New to scanning, which P25 Phase II scanner to buy?

[NebraskaCoder]

Another vote for BCD436HP / BCD536HP. It misses some nice features from my old GRECOM PSR 800 but still a nice scanner.

 

[gonefishn1]

Absolutely! Go with the Uniden 536HP its the best of the 3 you mentioned and easiest to program by far!

 

[hiegtx]

K5DH here. Our local fire dispatch (Denton County, Texas) went P25 Phase II and I'm now forced to buy a new scanner. My three top choices (in order) are the Uniden 536HP (about $500-ish), Uniden 996P2 (about $365-ish), and the Whistler 1098 (about $510-ish). I don't consider myself to be a "scanner hobbyist". I want to listen to our local police/fire dispatches and some aviation stuff. Could I impose on those of you "in the know" to give me some gentle pushing in the right direction?

I don't have the WS1098, so cannot comment much on it other than what I've seen posted. Neither do I have the 996P2, though I do have it's portable brandmate, the 325P2. I do have the 536HP.

Any of the scanners you list should cover your system, Denton County, well. The one unknown factor is whether you may have any sort of simulcast issue at your location. I have not seen that many posts, good or bad, on simulcast issues for Denton. With it's narrower filter, the 536HP should be better than the others, but simulcast is so location specific, it's hard to make a definite projection of how any of these units would perform for you.

I would suggest that you go to this site, Digital Frequency Search, and do a search for DMR users, and NXDN users on the county. Select "by entity" for your search results display. DMR (MotoTRBO is what is being referenced) is being used by a number of agencies and businesses, including a number of schools (public schools as well as college, such as UNT). It's also used on the trunked system used for dispatching CareFlite, if that air evac service interests you. NXDN is used by some school districts, as well as businesses and the DCTA train that connects Denton to DART's light rail system. The rairoads are also migrating to NXDN.

The 996P2 does not have DMR capability. For the 536HP, it is available via a paid upgrade (currently $60, but may change). The WS1098 has a free upgrade available to add DMR coverage. For NXDN, Uniden does not have an available update, and has not announced their plans. Whistler has stated that for their TRX-2 model (it's basically the follow-on to the WS1098), NXDN will be made available via a free update, slated to be out by the end of the year if things go as projected. The TRX-2 also has a free update already for DMR coverage.

For more specific information on how the Denton P25 system is handled by various scanners, you might look through the Texas forum. In a quick search, I saw a couple of threads related to it:
http://forums.radioreference.com/te...332364-denton-county-switching-p25-today.html
and
http://forums.radioreference.com/texas-radio-discussion-forum/333915-denton-county-p25-ii.html

You may want to request that your thread be moved to the Texas forum, for more local visibility. To do that, click on the red triangle in the upper right corner of your original post (report thread) and use that to request the move. (Since this is a thread started by someone else, splitting it off into it's own thread would give you better visibility, plus eliminate a thread hijack.) You may also want to pose the question over on the DFWScan Yahoo group.

 

[Joseph11]

I have the Whistler TRX-2 and the RadioShack PRO-668 (which are of the same series of the WS1098). They're both great scanners and handle P25 Phase 2 excellently. Easy to program and great P25 decode, both Phase 1 and 2. As long as they're not encrypted and it's not a simulcast system, you should be good to go with a WS1098.

 

[hiegtx]

I have the Whistler TRX-2 and the RadioShack PRO-668 (which are of the same series of the WS1098). They're both great scanners and handle P25 Phase 2 excellently. Easy to program and great P25 decode, both Phase 1 and 2. As long as they're not encrypted and it's not a simulcast system, you should be good to go with a WS1098.

The Denton system in question is simulcast, but specific location within the coverage would have a great effect as to whether that is a problem or not,

 

[greggk]

Hi Everyone,

I just picked up a Radio Shack PRO-163 at a flea market and the scanning bug has bitten. I'm interested in buying a Phase II-capable scanner. The Home Patrol 2 seems like a good candidate. DMR doesn't interest me so the TRX-1/2 isn't on my list.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
Brian

The 536 for base/mobile and the 436 for hand held. They will do all you want and more, and you will be as happy as a pig in sh**. If you need support, I have always had great success with Uniden Tech Support, both here and on-line with them. I never had to call Tech Support and I own 5 of their radios. I do not believe that you will be sorry. Greg

 

[Gregg251]

Programming P25 Phase II

What software is commonly used to program the P25 Phase II scanners. I'm very happy with my WIN 96 software and the import feature from RR. Is something similar available (especially the export function) for the P25 Phase II scanners?

Thanks,

Gregg, N2UU{

 

[gonefishn1]

ProScan

ProScan software is what I use for my BCD536 and Proscan is very easy to use.

 

[N8IAA]

What software is commonly used to program the P25 Phase II scanners. I'm very happy with my WIN 96 software and the import feature from RR. Is something similar available (especially the export function) for the P25 Phase II scanners?

Thanks,

Gregg, N2UU{

It's a shame that you hijacked someone else's thread. That is frowned upon on these forums. Especially when it has nothing to do with the thread.
By clicking on the red and white triangle, you can ask a moderator to move your question.
Larry