New Scanner "Shopping"

[RWyatt655]

I've had and been "listening" to scanner radios since I was a kid - my Dad had fire radios, then police radios, then multi-channel radios - he was a firefighter. I've owned my own scanners since I was 16, and that is decades ago. So I've been a long-time hobbyist.

My current radios are both the GRE PSR-500 and PSR-600; I really love the PSR-600 audio quality and reception. But all good things can't last forever - when I got them, I wanted P25 Phase I, even though only the state required here initially. Now that my county has changed over to a P25-Phase II encoding system about a year ago, I'd like a new scanner that can handle that.

My son has the Whistler 1080, a Uniden 325 (sorry if these are too abbreviated to know what they really are), and another Uniden portable that I don't recall. My biggest dislike of these radios is the audio - mentally, I can't "sync up" with what comes out of these radios. The speech seems to come too fast from the audio converters, almost like it's streaming compressed audio; I find it largely unintelligible.

I can't afford to buy all of the radios today that handle P25 Phase II on a "try and buy"; and I don't know whether the audio difficulty is from the system or the radios (likely the latter).

Can anyone offer advise on a P25 Phase II capable scanner that sounds great and performs somewhat well in reception? It also needs to be programmable - I'm not a fan of 100 objects or channels being "locked out" to avoid the stuff I have no interest in.

I know... no small order or task... but any input would be great!

 

[marksmith]

I'll recommend a Uniden HP-2. I have every phase 2 radio and I find that this is the only one that does not go robotic on digital decoding in my area. All the others do to one degree or another.

With Sentinal software you have the whole radio reference database to pull from onboard on SD card, and you can program specifically what you want to listen to in favorites lists.

Of all the Uniden radios it is the only one that has been out there for a year and a half now and has not required a single firmware upgrade to fix problems. The digital voice is almost as good as a PSR800, another i would recommend based on your comments, but no longer made.

In addition to being a very good digital decoding audio radio, the HP-2 has the best, most readable, and only color screen on the market.

It does not do quick keys, but aside from that, it does about everything else the top of the line radios do, including recording internally to an SD card.

It's the radio I would rate the best among the ones listed below.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

 

[bee]

I agree with the post above.

I have the uniden 436--536 and the HP2.

I like the HP2 much better.

 

[Blackswan73]

I will third that. I have currently, a 668, 536, and HP2. I have previously owned a 1080. Of all of them the HP2 has the best audio, and display. Also the front firing speaker is superior to the 536, and 668/1080. The only cons are minimal, lousy factory antenna, slightly less sensitive on conventional VHF, and a rubberized coating on the border that peels of after a short time. None of these cons would keep my from purchasing another one, or recommending it. On, by the way, when the coating starts to peel, just rub it for a while and it will all come off, leaving a nice shiny black border around the speaker and display. I like it better than the flat rubberized coating .

 

[RWyatt655]

I'll definitely have to look into the HP2...

I've had my son's Uniden BCD325P2 and Whistler WS1080 all day today. I can tell you that I prefer the audio of the WS1080; I like the boot time of the 325P2, and the 325P2 actually hangs onto the signal from the Camden County Public Safety band (P25 Phase 2); the WS1080 can;t hold onto it when connected to the same antenna; you can "watch" the screen as it tries to recapture the signal, and lose it again and again. I can put the 325P2 on a Diamond RH77CA antenna 2 feet away from the WS1080, and it pulls in the entire transmission... in my basement, no less. The WS1080 was connected to a roof antenna.

So I have a better understanding of my lack of being able to follow a conversation well; at least on P25 Phase2, the WS1080 can't hold onto the signal, and from the 325P2, it's the mediocre audio.

So I'll look into the HP2, which I presume is home/base/mobile but not hand-held (HH)...

If I go for both HH and base/mobile, what would you suggest for a hand-held?