Long time scanner user, been out of the hobby for a few years, but looking to get back into it and buying a good handheld and a desktop/mobile radio. Seems the playing field has changed quite a bit since I was involved last, reading though all the features is a daunting task to say the least, these radios have come QUITE a long way since the Uniden BCD996T, 396T, GRE-PSR 500 radio's I last owned.
Was in the Chandler Arizona area but have very recently relocated to the Lakeland/Polk County Fl area and with being new to the area I like the ability of just popping a zip code and getting the radio programmed for my location.
I'm looking at the new offerings by Whistler & Uniden and trying to find out the pluses and minuses from users experienced with these newer radios. I know which radio is "better" to someone nowadays is more preference that one actually being better than the other, but if there are are real performance differences, I would like to know that too.
I'm in a pretty rural area, about 10 miles north of downtown Lakeland, so a sensitive radio is not a bad thing, no outdoor antenna right now, but will look into that in the future, when in Chandler AZ I had a Discone in the attic (HOA Community) and passive distribution amp with traps for FM and a tunable one for the 152 paging range, ran that to my 4-5 scanners and a couple of UHF/VHF Motorola Spectra radios, killer setup where I could hear portable fireground comms clear from Phx at times, won't be as lucky to work a set up like that in the manufactured home community where I am now, but will eventually have some type of external antenna, even if something hidden in a PVC pipe
If it helps, I like to listen to anything and everything, if its there, I want to be able to listen, but my biggest target is the Federal and Public Safety stuff.
Thanks in advance for the help/insight/recommendations you can share!
Was in the Chandler Arizona area but have very recently relocated to the Lakeland/Polk County Fl area and with being new to the area I like the ability of just popping a zip code and getting the radio programmed for my location.
I'm looking at the new offerings by Whistler & Uniden and trying to find out the pluses and minuses from users experienced with these newer radios. I know which radio is "better" to someone nowadays is more preference that one actually being better than the other, but if there are are real performance differences, I would like to know that too.
I'm in a pretty rural area, about 10 miles north of downtown Lakeland, so a sensitive radio is not a bad thing, no outdoor antenna right now, but will look into that in the future, when in Chandler AZ I had a Discone in the attic (HOA Community) and passive distribution amp with traps for FM and a tunable one for the 152 paging range, ran that to my 4-5 scanners and a couple of UHF/VHF Motorola Spectra radios, killer setup where I could hear portable fireground comms clear from Phx at times, won't be as lucky to work a set up like that in the manufactured home community where I am now, but will eventually have some type of external antenna, even if something hidden in a PVC pipe
If it helps, I like to listen to anything and everything, if its there, I want to be able to listen, but my biggest target is the Federal and Public Safety stuff.
Thanks in advance for the help/insight/recommendations you can share!
