BCD436 HP or TRX1

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djs9164

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Dec 14, 2012
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Boston MA area. Looking to upgrade my Pro97. Casual user. Mostly monitor Fire Police EMS. Any suggestions welcome.
Thankss
 

buddrousa

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If you need NXDN as of now you will need a TRX-1. I like my 436 better for P25 and DMR Trunking as it works better in a high RF area plus I like the DMR Trunking better on my 436 but you have to get the LNC's in the right order for the 436 where the TRX-1 does not care as long as you have all the channels programmed it.
 

gbriden

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Dec 19, 2002
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Thornhill Ontario
I agree unless you have an NXDN system in your area and you really want to monitor it then go with the Uniden also BCD436 is a little easier to work with unless you are computer monogramming them then both are pretty even.
 

raisindot

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Mar 4, 2008
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TC, I live in the Boston area as well (about 15 miles west). I've owned many scanners from many different manufacturers over the years and now I've whittled them down to two: Uniden Homepatrol 1 and Uniden 430HP.

Both of these scanners will pick up about 90% of what you can hear in the Boston area: UHF, VHF, most trunking systems and P25 phase 1. There are relatively few P25 systems in the Boston area right now. From my location I can only pick up Lexington and Waltham P25 frequencies on either scanner.

Supposedly the Worcester State Police are changing over/have changed over to the P25 Phase 2 system. I bought the 436HP to be able to eventually hear these but even though I have the system programmed I've never heard a single call from that system. I might be too far away for it.

The 436HP also lets you hear DMR frequences if you pay an extra $60 for the firmware upgrade. I've done this and I imported a bunch of DMR frequencies from the DMR database at United States Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) Frequency Search. I can receive calls on Only 6-10 of the hundreds of DMR frequencies (all of them conventional, since I didn't want to futz around with trunking DMR at this point), but it definitely picks them up. A lot of commercial and Spanish-language radio traffic.

I know others like the Whistler scanners, but I stuck with Uniden because I like its programming philosophy and the Uniden Sentinel software for HP-based scanners is very good, and it automatically imports the latest full databases from RR.
 

OHIOSCAN

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Jul 9, 2001
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Lorain Cnty, OH
I own both and they are very different scanners performance wise, 436 better on 700/800 & TRX-1 is better on VHF/UHF. It depends on what you monitor and how your local systems work, try and talk to local users there is now way to give a definitive answer. As mentioned above they both do DMR the TRX-1 adds NXDN and it works good if you need it. Software options are much better for Uniden radios then Whistler. The build quality on both is mediocre at best especially compared to ham gear, the screens on both are terrible while the 436 screen has good info display the TRX1 is less busy but to me easier to glance at and see what you need it is also much brighter.
 

Sonar

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Sep 15, 2004
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SoCal
The build quality on both is mediocre at best especially compared to ham gear, the screens on both are terrible while the 436 screen has good info display the TRX1 is less busy but to me easier to glance at and see what you need it is also much brighter.

I agree about the terrible displays. I still have the old 396 and it's blue lit screen is hard to read. I wish the backlight was another color with better contrast.
 

jonwienke

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I recommend the 436. You can plug a GPS into it when traveling and hear only local traffic while driving cross-country. The scanner uses the GPS to automatically activate local channels and turn off things out of range.
 

AndrewGS

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Apr 3, 2007
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Humble, TX (Houston)
What's funny is that I once owned both, the predecessor to the TRX-1, the GRE PSR-800, and the then-new Uniden BCD436HP. I was unimpressed with both, so I left the hobby since my area was moving to Phase-II.

About a year ago I bought another BCD436HP and liked everything but the fact that I couldn't seem to find my local PD, even using the RR database. I found modern scanning to just be too damn difficult, so before my return policy ran out I sent it back in frustration.

Well, you can take the scanner from the moron but you'll never take the moron from scanning, so yesterday I ordered up a TRX-1. I was so excited when it got here this morning. Well, after updating everything and taking a look at the programming software I packed it back up and sent it back out. I ordered another BCD436HP and I'm going to keep it come hell or high water.
 

Sonar

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Sep 15, 2004
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SoCal
^What an story you got there!

In my case, lot of the police here are going encrypted now so I haven't upgraded any of my scanners as of late. Kind of a dead end for me sadly.
 
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