Scanner vs a programmed handheld

[aguyindallas]

First of all, I might just be out of my mind and this may be a totally stupid question.

Currently, I have a Pro-97 and it does a great job for me. I have it programmed for several towns and change my monitoriing based on where I am. Like I said, it works pretty darn good for me.

Now, the county I live in (Denton County, TX) is what I really like to listen to the most. I listen to 90% of the PD's, the SO, and most of the FD's.

Although my Pro-97 does a pretty good job, I am wondering (if even possible) it would be better quality listening to get a handheld like whatever it is they are using and have their freq's and systems programmed into it. Not sure IF I could even get all of the PD's, SO and FD's to work on it or if multiples would be needed.

I know I would need to have the PTT disabled which is fine by me. I just want to listen.

My reasoning for this is that I work about 30 miles from home and I am wondering if this would give me better quality reception or not?

Make sense? See my logic here?

 

[Colin9690]

You're much better off just buying an external antenna for your scanner. Buying a handheld radio, if you are not familiar with them, will give you quite a bit of trouble. If police see it, they will ask a bunch of questions. If you are monitoring a trunked system, the system admins can disable it remotely, etc. Also, many have very limited memory, and talkgroup memory. Most of all, it costs alot of money.

So, save yourself all the trouble and just buy a good external antenna, and that should improve reception dramatically.

 

[aguyindallas]

Thanks for the reply.

My question was also answered off the site by a fellow user and friend. He said most of the same thing.

The ONLY reason I dont use a car mounted antenna is that I get a new car every 5800 miles. I work for an Acura dealer and they wont like me mounting antennas on their demo's, lol.

 

[16b]

(edit: my reply crossed in the mail with the previous one, so my comments were unneeded)

 

[scanfan03]

Thanks for the reply.

My question was also answered off the site by a fellow user and friend. He said most of the same thing.

The ONLY reason I dont use a car mounted antenna is that I get a new car every 5800 miles. I work for an Acura dealer and they wont like me mounting antennas on their demo's, lol.

Use a magnetic mount antenna.

 

[tiawah466]

be careful of the paint on the car with the magnetic mount. I just got a trunk lip mount for my car and it works very well with no damage to the car.

 

[jparks29]

if it's 800, go with an on-glass antenna.

 

[kf4lne]

Hmmm... over a thousand dollars for custom programmed commercial radio gear or a couple hundred for a good scanner and antenna....hmmm....