Southwestern Kentucky?

[w4wxp]

Hey there. I'm living down in Trigg County, Kentucky and I'm curious about a few things scanner related.
1. Good scanner for Trigg, Marshall, and Christian Counties? Mainly interested in EMS, Marine VHF (I'm by the biggest lake chain in KY), local police and fire, business band (I'm a big fan of utility monitoring on HF, so go figure), GMRS and MURS (27mhz cb would be a plus, but I have a Cobra 2000 setup so it's obviously not a 'must have').

2. Can be handheld or base unit, though I'd like to throw a discone or something akin in the air to hear distant ranges (Maybe Clarksville and Nashville TN) - but I'm afraid of pager intermod /overload like I get on my RTL-SDR.

I'm kinda bass-ackwards on this since I started off as a ham operator and SWL'er and scanning is new to me (minus an OLD crystal-controlled bearcat III scanner my grandpa gave to me when I was a kid).

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[WX4JCW]

BCD536HP for Base or the BCD436HP in your area would work, unless you want the fancy whistles the SDS100/200 would be overkill and probably not the best fit, be aware they use everything around there NXDN/DMR/P25 and Conventional, however, some if not most of the DMR and NXDN for Sheriff and Police look like they are encrypted so it's useless to try for those, Marshall County looks to be P25 clear so that county would be the best bet with no paid upgrades needed, Trigg will need the DMR upgrade, and the SO looks like its encrypted, Christian county looks pretty well locked down with NXDN encryption for even the water department (Paranoid) so Trigg will need the NXDN Upgrade

 

[w4wxp]

BCD536HP for Base or the BCD436HP in your area would work, unless you want the fancy whistles the SDS100/200 would be overkill and probably not the best fit, be aware they use everything around there NXDN/DMR/P25 and Conventional, however, some if not most of the DMR and NXDN for Sheriff and Police look like they are encrypted so it's useless to try for those, Marshall County looks to be P25 clear so that county would be the best bet with no paid upgrades needed, Trigg will need the DMR upgrade, and the SO looks like its encrypted, Christian county looks pretty well locked down with NXDN encryption for even the water department (Paranoid) so Trigg will need the NXDN Upgrade

So the upgrades are pointless since everything is encrypted? Or am I missing something? Main things I'm interested in are listening to businesses, utilities etc and as far as police, fire etc, mainly local (ie trigg county).

 

[w4wxp]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on the BCD436HP, along with programming, NXDN and DMR Upgrades, the GPS Setup, and a JBC290M antenna for the car. I have a wideband vertical antenna for the VHF and UHF business and service bands so I wonder if that + a diplexer and an 800mhz antenna would be better than just getting a Omni X?

 

[uwooood2]

Went ahead and pulled the trigger on the BCD436HP, along with programming, NXDN and DMR Upgrades...

Hey there W4WXP, just curious...
Since you originally posted this (Nov. 2021), are you able to pick up any traffic from Christian Co? I have been searching the forums and all posts regarding Hopkinsville / Christian Co are 10+ years old and didn't know if anything had changed. I run a SDS100 in southern Livingston Co, but visit Christian Co frequently. I would like to gift a unit that picks up Christian if it's possible. Can you advise on that status?