buckyswider
Member
Hi, first off, apologies- I started in doing my own research, but the info I'm seeking is scattered and hard to track down, and my requirement are sort of uncommon.
A little background: I'm a vollie fire office in PA. Replaced my old Honda CR-V a couple years back with a Mercury Mariner Hybrid. My PRO-2096 fit perfectly in the dash of the CR-V, but the Mariner is jammed tight and there's absolutely nowhere to hide it. So now I'm looking to buy something new to plop in the Mariner. I'm mostly interested in P25 Phase II (Montco PA system) with the capability of doing simplex channels also. I think pretty much every scanner on the market today meets those criteria, so off to my specific requests:
1- Detachable / remote head- so I can stash the receiver under the seat and mount the faceplate somewhere (I still don't know where- the dash is that busy).
2- Usable button control. OK, I'm an old-head. I love the old format of pressing a button or two to enable/disable a bank. For instance, with the 2096 in scan mode, I press 1 to toggle bank 1. And the same with 0-9. I know nothing is that 'limited' these days, so maybe pushing 01 or 84 or whatever to enable or disable. I will be doing a lot of this control while driving, so simplicity is key. (If it WERE two number banks, I'd put all my frequent flyers in 00, 11, 22, etc. to make it as easy as possible).
3- Ability to turn on and off with the vehicle. I know some SD card based units get freaked out when external power is enabled/disabled and it scrambles the card. No good. I saw that current sale on the TRX-2, but then found the thread where the only way to turn on is to hold the power button for a couple seconds. It may sound like I'm lazy, but that's not something I'd always remember/have time to do when responding to an incident in the middle of the night.
I have in front of me on my desk a PRO-668 that I've had for a couple of years, and I can't stand the user interface. It takes me several minutes to get it right when I try to enable / disable things out of different playlists. So I definitely want to go back to a number pad style thing.
I'm good with programming- I don't need anything that automagically sets up lists based on zip codes or anything like that- I will set mine up specifically the way I want it. I'm an IT guy by day, so I should be able to figure out any programming interface (knock on wood!).
Thanks all. Again I apologize- but I figure the collective wisdom of the RR community would be better than me huntng and pecking for days on end.
A little background: I'm a vollie fire office in PA. Replaced my old Honda CR-V a couple years back with a Mercury Mariner Hybrid. My PRO-2096 fit perfectly in the dash of the CR-V, but the Mariner is jammed tight and there's absolutely nowhere to hide it. So now I'm looking to buy something new to plop in the Mariner. I'm mostly interested in P25 Phase II (Montco PA system) with the capability of doing simplex channels also. I think pretty much every scanner on the market today meets those criteria, so off to my specific requests:
1- Detachable / remote head- so I can stash the receiver under the seat and mount the faceplate somewhere (I still don't know where- the dash is that busy).
2- Usable button control. OK, I'm an old-head. I love the old format of pressing a button or two to enable/disable a bank. For instance, with the 2096 in scan mode, I press 1 to toggle bank 1. And the same with 0-9. I know nothing is that 'limited' these days, so maybe pushing 01 or 84 or whatever to enable or disable. I will be doing a lot of this control while driving, so simplicity is key. (If it WERE two number banks, I'd put all my frequent flyers in 00, 11, 22, etc. to make it as easy as possible).
3- Ability to turn on and off with the vehicle. I know some SD card based units get freaked out when external power is enabled/disabled and it scrambles the card. No good. I saw that current sale on the TRX-2, but then found the thread where the only way to turn on is to hold the power button for a couple seconds. It may sound like I'm lazy, but that's not something I'd always remember/have time to do when responding to an incident in the middle of the night.
I have in front of me on my desk a PRO-668 that I've had for a couple of years, and I can't stand the user interface. It takes me several minutes to get it right when I try to enable / disable things out of different playlists. So I definitely want to go back to a number pad style thing.
I'm good with programming- I don't need anything that automagically sets up lists based on zip codes or anything like that- I will set mine up specifically the way I want it. I'm an IT guy by day, so I should be able to figure out any programming interface (knock on wood!).
Thanks all. Again I apologize- but I figure the collective wisdom of the RR community would be better than me huntng and pecking for days on end.
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