Uniden Handheld TrunkTracker IV Digital Police Scanner (BCD396XT) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

This review is about the Uniden BCD396XT digital scanner. This is a great high end digital scanner with extra bells & whistles. I have two now and they do have excellent digital Apco P25 (Phase 1 reception only) as well as great hearing on the VHF Hi/UHF bands. This scanner only gets P25 Phase 1, and you must check that your area has not gone to a P25 Phase 2 system yet. If the police in your area go to a new digital P25 system, they will opt for P25 Phase 2 as it doubles (2X) the amount of channels available to them on the same frequency lineup. Uniden has upgraded this model, the new scanner is the BCD 325P2 (which receives P25 Phase 1 AND Phase 2). Some departments/agencies in some areas are already using P25 Phase 2 systems and some may be years away. But the BCD396XT scanner is still a top performer with options not available on other units for the serious scanner fan who needs more than one (to listen to more than one dept at the same time!)The BCD 396XT gives you a digital scanner is a very compact size. Smaller than any other scanners out there. Looks like an FCC test device, really looks expensive! This scanner comes preloaded with a (Partial) list of digital systems per state, but the list is years out of date, so it will need your help. Plus most states have many dozens of systems included, you need to find your specific ones. This list does NOT come with free updates from Uniden. You need your own software to program this via a computer, (FreeScan is free and very good I use it.) The scanner comes with an old type of computer PC Serial type of cable, it is NOT a USB cable. You need to buy the Uniden USB-1 cable or you need to find an old PC with a serial port jack on the back panel. But a USB cable will Not work, this scanner uses a proprietary serial cable (included). You can also program this unit by hand with your channels, but it takes a bit of skill to get thru the menu pages. Also...the BCD 396XT does not use a SD memory card, it uses internal memory which can store thousands of channels/systems. Scanners with SD/memory cards are currently causing many, many scanner owners extreme headaches due to "mysterious errors" because of various SD card corruption problems. No problems here, as no SD card.The scanner comes with 3 AA rechargeable batteries and a charger/adapter. You can charge up with this but it is slow or just use the adapter for AC power. You can use any AA batteries, alkaline or rechargeables can be used. You should get at lease 6-8 hours on the 2300 cells. You also get a large CB style belt clip holder and the stock SMA type antenna which works well for most things. They include the SMA to BNC adapter as well in the box. As far as instructions, you get a quick sheet with a PDF manual on a computer disc. And NO printed manual. Bad. Idea. This is a costly and complex device, I would expect a printed manual with a large type font. You can use a site like Mark's Scanners to see a better manual. The reference manual is so stuffed that you'll need a box of Alka-Seltzer and a month to digest all of it.Reception wise, the BCD 396XT is still awesome, and has adjustable parameters for everything! There are dozens of tweaks for every channel, color of display, type of alert tone, volume of alert, AGC gain, AGC level, volume adjust (per channel) alpha tags, plus deeper menus for the digital P-25 decoding action. An RF guy's dream. You can program the backlit display to colors of white, green, yellow, red, magenta, or blue for any channel or just one color for all and it will light up for every channel on backlit squelch option. But it only stays on for the first 5 secs, not the entire call. The display is small, but the Bold Font is great, and readable and offers (to me) the perfect selection of signal items/parameters without being too much information. You can also adjust this display for talkgroups/spectrum analyzer/etc many ways while in normal scan mode. I do get great reception on the P-25 Phase 1 (Starcom) system on the stock antenna, but the RS 800Mhz antenna yields about a 30% improvement on that system. I can also get a metro UHF (460 mhz) system 55 miles away just barely (indoors) on the stock Uniden antenna, which shows how sensitive this scanner really is.The BCD 396XT scanner also comes with Band Scope which I find amazing. It is a frequency spectrum analyzer that can be used for every band this scanner receives and it "displays"relative signal levels for a frequency, or those nearby. Very useful for seeing how much signal (or not) that the scanner is getting, especially trying new antennas or an outdoor feed. And for digital signals, you really need this, Uniden has adjustable parameters here as well, but just a handheld RF spectrum analyzer by itself will be 4x the price of this scanner. Hooray Uniden! I would buy one just for this, really a serious tool for anyone who likes to "see" how an RF signal looks in the band, without a computer or SDR Radio setup. When you horn in on the freq you want, it will also demod the audio for you so you can listen to it. Wow. But it may be noise, or some digital encoded hash. The scanner also has Close Call, a signal finder which locates nearby transmitters of police/fire/etc, and gives you the frequency, but you must be within say 1/2 block to hear that work at all. Close Call is not really well suited for Digital type systems as there are just too many factors involved to do that. The cellular band is blocked and it will not receive DMR/NXDN/Mototrbo or any Encrypted (check your area first!) channels.The scanner has many other features, one that might confuse new people is the small knob on the top. It is not an On/Off/Vol switch, as it first appears. You can turn it, press it, but it "Selects" parameters with a first press of the Func key on the left side. The feature set will take time to learn, it has adjustments for the adjustments. You will have to program it yourself, with your own channel lineups you create, you do not get free updates from Uniden for channels, there is No Zip Code/Location system used in this scanner. It is complicated to setup, but most new digital scanners have become basic headaches for even techies. They are an engineer's dream, but not at all like the old analog scanners. The menus/menus/menus will throw you at first. Drive you mad. You need quiet time with this thing and a great deal of patience with any digital scanner. As an RF Engineer, I wish I would have built this thing myself just for work. For the tiny size and relative price, this thing is Incredible for finding more than just police calls. But you need tons of patience first to set it up. Then tweak it a bit.

