Advice on new scanner for Spartanburg county

[rasj]

I'm looking to upgrade from a BCT15 and BR330T to a new digital scanner. If I understand correctly, the SDS 100/200 scanners are the only ones that are able to handle simulcast but how important is that really? I currently use a phone app to listen to our local sheriff department. The local streamer for our sheriff department uses a BCD996P2 according to the info page and as far as I can tell, it seems to provide a good feed and that scanner is available for around $400.00. I have the budget for the SDS series but in Spartanburg county are the extra features of the SDS worth the extra $300? My main goal is to monitor local police and fire. I'm not interested in the local business, schools or anything like that. I just want to keep tabs on what's going on around me as my area is experiencing a huge surge in population and with that, crime. I guess what I'm asking is what more would I be able to hear for the extra $300?

 

[tvengr]

Simulcast distortion is very location specific. The feed provider is extremely lucky that the BCD996P2 works well at that location. As you move around the county, there will be locations where you miss transmissions or the audio is very garbled. If you are close to a tower, the signal can override the interference from the other towers. If surrounded by towers, you may be out of luck. The SDS scanners were designed specifically for receiving simulcast sites due to the problems with all of the other scanners. If you are planning to use the scanner just at home, you may also be lucky and be in a sweet spot to use the BCD996P2. It would be good if you could borrow a BCD996P2 from someone else in your area to see if the scanner works receiving the Palmetto 800 system using the Spartanburg County Simulcast site at your location. Otherwise, purchase it from a dealer with a good return policy. The SDS100/200 scanners and the Unication G4/G5 pagers are the only radios that will receive my local Baltimore County MD simulcast system at my residence.

 

[brian]

I live in the Spartanburg area and monitor public safety all the time. I do not own an SDS scanner or Unication pager. My scanners (Whisler/GRE models) do reasonably well with the system here. Far from perfect, but well enough.

As mentioned, the effects of simulcast are very much dependent on one's location. It's also dependent on the antenna system one uses. While my scanners work reasonably well where I use them, your experience may be different. There's no way to know for sure without trying. Be prepared to experiment with your radio in different locations and with different antennas.

If you're not interested in potentially hassling with those variables, you may be better off using an SDS or Unication.

Feel free to reach out with additional questions.

Brian

 

[rasj]

I live in the Spartanburg area and monitor public safety all the time. I do not own an SDS scanner or Unication pager. My scanners (Whisler/GRE models) do reasonably well with the system here. Far from perfect, but well enough.

As mentioned, the effects of simulcast are very much dependent on one's location. It's also dependent on the antenna system one uses. While my scanners work reasonably well where I use them, your experience may be different. There's no way to know for sure without trying. Be prepared to experiment with your radio in different locations and with different antennas.

If you're not interested in potentially hassling with those variables, you may be better off using an SDS or Unication.

Feel free to reach out with additional questions.

Brian

I'm just a few miles north of the Fairforest tower. I may be in a good location to try a "cheaper" digital scanner and save some money since I will only be using it at home. I do have an old Antennacraft ST-2 antenna mounted in my attic that used to work great on my old scanners. I may get lucky and be able to reuse that if I need to. Since I last purchased a scanner in the late 2000's, I'm very unfamiliar with the current scanners. Is there a particular digital unit (handheld or base, doesn't matter} that stand out above the rest, other than the SDS models? I'm not tied to a particular brand as long as there's software available to program it as easily as the Unidens I've used.

 

[brian]

North of the Fairforest tower is probably better in that it's further away from the Stone Station tower, so you may be in luck,

The ST2 may work fine given how close you are, try it first and see. But it's not going to provide as high a gain figure on 800 as a band-specific antenna. That may be an advantage in your situation. The ST2 will be great for VHF frequencies that the county fire departments still use.

I have had good luck with the PSR-500 "family" of scanners. The currently available models in that family are the Whistler WS-1040 and WS-1065. If it makes a difference to you, I have a configuration file for this area for this family of radios that I can send you that might get you started more quickly. The drawback to those scanners is that there is not free programming software for them. This page Object Oriented Scanner Software - The RadioReference Wiki has links to the 3 programming software options. I use Win500.

Uniden has similar models that may work well also, but I don't have experience with them and can't vouch for them.

Keep in mind that, at this time, Palmetto 800 talkgroups operate in Phase I mode. It's unknown when exactly they'll make the upgrade to Phase II. The WS-1040 family of scanners is Phase I only, so understand that this limitation may be an issue at some point down the road.

