I am hoping to get a scanner for casual listening to public service agencies, such as police, fire, etc. I live in the Syracuse, NY area. I was looking at a BCD996P2 and a BCD536HP, and not sure what is needed for this. Furthermore, I think I require digital, and the price difference on those two is significant. Any recommendations on what will serve my needs? Are there other scanner options? Thanks for any tips.
New to Scanning and seeking advice
- Thread starter JustDavid
- Start date
Bob1955
Member
David- I would go with the Bearcat BCD996P2 and it has dropped to $399.95 from Police Scanner Outlet, formerly Bearcat Warehouse in Maryland. If you are new to this, I would have them program this scanner for your area for a fee. The digital/analog scanner is free shipping and no sales tax. Their number is 877-568-7226 and ask for Paul and tell them what state and county you want programed in. You can also see this model on YouTube from them.
I hope that I have helped you.
bearcatrp
Member
You should have the moderators move this to the NY forum for better responses. But if your in a heavy simulcast area, your best bet is to get the SDS200. Yes it costs a bit more than others but its the best for simulcast scanning. If your not in heavy simulcast area, the 996P2 will do you well. I have the 325P2 (handheld of the 996) which works ok in simulcast areas but does good out in the country. Good luck.
Almost all public safety in the Syracuse area is on the CNYICC system, which is P25 Phase II simulcast.
Depending on your location, you *might* be able to monitor the system with a BCD992P2 or BCD536HP. But neither scanner was designed to handle simulcast, and you may have little or no luck listening with either model.
Your best (but unfortunately expensive) bet is an SDS100 or SDS200. They were designed to handle simulcast and do quite well on the CNYICC system. (Yes, I live in Rochester, but I am in Syracuse quite frequently and have used both models to listen.)
As a possible alternative, the OP may consider a SDR (Software Defined Radio) solution by using one or two $34 SDR dongles attached to a computer with freely available software, such as SDRTrunk or others. This arrangement will work well with a simulcast system such as the one used in the Syracuse area and not break the bank.
My thanks to you all for the priceless advice, information that I knew would be here. Thank you, Fifteen years ago, I was able to use a BCb996XT briiefly, and I can now see the bar has been raised much. I will pursue your suggestions. Again, priceless info and I appreciate it.
There’s also the Unication Pagers such as the G5. Not true scanners but superb receivers.
The Unication Pagers are far superior to the SDS scanners that, while good for P25 Simulcast, have many know issues. If you are new to scanning, the Unication may not be for you with its limited band and mode coverage but you should research the SDS issues before you invest the money. If you are a first responder, or serious about monitoring a P25 trunked system, the Unication is the way to go.
I'm 50 miles away but I use a couple SDR dongles (Nooelec and Airspy mini) with SDRTrunk to listen to the CNYICC system. Onondaga in particular is very busy and comes in well. This setup works very well, and for less than $100 you'll be in business.
In certain cases, the 536HP can deal with simulcast issues when using a 4G yagi antenna aimed at the site to eliminate the others in the system. $25 on Amazon plus coax.
In some limited cases, yes. But in most cases multiple sites are still within the beamwidth of the Yagi or variable reflections from other sites off nearby structures are a factor even though the Yagi is aimed away from the site. It is like the old days of analog TV trying to aim the antenna to eliminate "ghosts" in the picture but this is worse because of signals from multiple transmitter sites vs just attempting to eliminate reflections.
I would suggest you "bite the bullet" and get the SDS 100 or 200. I had the 436HP in Monroe County and it did HORRIBLE with Simulcast. I would anticipate similar results with the 536HP. Yes, you "may" luck out with the 536, but my guess is that you will not. As CKnobb suggested, the SDR dongles are a cost effective alternative, however, as a newbie, you may need some help getting it all set up. I'm confident such assistance would be available her on RadioReference. Good luck with your decision!
SDR's are fine if you have the Computer Skills to set it up.
SDR's are fine if you only want to listen while sitting at your Computer.
Unication Pagers work fine if you are only interested in the Trunking System and not multiple different Conventional Systems.
You can try a less expensive Scanner but if it does not work in your area you are out your investment and will have to spend for the SDS100/200 or take a loss on your original Scanner.
SDR's are fine if you only want to listen while sitting at your Computer.
Unication Pagers work fine if you are only interested in the Trunking System and not multiple different Conventional Systems.
You can try a less expensive Scanner but if it does not work in your area you are out your investment and will have to spend for the SDS100/200 or take a loss on your original Scanner.
Or you'll be inundated with the "paper clip/Yagi" crowd who swears they don't miss "much" traffic on a non-simulcast scanner. Then you can spend more money on a Yagi, install it and hope you can get 80% of the radio traffic. Or even worse, you'll be back on the forums "wishing" you would have listened and taken the advice by not only experienced listeners, but also the local listeners telling you the area is filled with simulcast sites. Those making suggestions for the SDS series are spot on.
You as well as I know there are people that swear by the 996p2 for Simulcast because it works for them. What is never told is that user may be 1 mile from site 1 and 10 miles from site 2 and 3. Which makes site 2 and 3 weak enough to allow site 1 to override the other sites. The real life is LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.
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