Well…. after this last storm I got the old Uniden scanner out and reprogrammed it’s 10 channels to monitor one local amateur repeater the volunteer fire, one sherrif’s department channel and a couple other close frequencies. I heard a lot of the cleanup process and was quickly struggling with how to juggle the other frequencies I wanted to try monitoring. (Really there are about 60 or so local frequencies that I would want to monitor). In addition, there are a few trunked systems locally (including the power companies line repair…) so I started thinking that a new scanner might be something to look into. So, I’ve got one on order that I plan on doing some thorough reviewing here. First off, let me describe my thought process…..
Yes, a trunking scanner with lots of presets was high on the list. But, also I was eager to have something to monitor the airband as well as the 220/440 amateur bands also. Since I have my amateur radio license I did spend some time looking at the HT’s from Yeasu/Icom/Alinco. I found one that was a wideband receiver and had some good features, but I was reluctant to get a device that would try to hear everything expecting that there would be some serious weak points in its coverage. Further…. well it’s not a scanner and is likely going to be slower in sweeping the bands.
So….. I’m back to thinking it would be best to monitor the repeaters and then in a year or so I can get a dedicated handheld or mobile unit for one or two of the amateur bands. So…. Back to scanners… Uniden was my first choice since the old one I’ve been using is a Uniden. Their cheap ones (around $100) don’t trunk and although I looked at them and thought about marking that feature off my want list, I kept it on the list because that would really be handy to have given the local trunked systems.
So…. I found the uniden bc-246t which goes for around $212, the bc-346xt again around $212. I also found the now discontinued br-330t which is discontinued but I found around $270. It has been replaced by the bc-346xt…. now the 330t has wideband receive (why does that idea still sound attractive to me?) the bc-346xt doesn’t have wideband receive, but by the time I collected accessories I expected the price to be around $250.
Then I found the gre psr-300 and I’ve found polar opposite opinions of it. Some say the reception is fantastic, others say it’s deaf and they can’t get anything. From what I can filter through, the sensitivity on the gre radios is greater than on the uniden scanners (sensitivity is the ability to pull in a weak signal.) We’re in the mountains and frankly this is challenging territory for VHF/UHF signals. So that sounds promising to me. I also read that an issue could be selectivity (receiving a channel, but rejecting a neighboring frequency or interference.)
Feature wise, the gre vs. uniden seem to stack up well, the uniden has dynamic memory banks which is a bit of a different concept. Uniden has close-call, gre has signal stalker and from what I’m able to find out signal stalker may pull in close signals, but further away than the uniden. (Both of these are ways that a radio can pull in a close by transmitting transmission which can be a good way to find new signals to monitor.
The real bonus is that I found the gre psr-300 for ~$150.
So… I spent a bit more time reading the reviews and comments on it and have ordered it (along with a dc adapter) from scannermaster.com . I should receive it tomorrow and we’ll start exploring it. I thought about going ahead and getting a new antenna at the same time, but will wait sot hat I have some time to compare the built in rubber duck reception to the old uniden and then I may follow up with a new antenna after that.
I have seen many suggestions that gre models may need a reset if they seem “deaf” to signals and I’ve also seen indications that the squelch turns the opposite direction of the volume which may explain the scattered “gre sucks” complaints I’ve seen. Like many things I really don’t think one afternoon with a device gives you a good opportunity for review and so I plan to make an ongoing series with this new scanner.
I’m also thinking I will be branching out and expanding the scanner portion of these pages… so some of the updates here may be on sub-pages instead of the blog style dated posts. Since I’ll be able to monitor many of the local amateur repeaters and used frequencies I’ll probably also take advantage of this as a time to expand that portion of the site too. It’s funny, I’ve had my license now for almost three years and still have no transmitter, but…. some people take longer than others… I prefer to listen for a while first. (I’ve done that on so many internet forums anyway, lurk for years before posting.) With me it’s a matter of gathering knowledge to start with…. net operating procedures, common frequencies used, etiquette on the repeaters, etc. Of course, there’s also the fact that I don’t have LOT’s of money to spend so I’ve had to pick and choose.
Anyway, I’ve looked at a number of kits as well in recent months and I may get more serious about those over the next year too. But, as always I’ll try to give updates here to let you know what I’m up to. If you don’t see updates here you may wish to look at the amateur radio pages on this site (they will likely be expanding a bit in coming months.)
I’ll try to give a good “first impressions” post on the scanner and then we’ll go into detail on the other features following that.