Thank you for the welcome and the links. I'm not sure that I could even receive San Antonio police from my location (about 30 miles north of SA). But would like to receive all the county transmissions as well as the highway patrol (DPS).
I suspect that you would be able to hear at least some, if not all, of the Bexar County traffic.. Looking at the map of sites for the San Antonio/Bexar County system, there are several sites in the northern part of Bexar County that you likely could receive.
Here's the
link for the map. On the map online, you can click on one of the balloon markers and get the site identification.
Kendall County is P25 Phase-II, Boerne PD & Fire operate
here. As long as the sites aren't simulcast (doesn't look like they are) then a 436hp or 325p2 should be fine to use
The LCRA
system that Kendall uses is P25 Phase II capable, but the vast majority of the talkgroups are currently using Phase I. That includes all of the listed Kendall County TGIDs.
However, at some point, they may upgrade to Phase II. In any event, if you travel at all with the scanner, odds are heavy that somewhere along the line you will encounter a Phase II system.
The database scanners, such as the x36HP series, are easy to use and program, because they have all of the system information on their memory card. That makes them also easier to use when traveling, since you can just use your location, either via an attached GPS, or by changing zip codes, and the scanner will then shift to whatever shows being used in the area. While a base/mobile does have some advantages over a handheld, such as better sound since the speaker is bigger, and has a larger case to resonate in, a handheld has the advantage of being smaller, and that you can just grab & go when using mobile. Also, the portable scanners, since they use batteries (which can be rechargeables) and would keep working when power was lost, like from storm damage. The 325P2 is a nice, small, handy size, and fits in a jacket pocket. However, since it only uses two batteries, run time on batteries is shorter than the 436HP. That would not be an issue using at home, since you could use an adapter to run the scanner instead of the batteries. Of course, you can also get an adapter to use in a vehicle as well.
