Texvet said:
Hello -
Newbie here, looking for clairification. I am member of the Citizen's Police Acamemy and want to purchase a scanner to monitor the Pearland PD. I've gotten mixed info. regarding whether a digital scanner is needed or not. I looked up the frequencies and am not knowledgable enough to use that information to answer the question.
Any advise would helpful.
Thanks in advance,
Brad
Welcome to the site, Brad.
The question you're asking has been kicked around off and on for quite some time. As Pearland PD is on
STARNET, I'd presume that's the system that's giving you mixed information. Being in the DFW area, I'm obviously out of range. But from what I've been reading in past threads, there has been some teting of digital radios on the system. And the system description indicates it is at least capable of digital operation. However, I have not seen anyone post any comments about any of the current users switching to digital radios as yet. That obviously could change (and likely will) at some point. If, and when that starts to happen, and digital talk groups are identified and reported to this website, they are usally noted with a "D". Groups that are still analog are noted with an "A".
Note that the
Texas DPS is also converting their system to digital communications. It is on conventional, not trunked, frequencies, but headed for digital none the less. Also, many of the federal agencies, if not encrypted as well, are at least digital. Those are points to consider in weighing which scanner to buy.
If your sole interest, for now, is STARNET, in it's present form, a non-digital scanner would work
at this time based on what I've seen posted. Somebody from the Houston Metro area may well have a more complete perspective & could provide corrections to that opinion. If, after a few months, one or more agencies, or more specifically the one of main interest to you, Pearland, decides to switch to digital, then at that point you would have to buy an additional digital scanner, or trade up to one. Going non-digital now you will be forgoing TX DPS once your region converts to digital.
Hopefully, someone from the Houston area, with a little more info on any impending moves to digital, will comment as well.
Edit: I see rattlerbb01, who is in your area beat me to part of my answer while I was typing. And I'd definitely agree. Whatever scanner you look at, must be supported through
rebanding.