First Look: Uniden BCD996xt

[K5RYA]

For those that were asking, just got mine in from CEI, the invoice shows $465 for the scanner, and $35 for shipping. Total shipped price $499.

And FWIW, CEI could do a bit better job at protecting my $500 investment during shipping. My last order from ScannerMaster came in a box with plenty of packing peanuts to protect the scanner, the 996XT came in yesterday in a cardboard UPS mailer that barely fit the box of the scanner and had absolutley ZERO packing material.

I will likely eat the extra $13 to pay for shipping and go with ScannerMaster next time around.

 

[garys]

Seriously? I haven't even gotten around to programming or hooking up the new 996XTs I got last week, but that would be sweet if they are hotter receivers than the 996Ts.

It seems that way. The more I use the scanner, the more I'm impressed with the receiver sensitivity.

 

[GTO_04]

For those that were asking, just got mine in from CEI, the invoice shows $465 for the scanner, and $35 for shipping. Total shipped price $499.

And FWIW, CEI could do a bit better job at protecting my $500 investment during shipping. My last order from ScannerMaster came in a box with plenty of packing peanuts to protect the scanner, the 996XT came in yesterday in a cardboard UPS mailer that barely fit the box of the scanner and had absolutley ZERO packing material.

I will likely eat the extra $13 to pay for shipping and go with ScannerMaster next time around.

Wasn't the CEI price $489 a few weeks ago?

Scannermaster doesn't charge as much for shipping, so there may not even be that much price difference.
Plus they will ship to your work address.

GTO_04

 

[K5RYA]

Wasn't the CEI price $489 a few weeks ago?

Scannermaster doesn't charge as much for shipping, so there may not even be that much price difference.
Plus they will ship to your work address.

GTO_04

Yep. They are up to $499 shipped now at CEI. It was $499 shipped at CEI vs @ $415 shipped at ScannerMaster. I went with CEI just because I have never ordered from them until now and wanted to check them out. I think ScannerMaster has a much more professional better run business going on though.

 

[jnewell]

Amazon packs (well, doesn't) pack things that way. Drives me crazy. I have had several returns over the years as a result of breakage in shipping.

 

[kb9hgi]

I got my 996XT for 489.00 shipped from CEI

 

[sbirroscan]

Yeah but that bag was worth $35, so it must be "protective" LOL Ever want to send shippers a prepaid package with a note "here you go cheapskates, put my merchandise in it and send it to me" You know if you mailed the same item, in a larger box with bubblerap and popcorn it would run you, what like 10-15 bucks? That's where all their money comes from, like a concession stand at the movies. Gotta love it!!

For those that were asking, just got mine in from CEI, the invoice shows $465 for the scanner, and $35 for shipping. Total shipped price $499.

And FWIW, CEI could do a bit better job at protecting my $500 investment during shipping. My last order from ScannerMaster came in a box with plenty of packing peanuts to protect the scanner, the 996XT came in yesterday in a cardboard UPS mailer that barely fit the box of the scanner and had absolutley ZERO packing material.

I will likely eat the extra $13 to pay for shipping and go with ScannerMaster next time around.

 

[chgomonitor]

A Retraction and an Apology to Uniden Ref: VHF Blech

I had posted in this section a couple of weeks ago regarding some "findings" I had discovered regarding the 996XT and how it handles 7.5 KHz steps in the VHF land mobile band (150.800 - 162.000 MHz).

I'd like to retract that post and I've asked Radioreference to delete it. I discovered tonight that the error was my own programming error and has nothing to do with the 996XT radio, which is a very, very fine scanner.

I am making my apology to Uniden and Paul officially here and in other forums I've posted basically the same message. I am very, very sorry.

In a nutshell, here is the mistake I made. I created a programming file for the radio which basically consisted of about 700 VHF non-business frequencies. I generated the error(s) myself when I pasted the numeric data from various sources into the software. By translating the data through Microsoft Word its dreaded formatting features introduced an invisible null value (possibly end of line data) at the end of about one-third of the frequency entries. I compounded the error by not using the programming software to manually verify the frequency entries.

I did another test tonight after discovering the nature of my error and the 996XT took essentially all of the VHF frequency entries accurately. Perhaps of interest - the 996XT took even the 7.5 KHz offset channels even without changing the default band plan in this range from 5 to 7.5, the factory default worked just fine. Downright impressive. Fine job, Uniden. I'm a big dummy.

The only thing I'll add is a word of caution when pasting data into these programming software packages. Make sure you aren't introducing extraneous characters like spaces, underlines, line feeds, etc.

Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[UPMan]

Ted: Ashamed to say that while I've seen 2 references to your other post, I somehow missed the original one (and have been busy with APCO and a few other tasks that should become apparent in a month or so). Not sure how, as I see I posted right after yours, but I was doing a lot from my SmartPhone at that time, and it is easy to miss stuff on the small screen.

Since, from the oblique references I saw, it appeared to be a single report that no one else was verifying, it was somewhat backburnered to other urgent tasks. But, now I went back and found your other very detailed post and am very glad (in retrospect) that I did miss it. That would have been a huge time burner gone bad. I do appreciate the time you spent researching the original report, and very very much appreciate your post above.

 

[chgomonitor]

VHF Cool

Since, from the oblique references I saw, it appeared to be a single report that no one else was verifying, it was somewhat backburnered to other urgent tasks. But, now I went back and found your other very detailed post and am very glad (in retrospect) that I did miss it. That would have been a huge time burner gone bad. I do appreciate the time you spent researching the original report, and very very much appreciate your post above.

Thanks Paul for not being too hard on me - which I would richly deserve. Again, I am very sorry for the negative mis-information. Entirely my error. The 996XT has got to be the best radio Uniden has ever produced, along with the equally impressive 396XT hand held. Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[RoninJoliet]

I second that on the 396XT, what a neat scanner on the ILL-Starcom and i sure luv my Uniden 346XT for around town, it works perfect thanks to support from Mr.Upman....

 

[jnewell]

Thanks Paul for not being too hard on me - which I would richly deserve. Again, I am very sorry for the negative mis-information. Entirely my error. The 996XT has got to be the best radio Uniden has ever produced, along with the equally impressive 396XT hand held. Happy Scanning! - Ted

I wanted to thank you for your time on the original posts, but I also really want to thank you for having the brass to come back and correct an error. Thumbs up.

 

[trickner]

A guys i own of thease scanners. sweet radio if you want to hear it.its live on live scanners monroe county new york.pop in and and listen in.rochester police dept,monroe county sheriff,and fire.and a few more. leave a post for me.thanks.
tricks

 

[trickner]

re on the bdc996xt, the keypad backlight changes the color you want then to white.

 

[Soundman]

Help with my BCD996xt Priority Scan

Priority Scan .Could someone help me .I just got my BCD996xt .I have been programing it slow .But anyways .How do I get the pri to work .When I hit it I get Priority Scan NO Channels .So what am I missing . I am using trunking .Most of the time on my other scanners I hit pri and it works fine .But I gess it harder than that with this scanner . Could someone help me out .Thanks
Chris

 

[K5RYA]

Priority Scan .Could someone help me .I just got my BCD996xt .I have been programing it slow .But anyways .How do I get the pri to work .When I hit it I get Priority Scan NO Channels .So what am I missing . I am using trunking .Most of the time on my other scanners I hit pri and it works fine .But I gess it harder than that with this scanner . Could someone help me out .Thanks
Chris

You must either set the channel (conventional) or the talkgroup (trunking) to priority. It will be in the settings for that particular channel.

If your programming by hand I suggest using FreeScan and the programming cable instead as it is much easier, especially with trunking systems.

Also keep in mind, trunking priority may not work the way you want it to, AFAIK the XT series performs pre-emptive priority, which means that priority is only designated when the scanner is on the control channel, once it switches over to a voice channel the only way it will go to a priority talkgroup is if the system administrator has set the talkgroup to priority on the trunking system side (you cannot control this) in which case the priority signal is sent via subaudible tones on the voice channels, which when received will switch to the voice channel of the priority talkgroup (if you have that talkgroup in your scan list and set it to priority)

 

[UPMan]

The PRI button is only to activate conventional priority. Trunking priority is set in each system.

Pre-emptive priority means that the scanner will apply priority even when it is not on the control channel. Otherwise, pyro's explanation is dead-on.

 

[Drewstang]

I was able to find a new unit on ebay for $449 and $8 shipping. Let me see if I can find the name of the seller.

 

[chgomonitor]

FM Modes

I'm fascinated with all these (the new) FM modes on the 996XT. I'm wondering if any numerical figures are available as to their actual bandwidths in kilohertz?

FM
NFM
FMW
FMB

Are there actually 4 different, real FM filters in the radio?

Pretty cool stuff, but having some numbers available would go a long ways to putting them to more effective monitoring use.

Thanks in advance. Happy Scanning! - Ted

 

[chgomonitor]

Service Manual?

High on my wish list is the return to availability of Service Manuals. Break out ye olde screwdriver and soldering iron, test gear and probes. What wonderful fun. Remember when you could actually somehow obtain a service manual for your radio? User manual, of course, but a service manual... sure would be nice!

Happy Scanning! - Ted