PL Tone & No Squelch or No PL & Low Squelch

[RedPenguin]

One of local frequencies in my area, has a PL tone.

Now I noticed that I can monitor them on my scanners, either with telling the scanner the PL tone and having no squelch or giving it no PL and leaving the squelch only high enough to where you don't get 24 hour static.

My question is, for monitoring and recording to a computer, which option probably would be better, or would they both end up yielding probably the same result?

 

[SWCOScanner]

I personally always use PL tones if possible. It prunes out unwanted noise and interference, usually giving you only the traffic you're looking for. The primary disadvantage with PL comes in fringe reception areas, where the reception is patchy and the PL tone sometimes doesn't come through, resulting in not hearing the conversation at all due to the lack of a PL tone.

If you're in a good reception area, I would definitely say to use the PL option.