Want to buy a hand held scanner for P25 system in the Spanaway/ Parkland ,wa area.

[rlmurray56]

Nope. You don't need a directional antenna. Save your money. If you are hearing audio on TG-40106 your scanner is working perfectly and you are hearing every dispatch in the East County area. The calls might not always be in your neighborhood, but trust me, that's how it works. Everything in PCSO East will be on that talk group. It doesn't filter out any specific areas or neighborhoods. When you are hearing a call, look up the addresses on Google Maps and you will see. I am 99% certain that your scanner is functioning the way it was designed. I would be concerned if you were hearing NO audio at all on TG40106, but you just told me that you were and that's a sign the scanner is working properly. Be patient. You WILL hear calls in your neighborhood(s) and surrounding areas. McChord would NOT block calls. And they would not block ONLY calls to Parkland and Spanaway. Seriously, Trust me. Just listen to Orting Simulcast in you are in business. South Simulcast is no good where you are located. Neither is Buckley.

 

[freqseeker]

I do hear audio on TG 40106 PCSO East, but it is all out side of my Spanaway area. No spanaway / Parkland area. I all so use to have the RTL_SDR system on my computer. Nothing there eather !

Someone mentioned the delay from online streaming vs what you hear on your radio. The fact that you hear any transmissions on the East talkgroup suggests the programming and radio are probably fine.
There is still a possibility you are having simulcast issues causing you to miss traffic. This would not cause you to just miss traffic in your area only, it would be talkgroup wide. I suggested in another thread to hold on that talkgroup. Do that and take notes of addresses and map them out. It's possible there isn't a lot of traffic in your area, but I doubt it. You could also use the recording feature and review it when you have time.
I see rlmurray56 responded as I was posting this. We are saying the same thing.

 

[Wulfe]

Someone mentioned the delay from online streaming vs what you hear on your radio. The fact that you hear any transmissions on the East talkgroup suggests the programming and radio are probably fine.
There is still a possibility you are having simulcast issues causing you to miss traffic. This would not cause you to just miss traffic in your area only, it would be talkgroup wide. I suggested in another thread to hold on that talkgroup. Do that and take notes of addresses and map them out. It's possible there isn't a lot of traffic in your area, but I doubt it. You could also use the recording feature and review it when you have time.
I see rlmurray56 responded as I was posting this. We are saying the same thing.

Are you still in south puget sound?

 

[freqseeker]

Are you still in south puget sound?

I'm in Federal Way. Where I live SS911 was spotty at best with my BCD536HP. It received probably 60% of the traffic. When I bought the SDS200 it outperforms the 536 using the same outdoor antenna (ST2). The signal is very weak on an indoor antenna here.