Message posted by lone wolf on June 22, 2006 at 12:05:16 PST:
The Pro-96 and Pro-2096 are both on sale this week for $399 ($100 off). They do split system P25 required for the NTS. [I use a Pro-96] There are slight differences between the GRE (Radio Shack) and Uniden digital scanners. Uniden supports I-calls, while the Pro-96/2096 do not. The Pro-96/2096 has the ability to read both the control channel and the digital data in the subaudible band of the voice channel. Yes, way complicated, but basically it allows the scanner to avoid some problems that cause the Uniden digital scanners to hang up on dead talk groups. The ability to decode the subaudible helps when you are trying to monitor a trunk system that is not yet "decoded", i.e. nobody has determined the right control parameters for that trunk system. [People try to figure out these systems by hunting and pecking with their scanners, but the only technique that is bug free is to run trunker/etrunker to analyze the data in the control channel. I can only assume the wrong data that gets uploaded to Radioreference is from people who don't run trunker/etrunker. It used to drive me crazy, but not I maintain my own correct information for the systems I scan and only use radioreference for talk group information.] The pro-96 /2096 has an automatic adjustment for digital audio, while the Uniden scanners require a certain code to be entered to tweak the quality of the digital sound. The pro-96/2096 does not do mil air out of the box, but required Don Starr's Win96 program to open up the receive bandwidth. There are no specs on the mil air sensitivity, but then again, Uniden provides no specs on the sensitivity of their radios. The uniden radio does LTR, while this feature is not found on the Pro-96. Of all the missing features on the Pro-96/2096, only I-calls is of interest. [Rather than ask 20 more questions, please google these terms as they are discussed all over the net, especially I-calls). The Pro-96 can handle multiple sites in one bank, which comes in handy for the NTS. If you want to run the scanner via PC, there are advantages to the Uniden scanners. The Radio Shack GRE radios can be programmed via computer, but not controlled. The Pro-96/2096 and the Uniden will be able to work after the rebanding, but the jury is still out on the Pro-96/2096 working on the proposed 700Mhz band.] When the dust settled, I went for the Pro-96 as the sound quality was much better on digital. [$275 used, inclding the programming cable and a big scratch on the body that made it unsuitable for on-line sale. ;-)] I like those older GRE( Radio Shack) scanners for mil air. I just got a PRO-2035 for $60. It has a tape out jack on the back so you can both record the audio and also scan. The same is true for the Icom R7100 I recently got. [$400 used.] The Yupi MVT7100 is still my favorite mil ail capable portable scanner.[$150 on ebay.]
In Reply to: Re: Scanner recommendations posted by APG on June 22, 2006 at 9:59:05 PST:
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