It's not the only option. SDR's will handle simulcast very well and are far more cost effective. There's also other ways to mitigate the effects of simulcast on older scanners.
DMR upgrade will do you no good monitoring a P25 system like ARMER. Have a read here about simulcast distortion. As others above me have mentioned, it can really wreak havoc on a non-Uniden SDS series scanner
True, but not everyone feels like toting dongles & laptops or tablets with them everywhere they go to monitor & the workarounds brought up in the simulcast distortion wiki I linked above work with mixed results, but not for everyone
SDR software doesn't duplicate the functionality of the scanner firmware, either. You can monitor one system from a fixed location OK, but scanning multiple systems while mobile, not so much.
Most people do not venture that far from their house on a regular basis. For most a home SDR streaming to their mobile device will be as effective.
Yeah no. You're still limited to a single system, and you need to have enough networking expertise to set up port forwarding and other configuration settings to make the streaming work outside your LAN. And if you don't do it right, you've opened up a security hole to let hackers into your LAN. There are far more people who commute through multiple cities or counties than those who have the technical expertise to set up a SDR receiver to monitor a trunked radio system and forward the audio stream to a mobile device in their vehicle.
I’ll remember this the next time I take my tablet along in the car and pipe the audio from the multiple systems I monitor on it into my car audio system. Been operating this way for over 5 years.
You really shouldn't have too much trouble running a 436 on the Hennepin Systems... I have done it with great success. Where are you located in Hennepin County?
