Out of scanning for two years and am now back. Did I "under" upgrade?

[carddude99]

About two years ago I got a 996t thinking I 'd use it for military scanning but never even opened the box. Sold it!! Noticed when I started getting interested again, that many were having difficulty with the complexity. So I figured out that my old 895xlt which I had sold maybe should be upgraded but not to the point of having to go to MIT to operate my scanner.. I found one for about 219 at Frys, the bc898t which is a step up. Now a couple of questions. Will King County be going apco 25 on me anytime soon for Police and what about the frequency conversion which I think this scanner has the capability to do. Did I under upgrade?

Thanks
Daniel

 

[Stavro35]

Do you need to upgrade?

Well that all depends.. Will the current scanner you own handle rebanding should it actually come to pass?

Are you just a casual monitor? Are you happy with having just one scanner?

Do you travel a lot? If so, are you going to want to take a scanner along with you?

Compared to where I used to live there is hardly any military air communications up here.

Tell us a little more about your monitoring habits .

 

[carddude99]

OK, thanks for the reply.

I am a bit more than a casual hobbyist as I have several hobbies and work and family. I live in Bellevue Washington. I also listen to SW through an icomr75 and I even do CBS!! After I sold my 895 thinking I could use an upgrade I bought this 996 t and never even opened the box. For one thing it seemed tiny and from what I read very complicated. So I gave it to a pal of mine to sell it and I bough an 898t thinking it was similar enough to what I had before but did have some of the better features. Is Apco 25 worth having up here? Do any of the King County Public Safety Trunking Systems plan on switching from Motorola type 2 and hybrid and with all the talk about rebanding, can the 898t handle the rebanding?

Thanks for the Help!

Daniel

 

[Stavro35]

scaning in Bellevue Washington.

I am not really familiar with Bellevue. If you're able to hear surrounding counties,such as Snohomish, Pierce, and Island counties with no problem.. I'm in a pretty good spot to hear most everything. Do you want to hear all that's around you, or just Bellevue?

A side note to this, there are some who live in Kitsap county that just monitor Kitsap county. There is a shop owner here on BBI who doesn't understand why I'd even bother with anything other than listening to BBI communications ..

Is having a P25 scanner worth it in this region? I say yes, others say no.I've heard ATF which is P25. The Puget sound naval shipyard,as boring as it is most of the time, can be monitored with a P25 scanner.

With the GRE/PSR 500 I'm more than ready for anything. I've also got a Radio shack Pro97 and Radio shack Pro96 the Pro96 is my travel scanner and "at home" secondary digital scanner. I also have talkgroups in it that I don't have in my Pro97 or PSR 500. I also have a Pro2052 and Pro2006.

Can the BC 898T handle rebanding? I don't know?! And hopefully none of us will have to figure out anything of that nature for years to come, if ever.

 

[kellykeeton]

the BC 898T will rebrand
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BC898T, we will have to figure out the nature of rebranding however if uniden honors the upgrade they say they will it will be very easy for us all. it will just make a lot of old useless equipment.

that radio will listen to every PD in the area, you can also pick up every system KC (im near 405 in south bellevue)

there isnt anything fun for P25 but if you do choose to buy a new scanner I will take your 898 off your hands

The systems do plan on switching in the next 2-5 years but dont bother trying to buy up for it till they decide on a system, they could still use opensky which nulls out everything today. Stick with your 898 you can do everything right now and at least for the next 2 years with it.

I have a few of the newer systems because i like the memory management more as well as an array of antennas for the area, I can pick up 100% of king as well as poor performance of thurston, and OK of snohomish county in south bellevue.

its a fun hobby to get back into, I personally have been stuck on HF lately and haven't turned on my scanners for a month or so, I turned them up last night and heard my neighbors call 911! haha