IC-R2500 newbie question

[steve2004]

I'm debating either for a IC-R2500 or a Uniden Digital scanner..

the IC-R2500 how can it do trunking, edacs, motorola II P-25 ?
what more will I gain from a pc-based scanner over an Uniden one?

Thanks.

 

[ka3jjz]

AFAIK the 2500 cannot do P25 trunking even though it has an option for P25 decoding - which is for conventional channels only.

You would need to get external software to do the rest of the trunking functions. With a dedicated scanner - Uniden or RS - that's not necessary, although a lot of folks use software (and if you get the right one, and are a premium subscriber, get the data directly from RR, or someone sends a prepared file) to do the programming.

Save your money and buy a quality HF portable or desktop, and invest in one of the digital trunktrackers, if your area uses that format. Otherwise, an analog trunktracker will do the job. These wideband receivers are nice, but oftentimes compromise performance in one area or the other (in this case, the HF section of the 2500 - it's not nearly as selective as it could be....) as a cost saving measure.

73s Mike

 

[KC1UA]

The infinite "wisdom" of Icom resulted in P25 not working "out of the box" with the R2500 above 780 MHz. The mod is easy and is located at this page of the Wiki. There is some software that will allow the R2500 (or PCR2500) to trunktrack, but it would be far from my first choice for a dedicated P25 trunking scanner. Mike is correct, the Uniden or Radio Shack (GRE) scanners are much better in this regard.

That said the 2500's are great receivers in the VHF/UHF/800 MHz range, despite their quirks. For most people, using it for primary trunktracking duties is probably not going to make them happy.

 

[steve2004]

UBCD996T then it is!

Thank you... for sheding some light here.
I will go the UBCD996T route then...
hope to find one that does not have the FCC block on it.
what should I look into the UBCD996T for a Canadian customer?
unless there is a mod for it.


thank you for your help.

AFAIK the 2500 cannot do P25 trunking even though it has an option for P25 decoding - which is for conventional channels only.

You would need to get external software to do the rest of the trunking functions. With a dedicated scanner - Uniden or RS - that's not necessary, although a lot of folks use software (and if you get the right one, and are a premium subscriber, get the data directly from RR, or someone sends a prepared file) to do the programming.

Save your money and buy a quality HF portable or desktop, and invest in one of the digital trunktrackers, if your area uses that format. Otherwise, an analog trunktracker will do the job. These wideband receivers are nice, but oftentimes compromise performance in one area or the other (in this case, the HF section of the 2500 - it's not nearly as selective as it could be....) as a cost saving measure.

73s Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

The FCC block for cellphones is a joke in any case; most cell stuff is outside the banned frequencies now, and analog cell is hardly viable anymore. Get a 996 with the US bandplan; you won't miss anything, for sure.

73s Mike