Uniden BCD996T is a great scanner for a beginner.
You must have missed the part about not spending a lot of money:lol:
OK,
San Diego county has a lot of trunked systems, but I don't see much digital yet. As a portable, the BC246T is a good but relatively in expensive trunking analog scanner. The 996T is a mobile/base, but it's main feature is digital. All digital radios cost around $500!
I would look over all the systems in your county and then go on the CA forum to verify that there is not a lot of digital...especially since you want to keep the cost down. There are several other choices for trunking scanners, and all of them are very good. Take a look at this comparison chart to see which ones are available:
http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/Comparison/comparison.html
You can find some good prices on RS & Uniden on Ebay. Since you have communication experience, you probably know about
trunking systems. Since there are trunked systems, you might want to purchase software. Here is a list of software:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BC246T#Supporting_Software My favorite is ARC246 by BuTel. It allows a automatic download of any or all frequencies in your county and state from this site, and sets up trunking TGID's & para's(this is a big help). It is $40, but well worth it. It has a neat virtual control panel that works your scanner from the keyboard., but the best part is that it logs all the information(freq & PL) and lets you see your scanner window in a much larger scale that you can actually see clearly. The logging is great when searching, but it is also handy for normal scanning. Often, I do not look up in time to see what agency was just talking, so I just look at the log. See the the examples on their web site
http://www.butelsoftware.com/ You can download it on a free trial basis to see if you like it.
There are also free programs, such as
FreeSCAN and
BCtool, that do the same thing. Also, if you have a new PC or lap top, you will need a serial to USB converter from Uniden
http://tinyurl.com/2cqyu4 or Radio Shack:
http://tinyurl.com/2gpbsp . Another source is
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10311&cs_id=1031104&p_id=2276&seq=1&format=2, for quite a bit less. It is reported to work.
Note: You would need to become a
paid subscriber to this site to get the automatic down loads, but this is also very reasonable($7.5 for 3 months). This can save you countless hours of programming and frustration.
PS. It is not good Etiquette to jump in on someone else's question. In your case, it involves a completely different part of the country, and answers are going to get confusing. You should start a new thread next time, so answers can be directed specifically to you.