digital scanners cost too much

[nec208]

Well poor battery life and poor audio output is not the only thing What about the keypad labels getting worn out..

And may be you got a good scanner, but people have bean complaining of interference!!

No lack of P25 digital scanners out there as others have correctly pointed out.

The first P25-capable digital scanner was the Uniden BC250D handheld, which first shipped from Uniden around 1/1/2003. I still have mine (one of those first units shipped) and it works great although I don't use it much because I'm using a RadioShack Pro-96 and a Uniden BCD396T as my main digital handheld scanners. The 296D ended up being the replacement for the 250D.

My #1 complaint about the 250D is P!$$ POOR battery life. It's a battery hog even while on and not listening to anything . The standby current is around 200mA, which drains the batteries down in a couple of hours. With the digital option board removed, the standby current drops to around 135mA but the radio is still a battey hog.

My #2 complaint is the low audio output. I've listened to the audio through a good audio system and the quality is actually good but there's just not enough of it to hear the scanner in a noisy environment. I want LOUD receive audio out of my portables, like what a good commercial handheld 2-way radio has. I want at least 500mW output into 8 ohms at 5% or less distortion and driving an efficient speaker.

I generally use my RadioShack Pro-96 scanner as my everyday beater scanner. It blows the other digital handhelds away in terms of audio and battery life.

 

[yaesumofo]

I do not agree.
My BC250 still performs very well. the receiver in the BC250 is better than the one used in the BC396. by a good margin.
The biggest advances between the 250 296 and the 396 was features not radio performance.
IMHO the 396 would have been a much better radio if the 250 receiver was used.

Like I said my BC250 is a very good radio. It does a great job of monitoring systems which fall within it's abilities.
I have no problem monitoring the LAPD (a non trunked apco system) even with weal signals the radios is able to decode good audio.
Maybe you got a bad 296 or something.
Yaesumofo

The BC250D and BC296D did horrible at at picking signals up and is very easy to interference..

 

[nec208]

I do not agree.
My BC250 still performs very well. the receiver in the BC250 is better than the one used in the BC396. by a good margin.
The biggest advances between the 250 296 and the 396 was features not radio performance.
IMHO the 396 would have been a much better radio if the 250 receiver was used.

Like I said my BC250 is a very good radio. It does a great job of monitoring systems which fall within it's abilities.
I have no problem monitoring the LAPD (a non trunked apco system) even with weal signals the radios is able to decode good audio.
Maybe you got a bad 296 or something.
Yaesumofo

May be the BNC or antenna is broke in it?How dows the receiver work in the BC250 than the 245 or 780?



You using the antenna that came with it?

 

[n4voxgill]

Nec you don't seem happy with anything about digital scanners, so wouldn't it be best for you not to buy one, just keep some old scanner and hear what you can.

Many of us have digital scanners and have no problems. So maybe someday you will find a digital that will make you happy.

 

[nec208]

Nec you don't seem happy with anything about digital scanners, so wouldn't it be best for you not to buy one, just keep some old scanner and hear what you can.

Many of us have digital scanners and have no problems. So maybe someday you will find a digital that will make you happy.

I have not tested all the digital scanners so I dont know.And I don't seem to know to much about radios and electronics.


All I can say is Toronto and York is 5KM from my house and it comes in at a 2 or 3.And Peel comes it okay but I get interference.The signal strength is about a 4.

There can be a EMS call 5 streets down from me and I get whine sound.For EMS forget it ,if YOU ARE going to be in a car and take your scanner it will not work.Your car must be stopped..

For EMS the signal is very strength or nothing.There is no weak signal .In other words you getting them or not.There is a bad whine sound that I believe is interference.

When picking up my local police I get interference now and than, like talkgroups bleeding.The dispatcher is dispatching a call and a other talkgroups is bleeding in.

The scanner is not using the selectivity feature to block out the other frequencies.The sensitivity feature is bad, I should be able to pick up anything 15KM or 20KM from my house

 

[nec208]

I don't know if its the scanner or antenna that got broke or what.Should I get a radio tech to look at it or just get a better one?

Living by the regional border, I should have no problem picking up Peel,York and Toronto..

 

[btritch]

Hmmm.... Wonder how long it'll be before there's a TETRA system scanner available in the U.S.??

Guess you could always buy one overseas to pick it up, But you may not pick up everything else then, Just a suggestion though.. LOL

 

[nec208]

I'm sorry but what does TETRA system have to do with my problem.

May be the antena tech guys here may have some answers.

 

[ibagli]

Hmmm.... Wonder how long it'll be before there's a TETRA system scanner available in the U.S.??

Isn't TETRA encrypted by default though?

 

[w0fg]

I wonder if those who feel a new digital scanner at $400-500 is too expensive have any idea what a new Motorola or MA/COM digital transceiver costs? Can you say $4000...I thought you could.

 

[SCPD]

If it was Microsoft we would be at 30 by now!!

If it was Microsoft half the people with a scanner would not understand how to use it. All competition would be bullied out, even though the Microsoft scanner was the inferior to other potential products. Each of the 30 versions of the scanner would not be compatible with the other versions and some would come out that looked very different, with very different instructions, but really operated much the same as the last couple of versions. You would also have to buy Microsoft earphones, Microsoft extension speakers, and Microsoft antennas as using a competing product would present large incompatibility issues that could be solved eventually, but to do so would require months of reading posts on some esoteric website. It would still take 4 days to get your non-Microsoft antenna to perform correctly after following the 279 step process sent out by them that contains a link or two in every paragraph that states "read the material in this link before proceeding." Then when you click on that link you find another process and evaluation procedure of about 25 steps along with half a dozen links to still yet more pages of process and evaluation.

I'm sorry, but no thanks, let's keep Microsoft out of the scanning business as much as possible. I realize we have to program our scanners using a Microsoft operating system because there aren't many programs written for Apple OS or Linux, but lets keep them away from the guts of scanners.

I'm sorry if I have offended the fans of Microsoft. I would write each and every one of you to apologize but I don't have the addresses for the three of you.

The above written with my tongue somewhat planted in my cheek!

 

[n2mdk]

I'm sorry but what does TETRA system have to do with my problem.

May be the antena tech guys here may have some answers.

It has more to do with the topic of the thread than your posting does. Start a new thread about your problems. Also try and make your postings coherent most of the time, including this one they don't make much sense.