Over the past few days I have been doing some head to head testing of the Uniden UBC93XLT and the DTS-96 in various locations over a group of the most common frequencies I listen to (see below)
70.3250 T&C TAXI 70.325
72.0250 CORDWELL 72.025
77.6500 TECS 77.65
78.2875 LCC 78.2875
78.3125 LCC 78.3125
78.4750 T2/T17 78.475
78.6250 AMBO MTBARROW 78.625
79.0000 WORKS 79.000
79.0375 TFS LTON 79.0375
79.0625 AMBO WESTLTON 79.0625
79.4750 T14 79.475
118.7000 LTON TWR 118.7
123.8000 ATC-NORTH 123.8
126.5000 ATC-LTON 126.5
147.0000 VK7RAA 147.0
158.0000 TASRAIL RX 158
159.6400 REDLINE 159.64
162.0875 TAXICOM 162.0875
162.3750 TASRAIL 162.375
162.6125 TASRAIL 162.6125
163.0875 CENTRALCABS 163.0875
163.8625 ELGIN 163.8625
163.9125 ELGIN 163.9125
419.7000 TAS AIRPORT 419.7
438.5500 VK7RAB 438.55
463.5250 METRO 463.525
464.4250 RACT 464.425
467.1750 TECS 467.175
467.4750 CASINO 467.475
473.5000 TASRAIL 473.5
474.7000 REDLINE 474.7
474.7750 UNI 474.775
476.4250 UHF 01
476.4500 UHF 02
477.4000 UHF 40
492.6000 LC STAFF 492.6
I have also ran a search of the following bands in each location with each radio to look for any frequencies where the radio locks up due to broadcast band / pager overload or other issues like that.
70-80MHz (VHF Mid), 118-137MHz (Air band), 156 – 174MHz (VHF High), 462 – 512MHz (UHF) 865-870MHz (EDACS)
For these test’s both scanners were using their standard aerials, running off fully charged batteries with the squelch set to just past the noise threshold.
Location 1: My house.
I live about 5 km as the crow flies from the center of the CBD on a small hill and my location I can see the CBD and a number of radio towers.
The first test here where I had both scanners programmed the same and scanning the above frequencies while sitting on my desk, I noticed from this test that the DTS-96 has slightly better audio and a stronger signal on the Air band and VHF high band where as the UBC93XLT seemed to lock on to signals in the UHF band better, both units were about the same on the VHF mid band with the UBC93XLT having a slight problem on 72.025MHz with what sounds like FM broadcast band audio.
Running the search test here on both radios showed a few problem frequencies in the low VHF band around 71-74MHz and a few more around 170Mhz and again at around 462 – 464Mhz. I was able to hear 4 EDACS control channels (West Launceston, Mt Arthur, Mt Barrow and Frankford) from here on both radios with the DTS-96 hearing them just a tiny bit better.
Location 2: My office at work.
I work in the center of the CBD so this test was quite harsh as I have a few different transmission sources close by and a number of computers running as well.
The scan test produced much the same results as what I did at home with the main difference being that the DTS-96 has some issues with locking up on the three UHF CB frequencies but the UBC93XLT was fine on these. I also noticed the DTS-96 locking up on 438.5500Mhz badly.
The search test produced much the same results on both radios with the DTS-96 locking up on a few more frequencies in the UHF band and the UBC93XLT having issues around 72.100MHz. From here I could get 2 EDACS control channels on each radio, West Launceston and Mt Barrow on the DTS-96 and West Launceston and Mt Arthur on the UBC93XLT.
Location 3: Freeland’s lookout Trevallyn.
Every radio I have tested here has had issues of some sort due to the fact it sits between 4 broadcast sites and has a direct view in to the CBD, so I was interested to see how badly these radios would play up.
The scan test showed a number of issues with both radios on the low VHF frequencies around the UHF frequencies, the DTS-96 seemed to suffer slightly worse in the UHF band where as the UBC93XLT seemed to have more issues in the low VHF band, the audio was much the same on both with the DTS-96 sounding better on the VHF air band.
Running the search ranges showed quite a number of problem frequencies on both radios across the bands, both radios were much the same on VHF Mid, air band and VHF high but on UHF both really dropped it with the DTS-96 having some real problems between 462 – 478MHz on a large number of frequencies where as the UBC93XLT still had issues but not as badly or on as many frequencies.
The EDACS search got 7 control channels on each radio but the DTS-96 locked up badly on 868.225Mhz.
Overall:
Both radios preformed fairly well and each had good / bad points, overall the DTS-96 has the advantage of CTCSS tone decode and this would help with a lot of these problems when scanning where as the UBC93XLT lacks this feature.