The Whistler TRX1/TRX-2 models are also available, but I haven't used one. I don't hear great things about their P25 performance.

Brian

 

[tvengr]

If you decide to try the BCD996P2, you can use FreeSCAN programming software and it is FREE! Here is the link: Downloads - Sixspot Software Paid software is not necessary unless you purchase the DMR or NXDN upgrades. The upgrades are not necessary for public safety. I will be happy to help with the programming. I use Butel ARC-XT Basic software for my programming but can easily convert it to a FreeSCAN file.

 

[rasj]

Thanks tvenger! I'm fairly familiar with the BuTel software as I've used it to program my old scanners in the past. I downloaded the Sentinel software today and had a look and it seems to be fairy straightforward so there shouldn't be an issue with programming if I go with a Uniden scanner. I appreciate the offer though and if I do get stuck, I'll be sure to reach out.

 

[tvengr]

I downloaded the Sentinel software today and had a look and it seems to be fairy straightforward so there shouldn't be an issue with programming if I go with a Uniden scanner.

For a beginning user of Sentinel, there are a few items that cause the most problems. First, go to the Tools tab and set the Target Model to SDS100 or SDS200. If set to BCDx36HP, you will not have access to the Display Editor and Site NAC settings will not be available. You will see that frequencies and talkgroups have a service type ("Tag" in the RR database). When you first install Sentinel, it will have only the Dispatch service types enabled. At the minimum, you will also want to add all of the Tac, Talk, Emergency Ops, and Interop service types for public safety. Otherwise, you will be missing a lot of activity. Also, you must set both Download and Monitor to On for each favorites list you wish to write to the scanner. Download sends the file to the scanner and Monitor enables it to scan. Those items are in the Profile Editor. To access the Profile Editor in Sentinel, go to the Edit tab and Edit Profile. Use the Service Types and Scan Selection tabs to enter that information.

 

[rasj]

Well after going back and forth for so long on what to get, in the end I decided to just go with the SDS100. While I may not want to go mobile right now, that could potentially change (new scanner syndrome. I may want to take it everywhere now, lol) and I felt like I just wouldn't be happy with the other scanners if it did. The scanner arrived yesterday evening and this morning I was able to get it set up and running. The reception is crystal clear with the oem antenna. I did a quick comparison with our local broadcastify stream and found that the scanner is picking up a lot more traffic than the stream was. I tried to set them up as similar as possible for testing purposes and there were a lot of times when the stream was dead silent while my scanner was picking up traffic. Probably not apples to apples and a bit unfair to the stream but in the end, I'm hearing more and that's what counts.

I still have a lot of reading, learning and tweaking ahead of me but so far I'm happy with the purchase and I'm not feeling any regret for spending the extra money, which was something I worried about. Thanks tvenger and Brian for your input. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

 

[tvengr]

Congratulations on your new scanner! If you do decide to go mobile, the SDS100 works very well sitting in a cup holder. In many cases, the streamers limit their coverage to the dispatch channels and talkgroups. You will hear a lot more with the scanner than on apps and have control over exactly what you want to monitor. If you have any questions about your new scanner, we are here to help. Have fun!

 

[hadkins121]

I live in the Spartanburg area and monitor public safety all the time. I do not own an SDS scanner or Unication pager. My scanners (Whisler/GRE models) do reasonably well with the system here. Far from perfect, but well enough.

As mentioned, the effects of simulcast are very much dependent on one's location. It's also dependent on the antenna system one uses. While my scanners work reasonably well where I use them, your experience may be different. There's no way to know for sure without trying. Be prepared to experiment with your radio in different locations and with different antennas.

If you're not interested in potentially hassling with those variables, you may be better off using an SDS or Unication.

Feel free to reach out with additional questions.

Brian

Hey Brian, I am in the Spartanburg area as well and looking to get a police scanner. I was using the phone app, but it has not been working lately. Could you message me and possibly help make a selection? Thank you

 

[KMG54]

I decided to save a few bucks and went with the micro P25 from Bluetail, works fine base or mobile. All you need is a USB port for power or a battery pack.

 

[hadkins121]

I decided to save a few bucks and went with the micro P25 from Bluetail, works fine base or mobile. All you need is a USB port for power or a battery pack.

Where did you get this from? Is it user friendly? Thanks again

 

[KMG54]

Right here, go to the Blue Tail section of the forum. A slight learning curve, but pretty easy.