Major_Infidel
Member
As someone who utilizes on-line forums quite frequently searching out technical assistance for all manner of subjects and hobbies, I just wanted to start off by commending the RadioReference community for being one of the most friendly and helpful forums I've run across. I haven't been lurking here long, but I'm very impressed by the eagerness with which established members will offer advice and assistance to newbs like myself.
With that sincere appreciation expressed, I'm contemplating the purchase of my first scanner. My intended use is simply to be able to monitor as many of the police tactical and fire frequencies as are possible for my local agencies. Not surprisingly, I would like this first unit to be a handheld model. At present, I have been looking at the Uniden Bearcat BCD436HP and the Whistler WS1080.
I don't typically go in for the most sophisticated hardware right off the bat when entering into a new hobby, but based on the small amount of research I've done thus far on my own, I don't know if I'll have much of a choice in this instance. My situation is complicated by at least two primary factors that I'm aware. The first and foremost is that I live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles county. Needless to say, we're talking about myriad jurisdictions all right on top of one another, countless tactical frequencies, multiple bands, digital networks, trunked systems and many other complications of which I have some awareness, but very little real understanding. It all just seems to boil down to the fact that an entry level scanner isn't going to be able to access the most important transmissions in my area.
A second hindrance is that all my computers are Mac based and I'm far from being a computer programming genius. AFAIK, the programming software that comes with these models is Windows only and will therefor be largely useless to me. So the biggest question then becomes, is the loss in functionality that results from being unable to connect either of these scanners to my computers so great that it isn't even worth proceeding any further? I would imagine being able to do firmware, software and frequency database updates is rather important.
In my research, I have seen some posts and blog entries from recent years that outline various work arounds that try to make the software Mac compatible, but they've all seemed pretty sketchy with a lot of heavy disclaimers. Numerous reports of SD cards being corrupted and radios being bricked make me leery of attempting something like that as a novice.
Anyway, I'll just throw all that out there and gladly accept any advice or observations you kind folk might be willing to offer.
With that sincere appreciation expressed, I'm contemplating the purchase of my first scanner. My intended use is simply to be able to monitor as many of the police tactical and fire frequencies as are possible for my local agencies. Not surprisingly, I would like this first unit to be a handheld model. At present, I have been looking at the Uniden Bearcat BCD436HP and the Whistler WS1080.
I don't typically go in for the most sophisticated hardware right off the bat when entering into a new hobby, but based on the small amount of research I've done thus far on my own, I don't know if I'll have much of a choice in this instance. My situation is complicated by at least two primary factors that I'm aware. The first and foremost is that I live in the South Bay area of Los Angeles county. Needless to say, we're talking about myriad jurisdictions all right on top of one another, countless tactical frequencies, multiple bands, digital networks, trunked systems and many other complications of which I have some awareness, but very little real understanding. It all just seems to boil down to the fact that an entry level scanner isn't going to be able to access the most important transmissions in my area.
A second hindrance is that all my computers are Mac based and I'm far from being a computer programming genius. AFAIK, the programming software that comes with these models is Windows only and will therefor be largely useless to me. So the biggest question then becomes, is the loss in functionality that results from being unable to connect either of these scanners to my computers so great that it isn't even worth proceeding any further? I would imagine being able to do firmware, software and frequency database updates is rather important.
In my research, I have seen some posts and blog entries from recent years that outline various work arounds that try to make the software Mac compatible, but they've all seemed pretty sketchy with a lot of heavy disclaimers. Numerous reports of SD cards being corrupted and radios being bricked make me leery of attempting something like that as a novice.
Anyway, I'll just throw all that out there and gladly accept any advice or observations you kind folk might be willing to offer.
, it sounds like I won't likely go wrong with either the BCD436 or the WS1080. I hope I'm not treading into Ford vs Chevy, or 9mm vs .45 ACP territory here, but if there were one or two points of distinction between them that would be significant to a newb, I'd love to hear about it. 
