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Motorola Vs. Uniden 800 MHz Sensitivity

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JASII

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I haven't compared a Motoorla to a Uniden BCD396XT on 800 mHz for sensitvity, but I assume that the Motorola is much more sensitive on 800 mHz. Has anybody here done in real world tests to confirm my suspicions?
 

Skypilot007

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A real world test would be having both units setup on a work bench with a quality service monitor. Then a fair comparison could be made as long as the technician doing the testing knows what they are doing. I'm pretty sure the Motorola would beat the Uniden hands down from my user experience with both types of radios.

For a user without test equipment like that (most of us) I have run a motorola mcs2000 800MHz radio and a BC996XT off the same antenna thru a stridesburg multicoupler in a mobile application. The motorola can hear signals that the uniden cannot. The Uniden will sit there searching for the control channel and the Motorola is receiving just fine. My portables on 500MHz exhibit similar results, the Motorolas are superior without a dought and they should be. They are band specific, not a wideband hear all receiver like a scanner.
 

kayn1n32008

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That is comparing apples to oranges. The Moto is purpose built to work on 800Mhz, where the Uniden is a broad band reviever for receiving pretty much DC to daylight. It is like comparing a 9mm round to a 7.62mm round and asking which will be a better hunting round
 

jiminpgh

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The Uniden is far more versatile, so its a trade off.
You get lots of talkgroups and multibands at one time, vs raw performance.
My experience with the 396T is that is is rather deaf on UHF, and just OK on 800.
I'm sure the Moto is far more sensitive.
 

mmckenna

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Not a quantitative test, but real world:
My office is in a basement, 1/4 mile from my 800MHz trunked site. I have a Uniden 895 scanner sitting on a table in my office with the stock telescopic whip. Next to that is an Astro Spectra consollete with a 3db gain antenna mag mounted to the t-bar ceiling over head. Also there is an MTS2000 with the stock whip antenna.

Obviously the A/S and the MTS2k work better than the scanner, but I'm close enough that it doesn't make that much difference.

Reason:
Specific 800MHz antenna will outperform a telescopic whip. I could likely improve the scanner reception by using a dedicated 800MHz antenna, but I need to listen in on the two VHF systems also.
The front end of the scanner is REALLY wide, so it's not specifically tuned for the band. Also, the wide open front end picks up a lot of noise from all the other crap down in the office.

A radio specifically designed to operate on one band will outperform a wide band receiver in most cases.
Also, an antenna specifically tuned to resonate on a specific frequency will outperform a wide band antenna, again, in most cases.
 
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