Need advice, digital or analog

[rharrison]

Hi all,

Firstly thank you for reading this. I'm totally new to the game but have been doing allot of research. I have read the getting started wiki, and various other articles/posts.

My question, I am going to purchase a receiver. It will be used mainly in my vehicle. My area has gone digital:
Gainesville / Alachua County Trunking System, Gainesville, Florida - Scanner Frequencies (alachua county florida)

I like unidens beartracker warning system for the long drives to miami / atlanta, 8hrs+, but it is not offered in digital?

Is there a comparable feature im over looking? or is there a way to program to search the APCO-25 frequencies constantly?

What would be your recommendations/advice.

Thanks again for reading this, i appreciate any help given.

Rhys

 

[DPD1]

Yeah, I don't think any of the radios that do P25 will do that Beartracking feature. But that's OK. Honestly, it's one of those things that sounds great... but I doubt you would find it super useful in reality. Just go for the radio that will hear where you want, and then learn what highway patrol freqs would be most helpful. You're not going to really know exactly where they are no matter what, but you might be able to avoid major accidents and stuff like that, if they have a system wide alert channel, or if you just listen for problems.

 

[Rt169Radio]

Well all of these scanners are digital scanners so take a look at them:

https://www.scannermaster.com/Digital_Scanners_s/269.htm

 

[N8IAA]

Digital.
Larry

 

[rharrison]

Fantastic, thank you guys

 

[russellmaher]

Hello rharrison and welcome to RR. Lots of good information here and plenty of knowledgeable members to help answer your questions.

I would suggest digital rather than analog and if you want a top of the line unit, I would recommend the Uniden Home Patrol that you can view on the link that Rt169Radio gave you on his post above. It's going to be the easiest to use....turn it on and put in your zip code and it starts giving you a kinds of activity in your area. Read the details and you'll be impressed.

As for the BearTracker feature that some units have (I've got a BC7) don't be fooled that this is something special. It's not! I've gotten alarms when there isn't a trooper around for miles, and driven past several cruisers and the radio is a quiet as can be. If you need to know where the cops are, buy yourself a good radar detector, that's what they're designed for.

Oh, and while I'm at it....the HP-1 can be connected to a GPS and then the scanner will shift from one area to the next as you drive. Check it out!!

Hope this helps a little. Again, welcome aboard.

Russell