Looking for opinions on the best I & II digital trunking scanner on the market today?
Best Digital Trunking Scanner?
- Thread starter DaveLeon
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Welcome to RR! For now there is 2 scanners on the market list below.
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Uniden
BCD436HP - The RadioReference Wiki
BCD536HP - The RadioReference Wiki
GRE COM (No longer on the market) You may able to find them on Ebay or on here
PSR-800 - The RadioReference Wiki
**Whistler (took over the GRE COM) is coming out with new units not sure when though.
I have both x36's also the psr800. There are some samples on YouTube of the audio for Phase l & ll systems.
Is this the location you are at?
Montgomery County, Texas (TX) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Yes in Montgomery County Texas
Any of those 3 I posted will work. There are other scanners from Uniden, RadioShack, GRE COM will do Phase l it will not do Phase ll.
I'd agree with those three. Whistler, based on information posted elsewhere, is supposed to release a rebranded version of the PSR-800; same basic scanner as was produced by GRE, but future production by Whistler, with their labeling. There is also supposed to be a base/mobile version of the 800, what GRE was originally planning to release as the PSR-900, but they shut down before this happened. I believe Whistler may resurrect that model as well.
While Montgomery County itself is using P25 Phase I for their talkgroups on TxWARN P25, Houston city agencies are using Phase II, as are some of the other cities and agencies in Harris County. From what I've seen noted in the Texas Forum, as well as on the HoustonScan Yahoo group, any new user to TxWARN P25 in Harris County must eventually switch from Phase I P25 to Phase II. I'd suggest checking out the comments on HoustonScan to get a better idea how well the new Uniden scanners are working in that area. Most all of the comments I've seen are positive, with a few rough edges here & there, mostly due to programming errors or simulcast issues. But I'm not in that area; I'm about 250 miles up I-45, so I'll leave it at that. In my area, both the 436 & 536 work very well, though I only have one true Phase II system at this time. That should change by the end of the year as some of the larger suburbs switch their systems over. Both of the scanners do well on Phase I P25, conventional (non-trunked) P25, such as TxDPS and some of the smaller cities, as well as the other mix of systems here in the DFW Metro area.
If you do not need Phase II, get the BCD396XT. It's the best digital scanner out there. The new ones have too many problems to recommend.
W6KRU
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I have a 396XT and a PSR-500. There is no contest. The PSR-500 is absolutely superior on the digital simulcast Moto II system I listen to(San Diego RCS). The 396XT has a terrible P25 error rate and sounds awful. The audio is unintelligible frequently.
Then you might have the 396XT set up wrong.
Or B) you own a 396 not a 396XT. There is a great improvement on P25 decoding between the two models. 396XT is the superior scanner.
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Maybe maybe not.What works for him might not work for you and so on and so forth.Now before this turns into the whole Coke vs Pepsi debate as it always does I have both GRE and Uniden and I prefer the Uniden models.That is just me both have good points and bad.
Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk
W6KRU
Member
I have a 396T and a 396XT and the 396T is actually a little better than the 396XT.The problem with the 396XT is the lack of a manual P25 threshold adjustment that the 396T had. The latest firmware for the XT gave a limited manual adjustment to the XT which improved it some. I feel that I am very well versed in the setup of the 396XT but I am always willing to hear suggestions so if you have any tips, please post them.
None of this adjustment business is required by the PSR-500. It just works.
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