Lot of questions?

[beater]

I am considering purchasing the pse-500 scanner. I had a older uniden 100 that quit working. The local police went digital, and i would guess that every will in near future. I really confused about about programing it or getting one that is programed? another thing that the older uniden would do is scan between freq and then i would put them in the scanner; can this still be done with the 500? I would like to use it when i travel just for information. Also does it get nation weather out of the box? Any other information appreciated. I live in South Eastern Wisc.

And please don't flame me if i posted in wrong form.

thanks to all who reply

beater

 

[tglendye]

The best thing to do is research it and make the decision- which you are doing. The best scanners on the market right now are the psr500 and the uniden bcd396t. It depends on who you ask as to what they like. Personally I love my 500 but I don't have any experience with the 396.

I'm not familiar w/ the Uniden 100, but there will be a big learning curve. A good idea would be to let us know what area you live in (city/ county) and what you want to listen to. That way someone can confirm that a digital scanner can receive the system you want. Not all digital systems can be scanned, unfortunately.

If you go w/ a digital scanner I would also purchase software to go along w/ it. It makes programming 100x easier. You can download the information (frequencies, talk groups, and alpha tags) directly to your software and into your scanner from radioreference's database (if you are a premium subscriber). Saves a lot of key strokes and time.

 

[LEH]

Beater,

I am not trying to be rough, but this is a question that has been asked a hundred times over and answered the same. I guess a goodly number of us are just getting tired of answering the same thing over and over. So this is not directed at you.

There was a thread on this just last week. Do a search (look for my login name as a help) and read up. There are links in at least one of the threads.

I have both and for the way I scan, I much prefer the 396 over the 500. That is going to be your bottom line. What do you need and how do you intend to scan.

 

[hoser147]

beater, Welcome to RR, the best thing to do is look in the Wiki, link at the top of the page, in yellow. http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Category:Digital_Scanners As suggested above there are a bunch of questions like yours. There is also a search engine that searches all the forums except the wasteland at the top of the page. The Software is worth every penny and a Premium Membership here at RR will make so you can download directly from the Database into your scanner and be able to keep it up to date with any future changes. Hope this helps best of luck. Hoser

 

[mrova]

4 easy steps:

1. Homework: Can't say enough and it's already been said. Read the forums on each of the digital scanners...for weeks...dig back to the previous posts, see the questions and issues with each. Go to your state forum and read what's happening in your locale.
2. Buy one.
3. Buy RR membership AND download the trial software packages for the scanner you're looking to get. In fact, you can do this ahead of time, before you actually buy your scanner, play with it, load frequencies and be ready so that within about 15 minutes of getting it, you'll be up and running.
4. Enjoy!

And, I just love my 500! I don't have any of the other ones to compare, and I'm sure I'd love them too.
sv