The state of the Bay Area Part II

[LIScanner101]

Shoub,

Below is the verbiage of the PM I got. Obviously I removed the correspondent’s name out of respect for his privacy:
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Thought I would PM you since everyone seems to be giving you such a hard time. Which by the way is totally unwarranted.

I'll try and answer your question regarding Phase 2. The Silicon Valley Regional Communications System (A county wide system for Santa Clara County) is just barely coming to life, and will be Phase 2. I have read posts in the past few days that say the City of Sunnyvale Public Works department is using the new system. From the research I have done on this new system the City of Sunnyvale and the City of Santa Clara will be the first two Cities to be on the new system. The rest of the system will be built out in phases. My understanding is that there is no funding to complete the system anytime soon, but I have heard that they are starting work on a couple of more sites.

The San Mateo County 700mhz system has been a work in progress for what seems a life time. My understanding is that it is phase one, but potential to migrate to phase 2. At any rate it's only coming to life little by little.

The East Bay system is currently phase 1, but again I have heard that some talkgroups may be going phase 2 soon.

I live in Santa Clara County and do not own a digital scanner at the moment, and will be waiting for the dust to settle with the Uniden products, and to see how the Whistler products perform. I really like the looks of the WS1095 for use in the car!

I'll close by saying all of the above info is just what I have learned by researching on the internet. I do not have an inside source of info for any of these systems. Hope this info helps in your decision making.

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So, it sounds like the shelf life of a P1 scanner for the Bay Area will be somewhat limited.

 

[BornWithAScanner]

My two cents (state of the SF Bay Area)

John,

As a resident of the SF Bay Area and long time listener of Police/Fire/Aircraft/etc scanners (40 plus years) in this region, I do not have any real concerns that you need to buy a digital scanner if you think you might need it in your trip to California. Since my scanner has 20 banks and 1000 channels (and almost 10 years old), I have city and county agencies for most of the West side of the Bay and I have no issues with the digital issue that you are concerned about Although I can't speak for the future, you did ask about the outlook for the upcoming year. In my opinion, I think you'd be fine with your current scanner.