h8tdigitalradio said:
Hello,
From observations and testing, I find no sensitivity issues with the BCD396T. It is a matter of matching the right antenna with the bands you wish to monitor. I have tried several antennae and the best performer for reception of most bands, even 11 meters, is the Wilson Electronics DB819 Dual Band Cellular Antenna when mobile. No issues with VHF or UHF reception.
The RadioShack 800 MHz antenna is a good performer, but does not match the performance of the cellular antenna.
The BR330T is more sensitive than the BCD396T, and I would like the receiver of the BR330T part of the BCD396T.
The best performing antenna of the ones I have used for the BR330T is believe it or not, the telescopic antenna supplied with the GRE/RadioShack PRO 2096. It outperforms Pryme RD-9, RD-98 and Diamond SRH77CA.
YMMV.
73
Dave AKA The Tripzter
I will have to respectfully disagree with this. I can put a 250 foot tower in my back yard, and mount the supplied rubber duck on top of that, and
might outperform all my other scanners, as well as everyone else's neighborhood receivers. However, this and building the antenna collection are only patches to make up for the 396's lack of sensitivity (at least my 396). Sure there are workarounds... I can mount a mobile antenna on my vehicle, but WHY, when the other scanners work perfectly fine
in the vehicle using the RS 800 duck?
While I also know that no one antenna does good on all bands, carrying band specific antennas is not a good patch either as far as I'm concerned. The Baltimore-Washington area is
loaded with rich scanner intercepts from VHF-Lo through the 800 MHz band. I don't want to have to pull over and switch antennas every 5, 10, or 15 miles just to make up for what the other scanners do on the single RS 800 duck!
I
really do appreciate all the comments, because nothing beats constructive criticism. However, this is why I asked if the lack of sensitvity could be addressed via firmware (I just don't see this happening, but would love to get a
honest yes). It's kind of hard explaining to the wife why I loved the 396 enough to fork out over $500 USD for it, yet I still carry at least one of the older scanners with me also just in case that jewel of an event comes out. Oh well, this explains the "love-hate" relationship that I mentioned in the first post.
Thanks to all,
Dewey
PS... Believe me when I say that this will be my
BIGGEST obstacle (read: disagreement) when that "newer and better" scanner comes out, and I decide that it may be worth a try!!!