Quick Takes

The following comments, purely subjective and non-scientific, are our "quick takes" on the three handheld scanners we offer for rent:

AOR AR8200 MKIIIB

If you don't need trunk tracking and you are monitoring only analog signals, this scanner is our most versatile. It covers 100 kHz to 3 GHz, in all modes. It will not perform as well as an inexpensive dedicated long/medium/shortwave radio when monitoring 100 kHz - 30 MHz, but it is a usable radio in this range, unless operated in an area with very strong AM or shortwave signals, which will overload the radio. In the VHF and UHF bands, this radio receives as well as our other handhelds. The band scope (spectrum analyzer display) sweeps up to 10 MHz, and is best used in peak mode over 1 or 2 MHz to find new signals. This is a very capable and sophisticated radio that is designed more for monitoring than general-purpose scanning, but it can in fact operate as a regular scanner. As with all of our scanners, programming by hand is not recommended.

RadioShack PRO-96

This scanner is widely recognized as one of the best for monitoring digital transmissions. The screen is fairly small and cluttered with information that sometimes requires the manual to decode, but this radio's ability to decode digital is impressive. It is a fairly large and brick-like radio, with a bright orange back-lit keypad. The build quality is good but not as good as the AR8200 or the BCD-396T. It is very sensitive, perhaps a bit better than the AR8200 in the VHF and UHF range. Consequently, this radio seemed a bit more susceptible to overload than the other two radios. Programming by hand is not recommended.

Uniden Bearcat BCD-396T

This radio has the best build quality of the three handhelds we offer. It is a solid, palm-sized unit with a deep blue backlight. In our informal tests, it is the least sensitive of the three radios, which has proven to be a benefit in urban areas, where this radio seems a bit more immune to overload than the PRO-96 and the AR8200. As a general scanner, this radio is better than the PRO-96 or AR8200, since it offers dynamic memory, which allows an arbitrary number of scan "banks," each containing however many channels the user desires. "Banks" and channels can each be alpha-tagged with up to 16 characters. Programming by hand is not recommended. Uniden's Close-Call technology, built into this radio, works exceptionally well to capture and tune nearby transmissions. Close-Call works significantly better than a frequency counter for this task.