Announcing the BCD396XT and BC346XT Scanners

[RoninJoliet]

I think Upman made mention he did not attend the show??....

 

[khoelldobler]

I hope this isn't a silly question, I currently own a 106 which works well for my needs... since I love to explore the possibilities of purchasing another hand-held, will the arrival of the new 396XT offer more than the 106 in terms of useful features. I am sure there may a comparison list around here someplace, but I wondered if you can bring me up to speed on the overall major change or upgrades over what the current 106 is offering. The "to be released" 396 is new to me, and I am excited to see what it may or may not have in it. Your answer may help to inform me as a curious RR member, so that I don't have to read through all 37 pages of this wonderful thread concerning a scanner that is not available to the public yet. Any information is truly appreciated.

 

[rdale]

The very first post lists all the new features...

 

[UPMan]

I don't know that anyone has done a 1:1 comparison (that will probably happen after the scanner has been in people's hands for a bit), but the BCD396XT Wiki Article lists all the scanner's features. Features new to the platform are in bold (but those aren't necessarily deltas from the 106...they are deltas from the BCD396T).

 

[khoelldobler]

UPMan and rdale thank you... I am excited to see what it has to offer scanner enthusiasts. I'm sure it will get great reviews and enthusiasts will welcome it with open arms. There is always room for the new kid on the block. Happy Monitoring !!

 

[rwl48]

Bc346xt?

Since no information is being released on the release date I'll render a educated guess.
BC346 = Feb
BC396xt = March

Anything on when we can buy this BC346XT?

 

[Ems6]

I hope this isn't a silly question, I currently own a 106 which works well for my needs... since I love to explore the possibilities of purchasing another hand-held, will the arrival of the new 396XT offer more than the 106 in terms of useful features. I am sure there may a comparison list around here someplace, but I wondered if you can bring me up to speed on the overall major change or upgrades over what the current 106 is offering. The "to be released" 396 is new to me, and I am excited to see what it may or may not have in it. Your answer may help to inform me as a curious RR member, so that I don't have to read through all 37 pages of this wonderful thread concerning a scanner that is not available to the public yet. Any information is truly appreciated.

I have always been a big fan of uniden and own a bcd396t, however I recently purchased the Pro-106 and it has a much better receive(at least 25 miles further away), radio id tags, talkgroup priority, easier to program, and the digital audio sounds great without having to tweak anything. I know you are asking about the 396XT, but I just can't see it being much more than a tweaked 396D.

Also the tone-out feature on the 396 is nice, but it would be better if it did more, such as going to a specific talkgroup after the tone-out, or maybe listening for tone-out in a tone-out priority mode, so you can listen to the scanner while waiting for a tone-out. And yes I know it might miss a tone-out doing this, but that why it's called an option.

 

[KE4ZNR]

I know you are asking about the 396XT, but I just can't see it being much more than a tweaked 396D.

And that is where you (and others) would be wrong. The XT will be much more than a "tweaked 396". I think that people will be happy with both the 346 & 396xt when they show up. Of course there will be those who will not give either radio a chance because they have a Uniden label printed on the front. That will be their loss.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[bonus1331]

Almost 4 months and counting since the announcement...
here's hoping we're getting close.

Would be interesting if anyone has heard any "rumors" whether the UASD for these new radios is also in beta.
Would hope to have a release of the radios and programming software on the same date.
Seem to remember when I received the 396, there was no programming software available for several weeks.. (any else remember that?)

I would assume the 396XT software will be "free" , and the 346XT software will cost?

Here's to getting these radio's out already.

 

[rdale]

Freescan already supports the new scanners and is... well... free.

 

[scannersnstuff]

And that is where you (and others) would be wrong. The XT will be much more than a "tweaked 396". I think that people will be happy with both the 346 & 396xt when they show up. Of course there will be those who will not give either radio a chance because they have a Uniden label printed on the front. That will be their loss.
Marshall KE4ZNR

marshall,i just have to ask this.are you officially connected with uniden ?. you seem to know a awfull lot about the upcoming scanner's.are you paul's right hand man ?.willing to give the new unidens a try.if they have done nothing to address the sensitivity issue then half the war is lost.oh well,i guess it could be a expensive test instrument.

