BCD325P2/BCD996P2: BCD325P2 Reception

[mdavis54]

I have worked with the BC125AT in the metro Boston area, and the reception is great compared to my HP1. I'm looking to upgrade from my HP1. I need a digital scanner because my PD is digital. Is the BCD325P2 reception just as good as the BC125AT?

 

[mjf]

I have a BCD325P2 but no experience with the BC125AT. Compared to the radios I do have, and I have quite a few, I find that the 325 is very good on VHF-high and VHF air, not bad on 800 MHz, but quite deaf on UHF and 900 MHz. Things that my Icom R6 can hear full-quieting on UHF using a little stubby antenna are not received at all on the 325 with a full size, good quality rubber duckie. My Yaesu FT65 using its included antenna can receive stations that are not audible on the 325 even when it is using an outside discone. The 325 is easily the worst scanner I have for UHF even compared to my decades old Realistic PRO-30. The bad 900 MHz reception is likely due to overloading from nearby cell towers.

Having said all that, I find that the 325 is my most often used scanner. I love the fact that it uses AA batteries. Easy to change when out at an airshow. This is good, because the batteries do not last long at all. Close Call is pure magic. I wish the little Icom had it. The dynamically allocated memory for programming is so useful compared to the old banks/channels method. I have 19 systems programmed with a mix of trunk and conventional and I'm only using 2% of the memory. The audio is ok but I wish I was louder sometimes.

 

[mdavis54]

Thank you for your comments. I listen to fire and police and they are all UHF.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the RR forums. I wouldn't anticipate any issues monitoring P25 conventional as your PD appears to be. It's with the simulcast P25 Phase-II trunked radio systems where things could get ugly monitoring with anything other than an SDSx00, as is well documented here on the forums

 

[StoliRaz]

I have worked with the BC125AT in the metro Boston area, and the reception is great compared to my HP1. I'm looking to upgrade from my HP1. I need a digital scanner because my PD is digital. Is the BCD325P2 reception just as good as the BC125AT?

I live in your area and have a 325 but no experience with the 125. I do also own a 346XT. I feel like the 346 does marginally better picking up analog (it doesn't receive digital). There's not much simulcast in our area but that could change when the digital COMIRS system comes online and replaces the analog system. From what I read it will be made of simulcast areas, like Worcester already has. RISCON down in RI is a simulcast system that my RS-197 picks up with a preamp since I'm far enough outside of range I only get the north zone and no others interfere.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[mjf]

None of the emergency services frequencies in the Toronto area are on UHF so most of my UHF listening is business systems. A higher powered, wide area coverage system like PD or FD should work fine as their signals will, hopefully, be nice and strong.