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

Does everything Im asking it to do

This is an excellent scanner, as you would expect from Uniden Bearcat. Ive been using scanners for 35 years, and this is a good one. It has plenty of options and can store more frequencies than most people will ever use. This scanner is not organized in the traditional way (e.g. banks of frequencies); it is ordered in Systems/Sites/Groups, which handles memory better but that appears to be the only advantage. The major limitation of this unit is the owners manual. It was clearly written by engineers with no editing or useful organization. It looks like about 30 people wrote different sections of the manual, and none of them coordinated with the others. The manual is difficult to follow, and presumes the reader is a tech-head engineer. The manual contains less-then-helpful comments such as if you really want to confuse yourself - no kidding thats actually in there! As you read along, trying to figure out how to program a simple frequency, you will find headings that say refer to Creating Sites and Creating Groups. Finally, refer to Programming Frequencies/IDs. Great, but it doesnt tell you where those sections are in the manual, and to make sure you cant find them, the section headings are repeated over and over and over and over and over again in multiple contexts that are nearly impossible to follow. The manual is and absolute stream-of-consciousness. I was a software engineer for 12 years, so I will get this unit programmed, but I would most definitely not buy it again. If Id known the manual was such a disaster, I would have purchased a different unit.

Excellent, solid construction, could be complicated if you are new to scanning. The newest update of the excellent bct15/996 lineup, uniden really has a good system there and being a Phase 2 digital this scanner be good for the foreseeable future. If you are new to scanning, this receiver might not be the best place to start, however if you locale uses digital trunked systems I would recommend jumping into this radio. If your local doesnt use digital systems you might be better off getting a bct15x ([very similar to this radio minus digital], if locale has analog trunked systems) or a bc125at if there are not any trunked systems. You can check what your local services use in the radioreference.com frequency database. This scanner is capable of listening to police UHF VHF, fire UHF VHF, railroads, aviation 118-130 MHZ ish, GMRS/MURS/FRS(walkie talkies) 460 MHZ ish, Marine band, weather band(noaa) 160 ish mhz, HAM radio, state police/highway patrol operating in the 30-40 mhz range, cb radio. This scanner does not have ssb so its not a good solution to listen to longer wave ham or shortwave broadcasts. Like I said it can be complicated, however once you understand it, it becomes a very powerful tool. I had little trouble with it but I had previously used scanners so I wasnt overloaded with the radio mumbo jumbo, all I needed to learn was how to operate the radio itself. A good place to learn the radio mumbo jumbo would be radioreference.com. Compared to the radioshack/whistler units may have 20 scan lists (newer models have more I believe). While they are not equivalent, in conventional systems with the uniden you have 10 group quick keys per system and 100 systems with quick keys all of which can be independently toggled. So in theory you can have 1000 scanning bank toggles just by using groups and system quick keys. Trunked systems are programmed slightly different but afford plenty of customization. And work around systems and groups. Also this radio has the ability to search for talkgroups within trunked systems. You can technically get more than 1000 groups/100 systems into this receiver using tags but the quick keys seem easiest and I would be shocked if you could use them all for you regular scanning (obviously if you wanted to program your whole state things would get pretty full, however you would be able to get a pretty large coverage. I have the entirety of California Highway Patrol programmed in mine(I use 1 system for each division), as well as 3 counties [Stanislaus, Merced, San Luis Obispo] (including most cities in them) (fire, pd, sheriff, ambulance services, HAM and aviation) and Im only using 30 systems out of 100. And those are fairly spread out to allow minute adjustments in which departments/services Im listening to, where as if you condensed them you could use far less than 30 systems. Receive is very good. I operate mostly conventional systems in the UHF (Police, Fire, Ham), VHF (Sheriff, fire, ham, aviation) area, but have a trunked motorola 800mhz which does very well, and also use it to scan for CHP mobile extenders (handheld radios) which operate as a conventional p25, it receives those no problem. For CHP I primarily use my other scanner a BCT15x because I have it attached to an antenna optimized for around 40 mhz however for my bcd966p2 I use a larsen triband 150/450/800 and it works great at pulling in vhf/uhf/and 800mhz it even pulls in chp in the 40mhz quite well for a small antenna.

Bought for the Schenectady NY area because Fire/EMS moved to the new P25 Phase II system. This thing is terrible to program, and just doesnt work consistently with the simulcast system in the Schenectady area.

This is a great scanner. I would highly recommending downloading freescan software and a premium membership to radioreference.com. Once I download the software and learned how to use it, programming was quite easy

This scanner is great. Its easy to program once you figure out, without any help from the manufacturer, that you need to use a windows 7 computer and not windows 10 to program it if you want to use pc software to do it. You can program this scanner from the unit itself if you really want to. Its one of the easier scanners Ive programmed for conventional anyways. I havent had a chance to try out the trunking of p25 capabilities yet as my area is building out their p25 p2 network at the moment.

I have spent hours (adding up to days) trying to program this scanner. I have been able to hear State Highway Patrol, so it seems to function. I have yet to hear county or city law enforcement. I spent hours more watching videos and reading forums. All the experts agree it is easy to program, just download freescan. Except not if you own a MAC. I went to the Uniden website, which did not appear to admit they ever made this model. . There was an advertisement flyer in the box with a list of expensive upgrades I could get, but I dont know what they do or if they would help. Personally, I think it should be sold in working condition. If it needs a $90.00 DMR upgrade to operate, it should have it already. Why would I spend more without knowing what that even does. Im sure the P25 system is probably designed to be difficult to monitor. But dont claim your product can do it unless it can.

Replaced my BCT15X with it, programming is much the same, however programming trunked systems is a major pain, even with the software. It helps to a ton to have a subscription to radioreference dot com. Dont even try without it. My only problem is Ive not found a good way to program talk groups, so i get everything, Police, Fire, EMS.... Sometimes all i want is Fire, i get tired of listening to the cops writing speeding tickets. If anyone knows how to do that, please leave a comment.

No complaints..works great. I do advise you use the cable to the computer and to use radio reference along with FreeSCAN to get it programmed. It took 15minutes for me to do that and I was all set. The instructions are horrible for anyone not good with electronics or computers. Only thing I wish it had were more single button pressing options - I dont need the WX button not sure why anyone would with all the apps and a quick site you can pull up on the computer - would rather like to have a quick FM button for radio usage or a quick CB radio button. Id like to have a quick disconnect method on the mount for the vehicle so I could move it from there to the house with ease so maybe they will look at that in the future since its just too expensive to get two of them at this time for both locations.

The scanner is great, hard to program but with time can be figured out. Shipping was slow because when it got to my town it came thru the post office. they dont move fast even if they are on fire.