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

Probably not the best selection for my first digital scanner. Its not easy to program, I ended up paying for a subscription to radio reference. Anothing thing I wish I thought about before buying. At the time I bought this I pay 383.00 then realized that then gps is vitial in my situation. Another 100 bucks there. Hindsight I should have bought a newer model with gps built in and the radio pee programmed. Dont get me wrong, it seems like a solid radio.

This is an excellent scanner. The only problem that I have is the auto adapter is not very durable and it is already broken, and the plug seemed too short to make a connection in my Kia.. There are complaints ones have made about the difficulty programming the scanner. Yes it is difficult. Yes there is a learning curve. I just got the scanner last week so I have a lot to learn with this thing. Im not ready to complain about it just yet because there is plenty of information on YouTube that thankfully people have taken the time to post. My thanks to them for putting forth the effort to help.

I have 40+ years experience using programmable scanners and I found this to be difficult at first. The user manual could be much better. Dont try to program from the front panel, almost impossible, use a programming software to program. The scanner preforms better than I expected, picks up distant signals good. Over all, I recommend this as a scanner for someone that has experience with programming trunking systems. If you are just starting out in scanning this could be difficult for you to use and learn.

I got this scanner to replace a very old Radio Shack analog scanner because one of the police stations I listened to changed to P25 Digital. The scanner is complicated and time consuming to set up, but with the help of RadioReference.com to get the frequency information and a video on youtube.com titled UNIDEN BCD996P2: Programming Conventional Systems by The Erod1944 Channel, (all the channels i wanted to scan are Conventional), I was able to figure it out. I was only interested in setting up 4 channels, so I found programming them manually was far easier for me to do rather than trying to download software to do it. Im enjoying the higher sound quality vs. the old analog scanner and am very happy with it.

