The scanner should provide the dual purpose of serving as a base station, staying home most of the time, but also be able to take with me if I need to bug out. I would like the capability for it to work at whatever location I happen to be in. And I don't know if Sumter county will go digital/trunking next month or in 5 years. But I do bet they don't stay with older technology for long.
So, I guess my other criteria right after simplicity is flexiblity/adaptability: The ability to home in on whatever signals are in the area.
I was looking at Home Patrol on Amazon. What is that unit's best competition in terms of ease of use and flexiblity/adpatability?
I am going to my first basic ham licensing class tonight. While I want to be able to communicate with others particularly in an emergency situation, I don't want this to become a time consuming hobby. I want it to be a functional hobby that doesn't consume much time but which enables me to monitor what's going on if I need to. I'm assuming my best bet would be a separate scanner and a separate 2-meter transceiver eventually after I get my licnese.
The
Home Patrol would be one of the easiest to use, and is a digital scanner, capable of handling trunked systems. You simply enter your zip code, or city name, along with your listening preferences, and the scanner will load systems and frequencies in your area. It has the database from this site (RadioReference) loaded in the scanner itself, updated weekly. See the demo
here.
A similar 'easy to use' scanner would be GRE's
PSR-800. While the method of selecting your location is different than with the Home Patrol (it's menu driven, I believe; I don't have the PSR-800, but do have the Home Patrol), the end result is still getting the systems and frequencies in your area, drawn from the database stored in the scanner. (Both models use memory cars for this, with weekly updates.)
These two would be the easiest, digital capable, trunking scanners, if you're convinced your area will upgrade in the near future. Either would allow for coverage in neighboring areas, or areas you travel to, that had trunked systems. Both run on batteries. The Uniden HP-1 comes with rechargeable batteries, as well as ac & dc adapters. The PSR-800 does not come with batteries or an adapter (it charges from the USB port of the pc, or you can get a separate USB AC adapter (DC ones are available as well).
However, the simpler, non-trunking, scanners that have already been suggested would work in your county for now, at a lower cost, and would let you 'get your feet wet' in scanning, while you wait to see whether your county moves to a more sophisticated system in the next year or two. kg4ojj suggested that you also consider the used scanner market, which I agree is a consideration. (He also has the PSR-800.)