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Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 4:06 pm
by highway97
Hi Everyone Im waiting for my SSI To come in. Im Thinking of Picking Up The New Bearcat 536hd Its Around 600.00 bucks I Would Like to Know If You guys Think Its worth It or Should I Pick up Home Patrol For 400.00 What You All Think. An I Cant Find A Store To buy It. Online is all I Know. Big Ed

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Mon May 19, 2014 9:22 pm
by zz0468
Ask yourself a few questions first. What is it you hope to listen to with a 536 that you can't listen to now? You're probably going to say the several newer P25 phase II systems around. Most law traffic is encrypted... are you ok with that? What do you have now, and what's driving the need for a new scanner? Are you aware of the many complaints people have about the 536? Could it possibly make sense to hold off until the issues are resolved?

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 9:04 am
by highway97
thanks. a lot of problems ok. maybe ill just get the home patrol. have have a pro-94 i would like to go digital. big ed

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 9:18 am
by cvrules90
highway97 wrote:Hi Everyone Im waiting for my SSI To come in. Im Thinking of Picking Up The New Bearcat 536hd Its Around 600.00 bucks I Would Like to Know If You guys Think Its worth It or Should I Pick up Home Patrol For 400.00 What You All Think. An I Cant Find A Store To buy It. Online is all I Know. Big Ed
As Zz already told you, all P-25 Phase 2 networks now use full-time encryption for police forces. I wouldn't be suprised if another P25 Phase 2 system comes in for Riverside City and the RPD goes crypto.

Pretty all you can get now is on a cheap a$$ BC345CRS ($99 or so I believe). The telescoping antenna is powerful, and you can get CalFire (the command channels are all repeated now), the CHP, and some city police forces (Corona, Hemet, Riverside, Blythe, etc...). I still wouldn't be shocked if they all go crypto in the not-so-distant future.

Suit yourself, but I'd rather invest that $400-600 in a business or something now.

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 9:23 am
by w6kru
I have 2 Unidens and a GRE. The digital decoding on the Unidens is extremely poor compared to the GRE.

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 11:07 am
by sp1989
Big Ed, that's a lot of $$ to put down on a new scanner that really doesn't do anything new or useful for the I.E. If you really want a new digital scanner, I would wait on the GRE/Whistler scanners, the PSR 800 & 900 are supposed to be out by June. If I remember right, they decode Phase II digital which Uniden does not. I prefer GRE products to Uniden any way.

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 11:23 am
by sp1989
I just bought an almost new Pro 2055 base station, mostly because I already have the software and cable to program it. It does everything I want it to, now that RSO has gone bye bye I don't even use the trunking on it. I picks up military aviation band and you don't have to push buttons to program it.

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 2:34 pm
by highway97
ok sp ill check it out ger 900 out in june. brother ed

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 3:29 pm
by cvrules90
sp1989 wrote:Big Ed, that's a lot of $$ to put down on a new scanner that really doesn't do anything new or useful for the I.E. If you really want a new digital scanner, I would wait on the GRE/Whistler scanners, the PSR 800 & 900 are supposed to be out by June. If I remember right, they decode Phase II digital which Uniden does not. I prefer GRE products to Uniden any way.
The 800 does. Never heard of the 900. But like you said, getting a P-25 Phase 2 scanner is hoping in vain...

Re: Bearcat 536HD

Posted: Tue May 20, 2014 4:04 pm
by sp1989
PSR 900 was about to come out when GRE went out of business in 2012.