receivers like the AOR8200 is the lower bands that they cover. They have modes to receive single side band which is essential to me for HF coverage. The new Uniden 330 is going down to kHz, but will only have AM mode which makes it useless down there.

I live in the 8th largest city in the United States. I would estimate there are at least 20,000 to 40,000 cell phone conversations going on right now. I have several scanners that are not cell blocked. Even with an outside antenna, you can scan through the cell bands and hear only a dozen conversations. But people keep thinking that you can scan cell phones, but it just doesn't work. First most cell phones don't use 800 MHz as their primary frequency. They use 2 GHz frequencies. There is no scanner nor receiver that can decode those frequeancies as they are all digital. Second in the 800 MHz all of the cell phone frequencies are reused many times in a local area. You take any given frequency and there can be 5, 10 or even 15 different conversations on the same frequency. This is because they use the corner reflector antenna and low power. But I know people will not believe this and continue to try and and pick them up. Good luck.

 

[jimyleg]

thanks for not being a critic.

this is how i started to get intrested in it.

http://www.snapshield.com/www_problems/Inter/All_you.htm

I point focus on is the handheld frequencies.

 

[nexus]

Everyone is wasting their effort on this kid...

I already told him in another thread he created in here that trying to buy a scanner from javiation would pretty much be a waste of time because the simple fact that most AMPS service has gone away and pretty much everything is GSM or digital. Anyhow....

there is no such scanner that is wide-band with digital trunking. Digital trunking is fairly new, and only 3 or 4 scanners have been created that do it. All of them focus on those features rather than wide band.

Want a wide-band radio, get an AOR 8200MKII but you're not going to get trunking, and especially not digital. And forget the cellular band.

 

[loumaag]

This has gone far enough!