Should I purchase a bc396xt?

[PAscannernut]

I live in southeast PA Montgomery County. I am looking to purchase a BC396XT and do not mind spending the money on it, but I am worried about the possibility of the Opensky project that PA may continue to rollout. I know PSP and others already use it in some areas, but I don't want to see my scanner get quiet in a year or 2 if opensky takes over. I just cannot find anything saying what PA's path moving forward is.
Does anyone have any further knowledge on this?

 

[ocguard]

State Police will eventually fully transition to OpenSky, so if PSP is your main target to monitor, you're out of luck. However, most of the counties in your area are using Motorola Smartnet and P25 radio systems, all of which can be monitored with the BC396XT (or any digital-ready scanner). This includes Montgomery County, Bucks County, and Philadelphia.

While there will likely be newer scanners released, the 396XT will not be antiquated anytime soon.

 

[ocguard]

It is not likely that your county and local agencies will chose OpenSky, based on the many problems with the statewide OpenSky system and the total failure of Lancaster County's OpenSky system.

 

[paramedszaf]

I couldn't have said it any better myself. In my opinion the OpenScam failure in Lancaster Co. was the nail in the casket for the system being rolled out for statewide interop. The 396 is a nice piece of equipment that will give you years of enjoyable use.

If you plan on using it in the vehicle invest in a GOOD antenna and a DC plug to save your battery. And since you are investing the money use RR to program the thing unless you have a doctorate from MIT...

Good luck!

 

[PAscannernut]

Thanks for the good advice! I just ordered one from Scannermaster. I ended up getting the Condor 12" antenna and that Austin Spectra car antenna. After ordering the Condor that scannermaster recommended I did hear mixed reviews on it. I am sure that it will be an upgrade from the one that comes in the box.

 

[ka3jjz]

I have both antennas on my 396 (not the XT); the Spectra requires a good ground to work properly. If you use a trunk lip mount, make sure that the little screws bite firmly into the metal of the trunk. It's not really an antenna that has any appreciable amount of gain. If you are in an urban or semi urban area, that's actually an advantage, contrary to what you might think. This means that there's less chance of overloading the scanner with too much signal.

The Condor is a very good handheld antenna, but likely should only be used in a fixed environment - that is, the radio isn't being carried around. It's not a heavy antenna by any means, but it is taller than what you would expect. If you need something better to carry around with, I understand that the RS 800 mhz antenna is a good choice, particularly if you are interested in listening on 800 mhz trunks.

The Condor does quite well at VHF hi (I can hear the NWS transmitter in DC on it, and that's about 40 miles from me, in an urban environment), and does well at UHF as well (several companies that use the 460 mhz band at BWI airport - which is about 10 minutes from me - are easy copy).

73 Mike