Have had a scanner for a few years but have not used it much. I have moved and would like to get going on it again. What should I do first? Thanks, Lisa.

Which model and where are you located? Joe M.

Buy a uniden sds200 easy to use all programmed with what you need Get Outlook for Android

396

The 396.,, I’m in west palm beach

I’ll have to hunt it down and find it… I’m in Western MA

Found it. Uniden TrunkTracker III. BC246T Lisa.

Odds are pretty high you will not be able to hear a lot of what is out there. Any digital systems you will not be able to decode. What did you monitor previously? Joe

I have one of those that I no longer use. It was relatively easy to program if I remember correctly. I live in Rensselaer County not far from Western Massachusetts. The county sheriff's department

As long as it is not encrypted, yes. Just about any P25 scanner would work. (except the BC250D) Joe M.

If you can tell us where you live, Lisa, I can look up what's there on RadioReference.com or you can.  There are plenty of areas that still have systems that the 246 can track. I live in Sacramento

Fire and police. Lisa.

Thank you, Robert. I’ll have a look. Lisa.

My area still has conventional simulcast with trunking and digital is “being implemented” so the 246 works fine. Check out radio reference dot com to see what’s in your area. Butel has

I currently monitor P25 phase1 with my BCD396xlt (trunk tracker IV). It works fine except when a talkgroup is encriypted. Richmond and Berkeley, Ca have a couple of encrypted talkgroups. Oakland does

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Sadly, the 246 cannot monitor P25. You need a digital scanner.

Thanks. I knew that but was curious if one of two things happened. If either Rensselaer county had moved on to a different system or if there were scanners made that could deal with the old system.

It is possible for monitor P25 for cheap using your computer. Buy one of these RTL-SDR radio receivers for $25 that is USB: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

SDRAngel will decode P25 natively. It does not trunk though. -Michael