Earliest model with fire tone out feature?

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Marauder

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Recently I have been utilizing the fire tone out feature on my SDS200 and it works damn well. I put it on overnight or when I am busy and not monitoring so I get important traffic per tones (For example just 1st and 2nd alarm tones for my county) But that would basically make the sds200 an overpriced pager.

Id like to do the same thing but with a different scanner. I need another scanner anyways so in short; If anyone knows the earliest / cheapest model scanner that has the tone out feature on it I would appreciate it, thanks!
 

hiegtx

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Recently I have been utilizing the fire tone out feature on my SDS200 and it works damn well. I put it on overnight or when I am busy and not monitoring so I get important traffic per tones (For example just 1st and 2nd alarm tones for my county) But that would basically make the sds200 an overpriced pager.

Id like to do the same thing but with a different scanner. I need another scanner anyways so in short; If anyone knows the earliest / cheapest model scanner that has the tone out feature on it I would appreciate it, thanks!
The first Uniden scanner with the fire tone out feature was the BCD396T. The BCD996T and BCT15 also have that capability. As these are well out of date, you might be able to find a used scanner at a decent price.
 

N9JIG

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The cheapest scanner with Fire Tone Out available new now is the BCT15X, usually around $175-$190 new these days.

If you get a used BCD396T or BCT15 be sure that you have current firmware as the Fire Tone Out feature was much improved in later firmware versions. Firmware updates are available for these (BCT15: v1.06.00, BCD396T: v3.02.02).

The BCD396XT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT and BCD996P2 all work fine with Fire Tone Out with all versions of firmware but as always one is usually better off with the latest versions.
 

ko6jw_2

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The 396T only allows for 10 pairs. Not too useful. Mine works well. No tone search capabilities. As a former member of my local fire department I could easily find the tones. Just programed in key stations and didn't miss large calls. Each pair can have its own alert tone which is nice.

Tone dispatching is a dinosaur. Takes up too much air time for a large dispatch. Another local department uses computer dispatch. No tones on the air. Synthesized voice. They have their own mesh network for communications. In this area we have Pulse Point. I just leave the radio off and set up Pulse Point to alert me on selected types of emergencies. No chatter, no tones and I can ignore anything I'm not interested in.
 

Marauder

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