BC296D, Icom R-20, or AR8200 MarkIII. Which one is best???

[BoatBabe4Me]

Can anyone tell me the differences between the BC296D, the Icom R-20, and the AOR AR8200 MarkIII? I'm contemplating buying one of these radios soon and can't find enough information about them to know the differences between them. OK, maybe I'm to new at this and just don't know enough about it yet. Anyway, the BC296 seems to be advertised a lot about being good at scanning police frequencies while the AR8200 is being called "state of the art" but doesn't mention anything about being able to handle trunking and the other things the BC is advertised, etc. Can anyone help me figure this out? Which one really is the best? Are each good for only a certain thing? Can an AR8200 pickup S.A.M.E. weather alerts? Cat it also pickup all the new new and approaching digital police frequencies including trunking and whatever else? Thanks for the help and I'll be checking back soon!

 

[N9JIG]

The BC296 will allow you to follow any of several styles of trunking. I would steer clear of the AR8200 or R20 if you are a novice to scanning or require trunking capabilities. While remarkable radios they are more difficult to learn than more mainstream radios such as Uniden or Radio Shack scanners.

The R20 and AR8200 are more geared towards conventional (non trunked) scanning and have wider frequency ranges and modes that are not often used by public safety and business sectors that the BC296 excels at. In addition the BC296 allows you to monitor digital voice that the others do not.

 

[BoatBabe4Me]

Thank you very much. I am more interested in the scanning and public agency stuff especially weather related and police. I also think we're going to see lots more digital in everything in the future. Thanks for your help.