Great purchase for people who want to know what's going on out there. I was a little horrified at the price being a novice in the scanner world, but it seems comparable to similar featured models. This little guy isn't quite top of the line but it's packed with features if you know how to use them and the smaller screen makes for a nice profile compared to better models. I don't need P25 Phase II (yet?) and wasn't willing to shell out quite that much money for a scanner, and this thing does its job nicely.It seems to scan through everything quickly and smoothly for the most part and the reception is acceptable for a device this size, but I'd recommend going to a larger antenna depending on your area. I have some trouble indoors with P25 transmissions sounding kind of patchy. Programming manually is a bit of a chore, it's easy enough for conventional frequencies once you get the hang of it but I don't think I'd even bother with digital. For that you'll want to plug it to a computer and make an account over at RadioReference, trust me it's worth the entry fee to avoid the headache.I find it relatively easy to manage exactly what I'm picking up. The first thing I did was go through and wipe all the presets, every single thing. I mostly stay in one area and it's pointless to clutter up the menus with stuff I'll never use. So I went to RadioReference and grabbed my county and a few counties near here that I go to. With all that done, I usually leave most of the systems disabled so I'm only picking up in my immediate area and switch other systems on or off based on where I'm going.The battery life with standard alkalines is a joke, you'll definitely want to go rechargeable. I didn't know the charge state when I got it so I set the NI-MH batteries off to the side and loaded it with alkalines before leaving the house. I probably had it on for 7-8 hours throughout the day trying to get a feel for everything, and tossed the batteries when I got home. The NI-MH on the other hand seem to hold up much better, but I don't have a solid figure of how much. I kind of wish it had a Lithium battery pack. Maybe I'm just more used to it but to me they're easier to take care of; nothing wrong with NI-MH though and they'll do just fine.

This item is pretty cool. Just got it and trying to get the hang of it but very happy with it so far. I didn't have to pay any extra shipping charges like the other review so I'm not sure what that's all about and the radio does come with rechargeable AAA batteries so you don't need to spend more money on that. The radio is pre programmed but for USA use so for a Canadian, we have to do a little more work to begin playing with it and enjoying it.

Excellent product, high quality, and so much more. Programming is challenging.

very good radio had no problem programing it thanks amazon

I like the unit just a little more work to program

although the product itself is good, hard to figure out local channels for the programming as all the instructions are geared for the US…onto of that when it finally arrived I had to pay an extra $95 COD shipping charge which was not expected. Was not impressed with the extra charges