mckeeb
Member
Got my BCD396XT today! Manually ID searching a few sites on Indiana Project Hoosier Safe-T for now. Need access to windows to load up the rest! So far so good...
First BCD396XT Has arrived, first look and discussion!
- Thread starter DaveIN
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That's a bummer. Hope it gets to you before the weekend.
I have had it with DHL one time. I called them and they even managed to get it re routed with another driver that evening to where I worked at. Not know how much it was messed up but call UPS and se what you can do.
Macomb Co Simulcast System ??
Glad to hear such nice things so far. May be a little pre-mature, but has anyone used it to monitor the Macomb Co Simulcast P25 system ? I heard it does well on the MPSCS, but I've had trouble getting more than 30%-40% on the Simulcast sub-system.
Glad to hear such nice things so far. May be a little pre-mature, but has anyone used it to monitor the Macomb Co Simulcast P25 system ? I heard it does well on the MPSCS, but I've had trouble getting more than 30%-40% on the Simulcast sub-system.
daveharpe
Member
Just received my 396XT
Scanner Master - ordered over the weekend, received on Tuesday.
Initial impressions (coming from a 330T and 396T):
- Audio quality through the speaker is greatly improved. More low end, everything just sounds better.
- Controls are tighter.. Top knob has a pop to it, clicks loudly when dialed. I don't remember my other radios being this stiff. Not a problem really, just different.
- Colored backlight is cute, but low contrast on many of the colors makes the display hard to read
- FreeSCAN works okay with it, although I do get timeouts from time to time
- APCO25 systems sound great.
It's a really nice radio. Like all from this series, the big challenge is figuring out how you want to program it up...
Scanner Master - ordered over the weekend, received on Tuesday.
Initial impressions (coming from a 330T and 396T):
- Audio quality through the speaker is greatly improved. More low end, everything just sounds better.
- Controls are tighter.. Top knob has a pop to it, clicks loudly when dialed. I don't remember my other radios being this stiff. Not a problem really, just different.
- Colored backlight is cute, but low contrast on many of the colors makes the display hard to read
- FreeSCAN works okay with it, although I do get timeouts from time to time
- APCO25 systems sound great.
It's a really nice radio. Like all from this series, the big challenge is figuring out how you want to program it up...
K5RYA
Member
Luckily the UPS guy was less than a mile a way and got it to me yesterday evening. Now I have my 346 and it is awesome!
Arg, this is so frusterating. I come on here, read these threads and get the urge to buy one (a difficult urge to ignore by the way) - then I walk away from my computer, financial reality sets in...
Then I come back online the next day and the urge comes back. It's a vicious cycle.
Then I come back online the next day and the urge comes back. It's a vicious cycle.
N9WP
Member
2 days with the new 396xt and I'm in love! Here is my fist impressions and a "mini" review of the XT.
The improvements I've noticed over the 396t classic are thse:
Volume: At lower settings, it doesn't really have that raspy, muffled, hissy, muddy sound that the 396t had. Seems to go a little louder then the 396t did. There isn't a difference in sound using headphone so the improvements made to the speaker and or 396xt case worked!
Receive: Improved slightly, I seem to be getting better receive on both analog vhf and 800mhz trunk systems. I've noticed a slight decrease in intermod (I live like 200 yards away from a paging tower.
P25 decoding: Sound is much SMOOTHER, absolutely no motorboating (because of the ability to choose the audiotype (analog or digital) on talkgroups), slightly less underwater sound, better error rates and error correcting, less drop outs.
Display: I like the multi color, I like being able to see the talkgroup ID in display mode 2, Brightness levels are nice, especially at night. The dimmest setting is difficult to see in a lit room but in a dark room next to the bed, that setting works great.
Storage: More talkgroups per system, a huge plus for me!
There are a ton of other bonus's this radio is packed with that I haven't tried yet like the band scope, nac, color flashing alerts, gps, fire tone out, multi site, ability to turn AGP on or off per system, individual channel and talkgroup volume adjustment, etc...
The negatives: I think the manual is much improved but it would be nice if a "cheat sheet" or something like that was included in the box, especially for new people in the scanning hobby, I've programmed so many scanners for folks that don't even use a computer. My other negative is that the Uniden UASD programming software isn't released yet but many thanks go out to FreeScan!!! Your the man for getting that job done!!!! With out FreeScan, I wouldn't have purchased the XT yet.
Also a shout out and thank you to Upman for his and the Uniden teams dedecation that was put into this scanner.
The systems I've been testing and compairing the 2 scanners to have been several Indiana SAFE-T systems and the Indianapolis MECA system.
I still love the 396t classic and it would make a great first scanner for someone, a backup scanner, or for those on a budget...
The improvements I've noticed over the 396t classic are thse:
Volume: At lower settings, it doesn't really have that raspy, muffled, hissy, muddy sound that the 396t had. Seems to go a little louder then the 396t did. There isn't a difference in sound using headphone so the improvements made to the speaker and or 396xt case worked!
Receive: Improved slightly, I seem to be getting better receive on both analog vhf and 800mhz trunk systems. I've noticed a slight decrease in intermod (I live like 200 yards away from a paging tower.
P25 decoding: Sound is much SMOOTHER, absolutely no motorboating (because of the ability to choose the audiotype (analog or digital) on talkgroups), slightly less underwater sound, better error rates and error correcting, less drop outs.
Display: I like the multi color, I like being able to see the talkgroup ID in display mode 2, Brightness levels are nice, especially at night. The dimmest setting is difficult to see in a lit room but in a dark room next to the bed, that setting works great.
