The ubiquitous question from a newbie redux

[gregma]

Request for assistance in choosing scanner for this area

Posted in the General forum, and was directed to the more specific forum for my area. I am a HAM and have been a scanner enthusiast about 20 years ago. I have a few WSP freq's programmed into my 2-meter rig in the car, and my wife has grown an interest in scanning. Doing some initial research I have found that my 20 year old bearcat scanner just will no longer cut it. Everything now-a-days is trunked (except WSP which is curious.)
So, I need some recommendations on a scanner. Here are the stats:

Budget - $350
Location - Education Hill area of Redmond, WA
Interests - King County Public Safety, Public Safety along the I-5 corridor north to Bellingham.
Locations for monitoring - Mobile, Base

From what I have read so far, I will not need digital, so an analog trunking scanner should meet my needs. Something like a BC15? Is there a handheld equivalent to the BC15 in features if I choose to go that route?

Thank you in advance for any assistance with this!

Thanks!
Greg

 

[gregma]

Well, no answers to that question. Ok, does anyone at least know if a BR330T will be adequate for scanning in the King County area for the near future?

 

[pogbobo]

yes the br330t would be fine for king county, they use a motorola type II smartzone trs with analog voice ... the 330 will be hard to find new since it has been discontinued ... the handheld equivalent to the bct15 is the bc246t which will also work fine in king county. hope that helps

edit: on a side note, both the 330 and the 246 are rebanding compatible, which when it does hit your area will affect that trs

here are some links:

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=604
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BC246T
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/BR330T

 

[gregma]

yes the br330t would be fine for king county, they use a motorola type II smartzone trs with analog voice ... the 330 will be hard to find new since it has been discontinued ... the handheld equivalent to the bct15 is the bc246t which will also work fine in king county. hope that helps

edit: on a side note, both the 330 and the 246 are rebanding compatible, which when it does hit your area will affect that trs

Thank you! I was able to find both a dealer that still has 330's, and am watching a used one at the moment.

My only worry would be about rebanding since the 330 has been discontinued. As has been said in other forums, why should they be expected to support a discontinued radio? But I'll worry about that when it happens, by that time I'll probably be in the market for a digital scanner if the bug really takes hold.

 

[pogbobo]

lots of products that are discontinued still get product support for some amount of time ... i dont know if uniden is know for that, but, at uniden.com they have a new firmware for the br330t that came out in feb07, after the scanner was discontinued (i think) ..... so, all you can do is just hope that when rebanding hits uniden will put out an updated firmware for it ... good luck