Uniden BCD996P2 Digital Mobile TrunkTracker V Scanner, 25,000 Dynamically Allocated Channels, Close Call RF Capture Technology, 4-Line Alpha display, Base/Mobile Design, Phase 2, Location-Based Scanning

Have owned this for 2 years, still happy with product. Only complaint is a small one - it was a little difficult to program originally and had a little trouble with reception but I believe this is due to living in a rural area. We just had to find the best spot in the house to position it for the best reception. Now, it works perfectly and we pick up everything.

While the product itself its top notch, it desperately needs to come with an available programming software. While there are free options this scanner will take hours to program even the simplest database without a bulk import. Very good for APCO but if you are looking to receive a simulcast system, buy a directional antenna or look elsewhere because it struggles with it. I am happy with the purchase but wanted to be blown away.

Got for 90 yr old dad. Keeps his mind interested.

Have one and bought one as gift. Good radios. Im barely scratching the surface regarding the use of all the features. I programmed both using FREESCAN and buying a short term subscription to RADIOREFERENCE. Just watch some tutorials on youtube and bookmark the ones that help you the most. When you read about these radios and they talk about trunking and other things you may not understand just look it up online to try to become familiar with those terms. Dont worry if you never quite understand those terms, you really dont have to and you can still program it by studying the youtube vids, as i said. Youll need a special cable to hook up to your computer. Dont buy a cheap immitation get the brand name. Poke around on amazon or online it will pop up for you.

This is a very difficult scanner to program by hand (especially trunking) (TGIDS) without using a computer and you MUST use FreeScan software, but once it is set up, WOW! It is made very well with all metal casing and great sensitivity and audio. Just go onto YouTube and watch the videos showing how to use it and its features and benefits. Ill probably buy a Uniden external speaker even though it is being used as a base scanner as the only downfall is the speaker is underneath it. You can change the display colors, make it a red color for your most important frequency and MUCH more so read up on it prior to purchasing. Also, you can adjust the Digital P25 Threshold/P25 LP Filter in the menu settings. The Chicago Tribute had an article on this stating that the Bearcat BCD996P2 is the BEST scanner Uniden America Corporation has EVER manufactured! If anyone needs any help setting this up, or buying advise, please feel free to contact me here.

Overall, this was a really good radio, but two areas were not up to my expectations: First, there are two agencies near me that use conventional digital, and while this was my first experience having a digital scanner, all voice sounded computer-generated, and not realistic at all. These were US Govt and Texas DPS agencies. I dont think I could pick out someone I knew with this digital voice quality; Second, and more importantly, this radio had trouble eliminating bleed over. One channel, a Sheriff repeater (159MHz), would constantly bleed over onto a county fire channel (158MHz), and occasionally over city police (151MHz), and two US Govt channels (169MHz and 173MHz), until I put in tone or DCS, but since the county fire channel used the same tone as the Sheriff channel, it never eliminated that bleed over, even though they were over 400KHz apart. The only way I stopped this was to disconnect the external house antenna and just use the telescoping antenna, or to attenuate the county fire channel, but neither of those were alternatives I wanted to use. My three other radios, a Uniden BC125AT, Uniden BC560XLT, and Kenwood TM-281A did not exhibit this bleed over behavior at all, even without using tone squelch. I could live with the poor digital voice quality if the bleed over wasnt such an issue.

Ok.. easy to use? Lmao!! You have to be a MIT graduate to figure it out. Spend the extra money and have it programmed at the facility.