Need a scanner for mother

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Popcanman55

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Hello guys new to scanning. My father is a Sgt with the Detroit police and my mother wants a new scanner. We had one years and years ago but nothing for the last 15yrs. I need something reasonably priced and absoltely idiot proof easy to use. I now detroit uses the motorola xts5000 radios. Its easy to listen to that when he's home but other than that she wants a scanner. We have a radioshack pro89 scanner what a POS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

hiegtx

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Popcanman55 said:
Hello guys new to scanning. My father is a Sgt with the Detroit police and my mother wants a new scanner. We had one years and years ago but nothing for the last 15yrs. I need something reasonably priced and absoltely idiot proof easy to use. I now detroit uses the motorola xts5000 radios. Its easy to listen to that when he's home but other than that she wants a scanner. We have a radioshack pro89 scanner what a POS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Unfortunately, as far as "reasonably priced" goes, Detroit operates on the Project 25 MPSCS system. That means fully digital.

To monitor that, you'd need one of the newer digital scanners. The first digitals out, such as the BC250D or BC895D (with a digital card in them) would not work.

Check the for sale forums here, & also monitor Ebay for a palatable deal on one of the following:
Uniden: BCD396T or BC296D (handhelds); BCD996T or BC796D (base/mobile). The 296 & 796 are both discontinued, but still available from a few dealers, and as noted pop up on Ebay or the for-sale forum here occasiionally. Mew prices on the 396 & 996 start just over $500 from online retailers. Used, in good condition, especially on the older models, may save $100 or more.
Radio Shack: Pro-96 (hand held) or Pro-2096 (base/mobile). Current models. "New" list price, I believe, is $499.00, but the last few months, they have been on sale several times, at prices varying from $399 to $449. Not sure what the current price is (if there is a 'sale' on). These also show up in the for sale forum, & on Ebay discounted from their list prices.
 

nexus

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XTS5000 is a digital radio. So your choices are limited, and unfortunately costly.

PRO-96 for handheld, or PRO-2096 for the base/mobile

Uniden's BCD-396T for handheld or BCD-996 for base/mobile. There is also the BC-796D but that thing is out-dated and not worth the cost. If you want to save some money, find out when Radio Shack will have their digital scanners on sale again and catch it during a sale. Once you get the radio programmed it won't be a big deal to operate. Its programming them that you need a masters degree in. But once you got what you want to listen to on it, its basically, turn on, adjust volume and listen.
 

kb2vxa

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Hi Pop and all,

"I need something reasonably priced and absoltely idiot proof easy to use."

Sorry, thar jus' ain't no such animal. Detroit or any large metropolitan police department uses a system far more sophisticated than any lod POS scanner can handle so prepare to spend the bucks and spend some time carefully programming it.

As for idiot proof, put it in an armored steel enclosure with only an on-off switch exposed. As any experienced user knows just a tap of the wrong button and the whole thing goes haywire and guess who gets to figure out the mess each time mama gets her dainty little fingers at it.

If all else fails throw mama from the train and keep the scanner. (;->)

Pardon my cynicism but as a TV man once I got married to a customer's antenna rotor box. NEVER AGAIN! Unfortunately telling mama to go to hell involves more than losing a customer.
 

seamusg

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Popcanman55 said:
Hello guys new to scanning. My father is a Sgt with the Detroit police and my mother wants a new scanner. We had one years and years ago but nothing for the last 15yrs. I need something reasonably priced and absoltely idiot proof easy to use. I now detroit uses the motorola xts5000 radios. Its easy to listen to that when he's home but other than that she wants a scanner. We have a radioshack pro89 scanner what a POS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I would recomend the PRO96 or PRO2096, since the Uniden scanners still have audio trouble with the Detroit Simulcast. I would also recomend that you get Win96 and the programing cable for it, since the Detroit sub-system is large. Since it's a Project 25 Standard system, there are no low cost scanners for it. If it's just for home get the PRO2096. Does she live in the City?
 

red8

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you can go to www.uniden.com and click on the uniden store and find
a reconditioned scanner reasonably priced, the pro96 is a good scanner. I had one but I sold it to get my 396. The 796 is a good scanner also. I found it easy to program and it has the 9600 baud
digital card already installed which is far better than the 3600
baud digital card. The 9600 baud card means you will be able to hear
the transmisson on the same channel that is locked in on rather than
hearing it on one Detroit pd is a p25 digital system tied in to the MSPSC System.
 

seamusg

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red8 said:
you can go to www.uniden.com and click on the uniden store and find
a reconditioned scanner reasonably priced, the pro96 is a good scanner. I had one but I sold it to get my 396. The 796 is a good scanner also. I found it easy to program and it has the 9600 baud
digital card already installed which is far better than the 3600
baud digital card. The 9600 baud card means you will be able to hear
the transmisson on the same channel that is locked in on rather than
hearing it on one Detroit pd is a p25 digital system tied in to the MSPSC System.
Uniden scanners have a problem with simulcast (ie . Detroit), which GRE just fixed.
 
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