In general, it depends on what part of Kentucky you're in:
a) Most of the major metro sites in KY have either a mix of conventional Motorola and APCO-25 (conventional and trunked), are heavily EDACS, *or* a mix or LTR and APCO-25 conventional. (The Florence/Covington/Newport area are good examples of the former--not just KSP but Cincinatti's APCO-25 system across the border; Lexington is a good example of the middle category, having an EDACS system for Fayette County public safety whilst still having KSP bases. Louisville fits in the third category, as there are existing APCO-25 systems nearby (SAFE-T) and LTR systems (Floyd County's public safety net) as well as existing Motorola sites and a planned trunked APCO-25 system in Louisville proper soon.)
Owensboro is not unlike Lexington's situation in that it has KSP monitorable as well as SAFE-T (in Indiana) and a local EDACS public safety system. Paducah's present public safety system, much like that in Louisville, is in transition; they're using an LTR system for fire channels now but will be converting to Motorola system county-wide. On top of this, USEC in Paducah is EDACS standard. Bowling Green, much like Louisville, has a "double culture" of Motorola and LTR systems along with the KSP conventional APCO-25 system; the same goes for most of the LBL area.
b) Do you have interests beyond just public safety monitoring (security agencies, utilities, etc.)? (A *lot* of these are on EDACS through much of the state, and LTR is used heavily in Louisville for this.)
c) Are you going to be listening to systems potentially affected by rebanding?
Once you know what systems are in your area and what your primary listening interests cover, you can plan appropriately:
a) If you
only need APCO-25 and EDACS capability, you can probably go safely with a Pro-96; they're quite good and solid radios. If you are *primarily listening to KSP* you might even go for one of the older Uniden digital trunking radios.
b) If you
need LTR capability as well one of the Uniden quad-trackers (like the BCD996T) or (my personal preference) the GRE PSR-500 (or its "base brother" the GRE PSR-600) will work nicely. (I had a Pro-96 for years but recently upgraded to the PSR-500, in large part because I *like* GRE kit and in large part because there are a ton of LTR trunked systems here locally.)
c) If you are going to be listening to systems potentially affected by rebanding, your choices are essentially the newer Uniden quad-trackers, the Pro-96, and the GRE PSR-500 and PSR-600. (None of the other radios are capable of being properly redone to work with rebanding. The Pro-96 accepts custom trunking tables (which will be necessary when rebanding comes) with Don Starr's Win96 software; the newer Uniden and GRE kit are firmware upgradable and firmware upgrades will likely happen when rebanding finally occurs.)
One other consideration--are you in an area where there may be multiple KSP posts using the same frequency? (Unlikely, but possible.) If so, the GRE quad-trunkers (PSR-500 and PSR-600) *do* have the definite advantage that they decode NAC codes (the rough equivalent of PL/DPL codes for APCO-25 systems); I've found this quite useful in monitoring two posts of KSP here locally in Louisville (there are two separate Shepherdsville transmitters, one being for its actual KSP district, the other for the neighbouring district; fun with Jefferson and Bullitt Counties being right on the edge of a border area
).
The best scanner is the one which has the features you want and--as best as manufacturers today can provide--picks up what you want to in the price range you're willing to afford. (Sorry, Christian County--I don't know of anyone who does an MPT-1327 scanner. Yet. Perhaps GRE and/or Uniden will take interest if enough people ask.)