This scanner is capable of receiving the majority of everything (not encrypted) in the Police/Fire/Public Service/Military Air/Gov/Misc bands in either analog or digital modes. It receives APCO P-25 digital (both Phase I & II) signals great for me with a stock antenna but I am in a good location to receive two actual P-25 trunk radio system site towers with good signal levels. With digital 800 Mhz signals though, you may need less antenna. About 6.5 inches in length is a good 800 Mhz antenna. With an attic mount ST-2 antenna on a tv antenna booster, I can receive analog signals 60 plus miles away cleanly but thats flat terrain to the top of the Willis Tower. If you have marginal (P-25) 800 Mhz signal levels you wont get many signal bars lit up, it wont trunk track right and you may see talkgroups show up on the display but no audio is heard/garbled/breaks up because it cant decode the digital modulation, or it just might be encrypted. When you get trunking lock on a control channel in APCO P-25 mode, the actual frequency will show up (small) on the display, otherwise you just get NFM on the display which means youre not tracking the system and it will not work. But once you get lock on a control channel, if it all works correctly, it grabs talkgroups at will and you will have to label them or sort out what you wish to really listen to as there will be plenty of (channels=talkgroups) at busy times. With digital trunking systems, it depends on the tower near you having the talkgroup channels you want to hear available on that tower. As far as digital trunking signals go with any digital scanner, all bets are off. The signals fade out at times, some of these RF tower signals get more/less power alloted to them on each tower. In order to fully monitor one P-25 system, the scanner may have to listen to 6 or more towers (in one system) that are all directions from you with varying RF power levels on each frequency, in order to properly receive ALL of your chosen channel (talkgroups) in that Police system you want to hear. If this seems too complicated, well it is. There is a Computer Control channel on P25 digital trunking systems that tells the police system computer what frequency to use or hop to (each split second) and you may get that individual frequencys (talkgroup) good/bad/gone off various towers (and all at nearly the same time yet!) This is called simulcasting distortion and makes listening to any APCO P-25 digital Police trunking radio system extremely hard for any new digital scanner. And the nasty winds, rain, leaf foliage too all mess havoc with these signals. No getting around this. You may be in a good/bad location, it all depends. You may have missed details in your programming, yes I did too many times. Could be your location, your antenna, your programming, proximity to too many other site towers, winds, (high winds or hot/humid air seem nasty on narrow P-25 signals), or the big TV/Radio/Cell Towers nearby with mega kw watts etc. It is a huge complicated mess even for an expert radio engineer to deal with. A lot of it is...trial and error with P-25 digital. Does it track control signal? No. Move antenna/radio a few inches, try again. But the BCD996P2 (once setup right) excels at receiving everything great! This scanner works Great for me in my location even on the factory antenna. And the bandscope mode is fabulous too. I love it. It is up to you to sort out the critical-channel-programming first before you use it. Study the Radio Reference website, it might take time. I would advise to use a computer to program this scanner, otherwise youll just pull your hair out. You cant program this scanner by using zip codes like some others. Freescan (sixspotsoftware) is a great Free program to use, I use it, others exist too. You can plug the scanner into your PC via the included USB cable. My Win 7 PCs found it right away (You setup Control Scanner, Set com port to auto find in Freescan and it should find your scanner on a com port. Then you upload your channels/lineups to the scanner) But first you need to find the frequencies in the Radio Reference website. Freescan also has a Cut N Paste frequency import method which works fine as you select from database info. An outside scanner antenna used with at least an RG-6 cable is optimal for the best reception with this extended coverage scanner to hear everything. I also use a cheap (75 ohm) TV antenna signal booster with 18 db gain, on 50ft RG-6 and a 4 port ant splitter. I have a lot of RF signal levels (using bandscope mode) but no overload that I can see or hear. But for local signals (20 miles or less) you probably will do just as well with the back of set stock antenna, for both analog channels and digital systems. For 800 Mhz specific signals, use a 800 Mhz antenna like a Remtronix. The scanner can be used in the car, it comes with 2 DC power cords, one with a lighter plug, it has a nice bracket and includes the AC adapter. This unit is the base model of the portable BCD325P2 hand held scanner. They are the same to operate/use and program. This 996P2 model has a bottom fire speaker with a deep bass audio sound on digital systems and it sounds like a loudness circuit in a stereo, compared to my RS-652 desktop scanner which has a tinnier sound. You can choose one of 7 colors for the display and it has many signal adjustments for each channel/system, which is why you need patience. You can upgrade this scanner now to receive ProVoice, Mototrbo and DMR but Uniden charges an extra fee for each one. I do not have these upgrades and may not get. These new digital scanners are frustration devices to many people. For the expert, yes, this scanner is marvelous, you can hear everything except Encrypted signals. Be sure you have days/weeks of time and patience to spend with this thing first though. The learning curve is very steep. It is not plug it in, put in a few channels and listen like in the old days. Every channel has about a dozen parameters to setup first, a P-25 digital system may have 2 dozen parameters to setup first, then one dozen items per channel on top of this. This scanner does Not use an SD memory card to store channels/data to. These can be problematic and cause odd errors of all kinds. But the BCD996P2 scanner is a techs dream to use (once programmed properly) and a upgraded cousin to my all time favorite pal the Uniden BCD396XT portable scanner. But this scanner is still quite a challenge for anyone to setup/operate/use. Five stars because it is simply a phenomenal scanner (with exceptional abilities) targeted to mostly expert scanner junkies.

NOT FOR A NOVICE. RECOMMEND HAVING THE PROS PROGRAM IT. I AM NOT TO THAT POINT YET. I AM FINDING IT IS NOT AS HARD AS SAID, IF YOU MESS UP, GO IN AND RESET TO START AND TRY AGAIN. MINE IS PULLING IN STATE POLICE FROM 150 MILES AWAY WITH A 30.00 OLD RADIO SHACK ANTENNA MADE FOR HIGH FREQUENCY. I RECOMMEND AN ANTENNA DESIGNED FOR DIGITAL SIGNAL. THEY ARE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE.

This is a great desk top scanner. It does have a learning curve, which means you can expect to do some learning! My experience with software called FreeSCAN and RadioReference.com made set-up SO much easier. A 1-yr subscription to RadioReference is $60 at this time, well worth it as it does make set-up using FreeSCAN much easier! All in all, No Regrets, as the scanner price on Amazon is VERY good. Im in a low spot, still reception has not been an issue. The sound quality is good, but there is always room for improvement. Otherwise, no complaints. It is complex, yet doable with some patience and flexibility.

This aint your dads scanner where all you had were banks and channels. It has a pretty steep learning curve but I knew that going into it. Watch the videos on line and download a program to aid you in setting it up. There are free ones out there that work fine. Before you buy this, make sure that what you want to listen to isnt encrypted. This will not hear those encrypted frequencies (no scanner will legally).

I love all the whistles and bells on this scanner. Simple to program. Like the option of different display colors for different programmed talk groups. Only thing I dont like is its range. Poor in my opinion. I have a older hd956d its range is twice the distance of this scanner. Overall its a nice add to all my equipment.

As expected