Best handheld scanner for my area on a budget

[Dimented]

hey all, could someone point me in the right direction for a good handheld unit that I can use to pickup any local emergency services and law enforcement channels around where I live and on my daily 3 hour round trip. Basically just want to pick up any emergency & or police chatter close to wherever I happen to be at any given time. My only issue is, can’t really go above $250, $300, truth be told, that’s pushing it… I’ve been attempting to use a Baofeng UV-5R with not much result in 24 hours, so any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated. I know the best option is the SDS 100, but there’s no way on gods green I could afford something like that, and being that I live in a very rural area, I don’t necessarily think the locals use digital or encrypted. Not 100% on that, but just my best guess. Thanks in advance and I much appreciate any and all
Of your time
And patience with this ignorant newbie..! Have a great day.!
Edit :
My local area is Mecklenburg county VA, and the route is from South Hill to Danville VA,
Straight shot up HWY 58.. Thanks again & hope I can get some advice cause my online searching has me in circles pulling my hair out, haha..

 

[jeepsandradios]

Well lets look at the ocunties you go thru.

Danville is in Pittsylvania County - P25 P2
Halifax is next county - Fire still VHF analog. LAW on MotoTRBO Type II Trunking
Mecklinburg County is DMR Tier III (as well as some VHF/UHF analog)

So you need something that does DMR at a minimum. I travel this route alot as well and dont hear alot other than halifax. I dont have a DMR in my 436 but thats still a $600 scanner. I think you may be out of luck if your tryign to do this on the cheap...

 

[KB4SHP]

The only way to hear Danville city is with a scanner that does Nxdn an Pittsylvania
county is simulcast system only scanner that will do that in one is the Uniden Sds100

 

[jeepsandradios]

The only way to hear Danville city is with a scanner that does Nxdn an Pittsylvania
county is simulcast system only scanner that will do that in one is the Uniden Sds100

Gee my 436 works just well on Pitt county.....As does my 996P2.

 

[jkahn]

Straight shot up HWY 58.. Thanks again & hope I can get some advice cause my online searching has me in circles pulling my hair out, haha..

Mecklenburg County fire uses 154 MHz frequencies on FM so the Baofeng should do those, except for 1 user on DMR. The Sheriff is on 453 but uses DMR so you won't get those. check out Mecklenburg County, Virginia (VA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
The county also has a trunked system which the Baofeng cannot follow.

Check the other counties you drive through on RR and try programming any FM frequencies you might want to hear, both VHF and UHF.

Do you use Chirp to program your radio? It beats the hell out of hand programming each channel.
Do you know how to scan channels and skip ones that cause interference (program skip by Chirp)?

I use several Baofeng UV5Rs to listen to Railroad, GMRS, etc and a UV5RM for local airports (& everything else I have programmed on the 5Rs since it has 999 channels!). Great radios for dirt cheap prices. Beats the cost of an SDS100/200 to listen to most of my areas traffic which is encrypted and cannot be scanned.

 

[Dimented]

I really appreciate you guys replies like major, cause I was legit about to snap up something that wouldn’t have worked at all. Also, I don’t/haven’t used CHIRP yet, cause I was trying to get a feel for manual programming to listen on the fly, but apparently I won’t be able to hear anything of note regardless unless I spring for the sds100 and even then it sounds like I would be able to hear law enforcement the way I was hoping to I reckon… I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, cause I’m extremely new to all this.. I’m out and about in that route right this second, I’m just stopped at a gas station topping off my bike for the return trip home so just a quick pop in and Checking response. Again I really appreciate the replies, and I’ll be able to do a little more in depth looking once I get back to the home 20….