Don't know about the rebanding issues. I have a 246T and I love mine. I wish it had more audio though. I had a Pro-95 and it had GREAT audio. You could hear it all the time from your belt. I work security and when I do take my 246T to work, I MUST take a lapel speaker because the audio is too weak.
If you have a computer and are into searching out new freqs & talkgroups, get a free program called 246T Audio Recorder. It's great -- it records scanner audio to files w/ the date, time, and freq/TG info in the filename. I've started using mine heavily while I'm away from home and been able to make quite a few submissions to RR.
I haven't experienced this problem yet, but everybody says the writing on the keypad will wear off quickly. I've had mine for about 2 months now and it's still perfect.
There are three other issues that I dislike about the scanner, but the advantages greatly outweigh them. Close Call is awesome but requires you to press a key before it shows the freq info on the screen. All of the software for uploading/downloading freq info I think is not that great -- it does it by systems instead of taking the scanner data as a whole. Lastly, 2 AA batteries instead of 4 make the scanner a tad shorter, but I'd much rather have 4 batteries and LONGER battery life. Mine hardly makes it through an 8-hour shift w/ rechargeables. My Pro-95 lasted up to 2 1/2 days (about 20 hours) on its 4 AA batteries w/ LOUD audio.
My vote is get the scanner, but be prepared to get an external speaker as well.
