I’m brand new to this so please excuse my ignorance. I just took a position as a volunteer chaplain with my local sheriff’s office. Because I’m a volunteer, we have to pay for most of our gear. I’m looking for a handheld transceiver that will pick up vhf, uhf, and digital frequencies so I can also monitor the Palmetto 800 system here in South Carolina. I currently have a Baofeng uv82hp and I like that I can use CHIRP and radioreference.com to easily program. I would prefer a new HT that could do this too or something similar. Do y’all have any suggestions?
So, a couple of things here.
The FCC rules are quite clear, you cannot add radios to someone else's radio system without their approval. So if you want a transceiver to talk, you need to get written approval from the agency that holds the FCC license. There are no exemptions to this rule.
Unless you have a need to talk on the radio, you'd be better off with a scanner. It's going to be thousands of dollars cheaper.
The Palmetto system is trunked P25, and you will not be able to add a transceiver to that system without having it programmed/set up by a system administrator. There are various security things that will get in the way.
The radio you have may or may not have a valid type certification for transmitting on public safety radio systems. It may be illegal to use that radio to transmit anywhere but the amateur radio bands.
An agency that expects you to have a functional 2 way radio on their system needs to provide one for you, especially on something like the Palmetto system. It's not reasonable or realistic to expect volunteers to not only provide their own radios, but to get them programmed to work legally on that system.
Really, a scanner is a much better solution. As others have said, a radio that will do VHF, UHF, 700MHz, 800MHz, P25 and trunking is going to be several thousand dollars, even on the used market. Getting it programmed is a whole different challenge. Putting it on a P25 trunked system is another huge deal.