 

[GTO_04]

marshall,i just have to ask this.are you officially connected with uniden ?. you seem to know a awfull lot about the upcoming scanner's.are you paul's right hand man ?.willing to give the new unidens a try.if they have done nothing to address the sensitivity issue then half the war is lost.oh well,i guess it could be a expensive test instrument.

Maybe he was a beta tester.

GTO_04

 

[W2SJW]

I think Upman made mention he did not attend the show??....

Some one from my amateur radio club here in NJ was at CES, and he specifically asked me if I knew this 'project guy' from Uniden that he met at the show.

My buddy said "He says he knows you from RR.com!", I said "Paul?", he said "I believe so!" :lol:

 

[UPMan]

Hmmm. Now I have impersonators? (I was not at CES this year.)

 

[DaveIN]

Hmmm. Now I have impersonators? (I was not at CES this year.)

Yea, should have seen the horns on that guy! :twisted: I'll bet he had a BCDD396HK too ("double D", Hello Kitty version) Said something like "this guy came into the bar with a horse..".

Say, I did not see it in the Wiki or online manual for the BCD396XT and I know that the feature set is different, but can you clone from a 396 or 996 to the 396XT? This link is dead at the moment, by the way: http://info.uniden.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=BCD396XT, looks like it should be: http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/BCD396XT

 

[KE4ZNR]

Yea, should have seen the horns on that guy! :twisted: I'll bet he had a BCDD396HK too ("double D", Hello Kitty version) Said something like "this guy came into the bar with a horse..".

Say, I did not see it in the Wiki or online manual for the BCD396XT and I know that the feature set is different, but can you clone from a 396 or 996 to the 396XT? This link is dead at the moment, by the way: http://info.uniden.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=BCD396XT, looks like it should be: http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/BCD396XT

Hey Dave! Hope all is well.
The correct URL for the 396xt manual is:
http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/UnidenMan4/BCD396XT
And the feature set between the 396T and the 396xt is just different enough
to where you will not be able to do a straight clone (rumor has it).
I am sure the various software
packages will offer an import feature where you can import a 396T file and massage
it into an XT file. Freescan already has been working on this (rumor has it) and I am
sure the other guys will follow suit soon.
Hope this helps!
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[DaveIN]

Hey, thanks Marshall. I fixed the RR Wiki entry: http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BCD396XT

 

[fpo701]

I'd like to bring up an old message from UPMan. Below is a snippet of control channel data. I posted a similar message on the unitrunker forum, but have yet to get an answer. Can someone point me to a spec/manual/etc that tells how to interpret all the control channel data below?

Basicly, assume I'm wirting a program from scratch to parse control channel data. Where do I go to get started?

CC Data output is something like:

MOT,25D,0,3230,CNM TG-3230 CH-25D VC-08661375
MOT,3C0,0,30C0,UN
MOT,3C0,0,4900,UN
MOT,308,0,A8F7,EVM
MOT,30B,0,2021,PAT-A8F7 End
MOT,308,0,A8F7,EVM
MOT,30B,0,2021,PAT-A8F7 End
MOT,3BF,0,6000,UN
MOT,3BF,0,30C0,UN
MOT,186,0,0C70,CNM TG-0C70 CH-186 VC-08607625
MOT,308,0,4613,EVM
MOT,340,0,1461,PAT-4613 MEM-4613
MOT,308,0,4673,EVM

(different system types woud appear differently)

 

[KE4ZNR]

I'd like to bring up an old message from UPMan. Below is a snippet of control channel data. I posted a similar message on the unitrunker forum, but have yet to get an answer. Can someone point me to a spec/manual/etc that tells how to interpret all the control channel data below?

Basicly, assume I'm wirting a program from scratch to parse control channel data. Where do I go to get started?

http://info.uniden.com/twiki/pub/UnidenMan4/BCD396XT/BCD396XT_Complete_Reference.pdf

Pages 121-125
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[fpo701]

http://info.uniden.com/twiki/pub/UnidenMan4/BCD396XT/BCD396XT_Complete_Reference.pdf

Pages 121-125
Marshall KE4ZNR

That simply tells me what the message look like from the radio to some program. I understand that. Where is there something that tells me what things like '3C0,0,4900' or '30B,0,2021' mean? I know that's the data from the control channel. I want to know how to turn it into something meaningful.