Storage: More talkgroups per system, a huge plus for me!
There are a ton of other bonus's this radio is packed with that I haven't tried yet like the band scope, nac, color flashing alerts, gps, fire tone out, multi site, ability to turn AGP on or off per system, individual channel and talkgroup volume adjustment, etc...
The negatives: I think the manual is much improved but it would be nice if a "cheat sheet" or something like that was included in the box, especially for new people in the scanning hobby, I've programmed so many scanners for folks that don't even use a computer. My other negative is that the Uniden UASD programming software isn't released yet but many thanks go out to FreeScan!!! Your the man for getting that job done!!!! With out FreeScan, I wouldn't have purchased the XT yet.
Also a shout out and thank you to Upman for his and the Uniden teams dedecation that was put into this scanner.
The systems I've been testing and compairing the 2 scanners to have been several Indiana SAFE-T systems and the Indianapolis MECA system.
I still love the 396t classic and it would make a great first scanner for someone, a backup scanner, or for those on a budget...
Interesting about your reception and intermod comments. Glad to see you had a noted improvement. What antenna are you using?
So when monitoring ID Scan with the audiotype set to digital on your SAFE-T talkgroups you hear no "motorboating" at all? How about ID Search without the audiotype settings? How about the MECA system is it the same?
Based on input from another thread, we've started collecting some ideas for what should be on the cheat sheet. If you have suggestions, feel free to contribute:
QuickReferenceInput < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
So far I'm also impressed.
I'm a moderate-expert on scanning and digital systems are still a challenge for me.
However, it's clear that the digital system performance is better on the xt than my 996s.
I was surprised to see that the antenna was not a bnc (however, there was an adapter provided). I don't know if that was new to this scanner or a feature of the "T", but why was that done? Would I see a drop in peformance using the adapter and another antenna?
Lastly, I didn't have a "t" but this thing is so small and easy to carry... wow, i'm just blown away with it.
Lastly, when will the BCD996XT be released?
I'm a moderate-expert on scanning and digital systems are still a challenge for me.
However, it's clear that the digital system performance is better on the xt than my 996s.
I was surprised to see that the antenna was not a bnc (however, there was an adapter provided). I don't know if that was new to this scanner or a feature of the "T", but why was that done? Would I see a drop in peformance using the adapter and another antenna?
Lastly, I didn't have a "t" but this thing is so small and easy to carry... wow, i'm just blown away with it.
Lastly, when will the BCD996XT be released?
Same antenna connection as the "T". There is no detectable loss using the adapter (someone actually put up some data from a service monitor a year or so ago...most bands were below the threshold of the monitors variability).
Sorry, but I can only process one Lastly per email.
Sorry, but I can only process one Lastly per email.
N9WP
Member
I'm using the Radio Shack 800mhz antenna. I do have a slight increase in reception over the classic. I can't go by the s-meter but the XT shows about 1 S-meter unit stronger signal then what my 396t shows with the same antenna in the same spot. A system that was weak, the 396t had a hard time decoding (drop outs, break up), the 396xt decodes it much better. VHF on the 396t with a weak signal would be hard to understand but the 396xt slightly brings that signal above the noise to where you can understand what is said.
I hear no "motorboating" at all on the mixed Indiana SAFET-T systems whether I'm in search or scan but it is probably because I have the audiotype set to digital for the digital talkgroups and analog for the analog ones. I have not tried it if I don't have those set because all my talkgroups are defined as digital or analog. Just like I do with my 996. If I come across a new talkgroup, I quickly save it and assign the digital or analog setting to it.
Indy's MECA is a P25 system already so no need to set those to digital talkgroups.
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N9WP
Member
Yep, I saw that and thanks for starting that! Will this cheat sheet be placed in with future 396xt's? It's great on line for us computer users and I really only use the manuals online for all my scanners, but I'm thinking of the users that don't use a computer.
No plans to print it at this time. But I do plan to make a nicely printable PDF once it "matures."
Any digital "dropout" (digital sound) noted on MECA other than what the actual system users may report over the air?
N9WP
Member
Indy's MECA sounds "smoother" on the 396xt and there seems to be a little less digital break up or "dropouts"). The digital break up is less annoying and not as noticible then it is on the 396t I don't know how it would be if I was inside Marion county with the scanner located between the simulcast towers of the MECA system. I'm about 15-20 miles NW of Indy and I can only receive MECA with the RS 800mhz duckie on my scanner pretty much in one spot (which happens to be on the end table next to my couch) or if I use my Wilson 800mhz Yagi (which I haven't tried on the XT yet).
Last night I did hear a garbled transmission but dispatch came back and told them to repeat. My hopes for an improvement almost went south until I heard dispatch come back to them...LOL
I haven't done a compairison of my 996t vs the 396xt yet but my 996t is online, link is in my sig.
scannersnstuff
Active Member
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- Mar 31, 2006
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o.k. i have an observation.i think i already know the answer.in fire tone out search i came up with 2 slightly different tone set's on 2 page's on the same ems squad's call's.is it because it's not an excact calibration ?.
There could be some variability. If the frequencies are close, then either set will work. If you want to be precise to match the "reeds" you can go to the Fire Tone Out topic in the RR wiki and match up the detected tones to the closest standard tones.
K5RYA
Member
I found something interesting when comparing my XT and my 996T. When in tone-out standby mode my 996T scans through my programmed tone outs. On the XT it stays on one programmed tone out and does not search multiple.
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