Announcing the BCD396XT and BC346XT Scanners

[rdale]

The new Nokia N96 phone which is to be released on the world soon has digital TV built in

The N96's TV feature has nothing to do with commercial, American, television broadcasts. It's for DVB-H.

 

[torontokris]

I believe the remote head will be the same (with a firmware upgrade).
A new remote head with a connector on it would be a good idea.

NO you cant run the remote head and GPS at the same time.. as they need the same port.
UPMan has said only one can run at a time (so no chance for splicing etc).


I thought the N96's TV was coming from the cell network.. not OTA (Over the Air ATSC) digital signals.
I.E. its just playing back signals from the cell network feature.. its not receiving and decoding digital TV/ ATSC etc.

I dont believe as of yet there is any mobile ATSC-M/H decoder in effect for the public purchase.
There are several proposed systems but nothing definitive. Also all those would need "large antennas"

OK I have a question, that no one seems to have asked yet.
Will the 396XT get its own remote head, and if so, will this have to be connected to the serial port on the scanner, and again if so, how will you be able to run GPS support at the same time? Hopefuly if this is the case, then the GPS may be connected to the remote head some how.

Also digital TV was suggested earlier. This would be a good idea and the circuit does not take up that much room. The new Nokia N96 phone which is to be released on the world soon has digital TV built in, and knowing that these phones are much smaller then a 396 scanner, you can bet the circuit is very tiny.

Maybe something to put into future models. Even if you just put the audio in, which is easier to decode in digital. There are also radio stations on digital TV bands in many countries, so this would be a good feature to consider in the future.

 

[UPMan]

BC-RH96 will get an update to support the new models. Unfortunately, there is no ability to run GPS and RH at the same time (only one serial port).

Digital TV chipsets cost about $30 (parts cost, not including integration, RF, etc). You cannot decode audio without decoding the full digital stream (i.e. it is just as difficult to get a single audio stream out of the data as it is the full video).

The Nokia N96 will do DVB. This format is not currently being broadcast in the US, to my knowledge (and is not the same as the ATSC standard for digital TV broadcasts in the US).

 

[ke5lvt]

I just wanted to know if uniden will make a scanner for phase 2 p25 systems?
the upgrade will be TDMA voice , at a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 voice channels per frequency.

 

[rusd]

396xt

Sounds good Paul,and all the folks that helped in the work on this new unit, sounds like another GREAT scanner.
But i was hoping to see bluetooth added for wireless earbuds. Is there a reason this can't be added or what.

 

[troymail]

Oh, and the 396T isn't obsolete, it has many good years left

V

Mine was nearly obsolete a year ago when GRE released the PSR500 - barely gets used anymore these days.

What's really important is to improve overall reception and digital voice/sound quality - at least, for the 396/digital model.

 

[UPMan]

I just wanted to know if uniden will make a scanner for phase 2 p25 systems?
the upgrade will be TDMA voice , at a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 voice channels per frequency.

As can be inferred from the wording your post, the specification has not yet been set and approved. Once a specification is approved, we'll look at it and determine what is needed to support it. Meanwhile, this thread is about something else.

 

[troymail]

As can be inferred from the wording your post, the specification has not yet been set and approved. Once a specification is approved, we'll look at it and determine what is needed to support it. Meanwhile, this thread is about something else.

Wow - I hope that's soon... I thought I heard that Prince George County Maryland was building a TDMA system now... so I need to wait and my next radio needs to be able to monitor that.

 

[torontokris]

See this post for ideas for a bluetooth headset

http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108388


Nice avator...

Sounds good Paul,and all the folks that helped in the work on this new unit, sounds like another GREAT scanner.
But i was hoping to see bluetooth added for wireless earbuds. Is there a reason this can't be added or what.

 

[Viper43]

No problem here with digital reception or voice quality. Both of these issues are usually related directly to location and the antenna used. My 600 has more issues on the digital than the 396t or 996t ever did.
My radios are all on the same antenna via a multicoupler and the 600 rarely picks up the MECA P25 system while the 396t and 996t pick it up fine....
Same thing when they are in the car, there again I have a multicoupler and they all run off the same antenna.

V

Mine was nearly obsolete a year ago when GRE released the PSR500 - barely gets used anymore these days.

What's really important is to improve overall reception and digital voice/sound quality - at least, for the 396/digital model.

 

[torontokris]

Will the 396XT firmware start with V4....
or start out at V1 (which may cause confusion)

Or a whole new naming system? 396.X1...

 

[rusd]

396xt

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Toronto EH!
Posts: 516




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See this post for ideas for a bluetooth headset

http://www.radioreference.com/forums...d.php?t=108388


Nice avator...



Quote:
Originally Posted by rusd
Sounds good Paul,and all the folks that helped in the work on this new unit, sounds like another GREAT scanner.
But i was hoping to see bluetooth added for wireless earbuds. Is there a reason this can't be added or what.

 

[seligman]

Confused...

I'm curious why so many 396T owners are interested in the 396XT?

Aren't these scanners going to be functionally equivalent for the most part? Which bells and whistles on the 396XT would justify the upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

 

[rusd]

Bluetooth

Allready added a Bluetooth to mine last year, but would be nice to have unit inside the scanner

 

[Jay911]

I'm curious why so many 396T owners are interested in the 396XT?

Personally, I'm interested because the programming socket on my 396 broke off during a trip I was on this past August. So it's now stuck with the current firmware (and the current programming, unless I decide to do it by hand).

I'll certainly rock the updates for the 996 though!

 

[co_jim]

Excuse me ahead of time for the stupid question. Santa will be brining me a scanner this year and I have it narrowed down to the 996T the 396t(xt now) and GRE. From what we know at this point, is there an advantage to the 396xt over the 996t? Thanks.

 

[rdale]

co_jim - yes. All the updates make it different. Up to you to decide if that's "better" or not.

 

[wm8s]

Some great new features...

But "Talkgroups per trunked system: 500 maximum" hurts. Still won't even come close to supporting a tiny little system like the West Virginia statewide digital system (~800 talkgroups), and Ohio MARCS (>1,600), Houston StarNet, etc., are totally out of the question...

...R

 

[n2pqq]

Thank you for posting the photos of display colors.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/images/5/55/BCD396T_BL.jpg

Will there be a BCD996XT version of this ?


Any thoughts on a tft display ?

 

[mikewazowski]

When will we see Motorola patch handling?

I'll second that as well. It was back in 2006 when I first brought it to Paul's attention.