Best Digital on the market

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robocop80

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Hello All,

I am looking to purchase my second scanner but my first digital scanner. I currently own a BCT-15 which I really love. I am not stuck on buying a Uniden or a base / mobile unit. I am looking to purchase the best digital scanner on the market. In addition is there any drawback to having a handheld over a base unit. I don't mind spending the $500, I just want the best for the buck. Please tell me what is the best digital on the market.

Thanks for the help!

James
 

raisindot

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robocop80 said:
Hello All,

I am looking to purchase my second scanner but my first digital scanner. I currently own a BCT-15 which I really love. I am not stuck on buying a Uniden or a base / mobile unit. I am looking to purchase the best digital scanner on the market. In addition is there any drawback to having a handheld over a base unit. I don't mind spending the $500, I just want the best for the buck. Please tell me what is the best digital on the market.

Thanks for the help!

James

I think the majority here will probably cite the GRE PSR500/600 as the best all-around scanner on the market, especially for digital. While some may quibble about certain aspects of it (particularly around scan list and talkgroup limitations), most agree that its performance is excellent, the technology and features are cutting edge, the three available software programs for programming it (and you really need to use one of them if you want to get the most of it) are excellent, and GRE's commitment to providing updates (see its response to the 700MHz rebanding issue in the GRE forum) is impeccable.

Then again, I'm a PSR500 owner, so I might be a little biased. :)

Suzie
 

ScanTheFreqs

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right now the main competition is the uniden bcd396/996t and the GRE psr500/600, both scanners have things the other one doesnt, depending on your needs, your "scanning style" and maybe other factors, 1 might be more to your advantage then the other, i own the psr500, i sold my bcd396t so i could try it out, and i wont be going back. the reason i own a scanner is to listen to it, so sound quality is a main concern, and the psr500 blows the bcd396t out of the water on digital sound quality, even with its new 2.0 update.

so, i guess this is vote #3 for the new GRE series
 
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SCPD

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I am owner of Pro 96 hand held & wish I had the PSR500 hehe, a few more features I wish I had of "paid" for. NOthing wrong with Pro 96.. I just like bells & whistles :p
 

robocop80

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Thank you to all of you for suggestions. Now let me ask you one more question. I am sold on the new GRE, however I am wondering should get the handheld or the mobile. Would one provide better reception over the other? I listen in the house on the road and in my office so I take my scanner with me wherever I go. Do you think I should go with the handheld? I am so anxious to order another one.
 

raisindot

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robocop80 said:
Thank you to all of you for suggestions. Now let me ask you one more question. I am sold on the new GRE, however I am wondering should get the handheld or the mobile. Would one provide better reception over the other? I listen in the house on the road and in my office so I take my scanner with me wherever I go. Do you think I should go with the handheld? I am so anxious to order another one.

Definitely go with the PSR500. You want the flexibility to stick it in your briefcase (hard to do with a base unit), and run it on batteries. If audio quality is the issue, you can always get an external speaker.

Suzie
 

captclint

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robocop80 said:
Thank you to all of you for suggestions. Now let me ask you one more question. I am sold on the new GRE, however I am wondering should get the handheld or the mobile. Would one provide better reception over the other? I listen in the house on the road and in my office so I take my scanner with me wherever I go. Do you think I should go with the handheld? I am so anxious to order another one.
Other than sound volume (in the car), it should not matter. Given that you take it everywhere, a portable makes more sense. I believe most users have said volume is fairly good on the portable, but I have not followed GRE threads closely.
 

LEH

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I own both the 500 and the 396. My scanning style pushes me to the 396 as my preference.

If you have more than twenty systems you want to scan or you want to break down a single system to listen to a particular segment (i.e., police over fire), then the 396 offers a better option to do it.

Both are good radios. But search around the threads here and in the Uniden or GRE forums to see other comments on both radios.
 

Gumbo

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robocop80 said:
Thank you to all of you for suggestions. Now let me ask you one more question. I am sold on the new GRE, however I am wondering should get the handheld or the mobile. Would one provide better reception over the other? I listen in the house on the road and in my office so I take my scanner with me wherever I go. Do you think I should go with the handheld? I am so anxious to order another one.


I think handhelds are more worthwhile. The mobile units are either plugged into a wall or your car. Handhelds just need batteries when the power goes out. And you can listen while you walk, not something you can do with a base/mobile unit.

Andy
 

Zaratsu

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I think you get the point, but my .02 cents is PSR-500/600

The Radio Shack digitals are basically early varients of the PSR 500 and not as good.

The Unidens have their redeming features such as a trick database and GPS logging, but owners have not really found these items to be decisive factors.
 

NYRHKY94

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I have to jump on the GRE bandwagon also. If you are looking at the $500 range for a digital scanner, the GRE units incorporate the "best of both worlds" in my opinion. They have the feature set (& more in some instances) of the Unidens and the digital sound processing & clarity of the RS models. You also get a nice USB programming cable as part of the $500 price (new).

In addition, if you're into computer programming & remote control, Don Starr's Win500 program (very reasonable price) raises the functionality of the GRE units to a higher level IMO.

Lastly, it appears that GRE is very responsive to the needs of the scanner community & has been quick to send out quality DSP & CPU updates as needed.

My 2 cents.....
 

andrewccm

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I have no complaints with my 396... Matter a fact I really like it a lot... ver. 2 upgrade made a world of difference with my digital channels.

I don't own a GRE, but would like to have one as well..

FWIW.
 

Raven95150

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Since you have a BCT-15 and are happy with it, I would highly recommend the 396 or 996. The 996 is basically the same as the BCT-15 but with digital capability, and the 396 is pretty much the same setup but packaged in a handheld radio.

I really can't speak for the PSR-500/600 because I've never used them.
 

mandlair

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I own both,And for my digital system gre psr500 and the pro96 blows away the unidens.But thats on delawares and maryland digital.So your mileage may vary?Mike
 

scannersnstuff

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i own both the 396 and the psr-500.while i "like" the 396,i "love" the 500.

1.much better sensitivity.
2.audio kick's butt.
3.digital is great.
4.nac is a nice addition.
running them both side by side,i can't even scrape a signal out of the 396t with a diamond rh777ca antenna on a digital pd frequency about 25 mile's away.the psr-500 bring's it in loud and clear with the oem antenna.while you are somewhat,somewhat limited to the 20 scan list's at a time,if you just got to hear it <that's what scanning is all about> i would not hesitate to recomend the psr-500.yes there is a little bit more intermod than on the 396.for me it's a very minor inconvienience.

i think it would really take a class act to beat the psr-500 at this point.
 

ScanTheFreqs

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Airdorn said:
Does the GRE 500 still use that goofy "bank" paradigm?
no, well, kinda. instead of banks theyre called scanlists, and you have 20 of them. with a bank, you have a set amount of channels in that bank, like say your 200 channel scanner has 10 banks, 20 channels per bank. if you put 3 channels in a bank, you have 17 left over that are just 000.000, the psr 500 doesnt waste those 17 extra "spaces" in its memory, instead it lets you put them in another scanlist, each frequency or talkgroup is known as an "object" and you can have about 1800 objects total at once. there could be 3 channels in scanlist 1 and 1797 in scanlist 2, you can arrange it however you like
 
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