The DTS-96 is good as a scanning radio where as the UBC93XLT works better in a searching role.
Paul
70.3250 T&C TAXI 70.325
72.0250 CORDWELL 72.025
77.6500 TECS 77.65
78.2875 LCC 78.2875
78.3125 LCC 78.3125
78.4750 T2/T17 78.475
78.6250 AMBO MTBARROW 78.625
79.0000 WORKS 79.000
79.0375 TFS LTON 79.0375
79.0625 AMBO WESTLTON 79.0625
79.4750 T14 79.475
118.7000 LTON TWR 118.7
123.8000 ATC-NORTH 123.8
126.5000 ATC-LTON 126.5
147.0000 VK7RAA 147.0
158.0000 TASRAIL RX 158
159.6400 REDLINE 159.64
162.0875 TAXICOM 162.0875
162.3750 TASRAIL 162.375
162.6125 TASRAIL 162.6125
163.0875 CENTRALCABS 163.0875
163.8625 ELGIN 163.8625
163.9125 ELGIN 163.9125
419.7000 TAS AIRPORT 419.7
438.5500 VK7RAB 438.55
463.5250 METRO 463.525
464.4250 RACT 464.425
467.1750 TECS 467.175
467.4750 CASINO 467.475
473.5000 TASRAIL 473.5
474.7000 REDLINE 474.7
474.7750 UNI 474.775
476.4250 UHF 01
476.4500 UHF 02
477.4000 UHF 40
492.6000 LC STAFF 492.6
I have also ran a search of the following bands in each location with each radio to look for any frequencies where the radio locks up due to broadcast band / pager overload or other issues like that.
70-80MHz (VHF Mid), 118-137MHz (Air band), 156 – 174MHz (VHF High), 462 – 512MHz (UHF) 865-870MHz (EDACS)
For these test’s both scanners were using their standard aerials, running off fully charged batteries with the squelch set to just past the noise threshold.
Location 1: My house.
I live about 5 km as the crow flies from the center of the CBD on a small hill and my location I can see the CBD and a number of radio towers.
The first test here where I had both scanners programmed the same and scanning the above frequencies while sitting on my desk, I noticed from this test that the DTS-96 has slightly better audio and a stronger signal on the Air band and VHF high band where as the UBC93XLT seemed to lock on to signals in the UHF band better, both units were about the same on the VHF mid band with the UBC93XLT having a slight problem on 72.025MHz with what sounds like FM broadcast band audio.
Running the search test here on both radios showed a few problem frequencies in the low VHF band around 71-74MHz and a few more around 170Mhz and again at around 462 – 464Mhz. I was able to hear 4 EDACS control channels (West Launceston, Mt Arthur, Mt Barrow and Frankford) from here on both radios with the DTS-96 hearing them just a tiny bit better.
Location 2: My office at work.
I work in the center of the CBD so this test was quite harsh as I have a few different transmission sources close by and a number of computers running as well.
The scan test produced much the same results as what I did at home with the main difference being that the DTS-96 has some issues with locking up on the three UHF CB frequencies but the UBC93XLT was fine on these. I also noticed the DTS-96 locking up on 438.5500Mhz badly.
The search test produced much the same results on both radios with the DTS-96 locking up on a few more frequencies in the UHF band and the UBC93XLT having issues around 72.100MHz. From here I could get 2 EDACS control channels on each radio, West Launceston and Mt Barrow on the DTS-96 and West Launceston and Mt Arthur on the UBC93XLT.
Location 3: Freeland’s lookout Trevallyn.
Every radio I have tested here has had issues of some sort due to the fact it sits between 4 broadcast sites and has a direct view in to the CBD, so I was interested to see how badly these radios would play up.
The scan test showed a number of issues with both radios on the low VHF frequencies around the UHF frequencies, the DTS-96 seemed to suffer slightly worse in the UHF band where as the UBC93XLT seemed to have more issues in the low VHF band, the audio was much the same on both with the DTS-96 sounding better on the VHF air band.
Running the search ranges showed quite a number of problem frequencies on both radios across the bands, both radios were much the same on VHF Mid, air band and VHF high but on UHF both really dropped it with the DTS-96 having some real problems between 462 – 478MHz on a large number of frequencies where as the UBC93XLT still had issues but not as badly or on as many frequencies.
The EDACS search got 7 control channels on each radio but the DTS-96 locked up badly on 868.225Mhz.
Overall:
Both radios preformed fairly well and each had good / bad points, overall the DTS-96 has the advantage of CTCSS tone decode and this would help with a lot of these problems when scanning where as the UBC93XLT lacks this feature.
The DTS-96 is good as a scanning radio where as the UBC93XLT works better in a searching role.
Paul
