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

A strong addition to anyones scanner development program

Ive owned two homepatrols and had reception trouble with both. I thought the home patrol would be easier to program. It is not! The preprogrammed part loads hundreds of unwanted frequencies. The software that comes with it is so confusing to use its crazy! But on to the B996P2. This scanner has great reception with included antenna. Between Radio reference and freescan, programming it was a breeze. Just watch some YouTube videos to get familiar with freescan. And its highly suggested to pay for at least 6 months of radio reference to obtain the correct frequencies in the order and format that the scanner requires its $15. Well well worth the money! The people who give bad reviews of this scanner have no patience or interest in learning a few things. My only gripe is updating the firmware and installing the drivers. I had trouble with it but maybe I was doing something wrong? I dont think so but maybe. It might be a USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 compatibility issue. Once that was completed the rest was easy.

nice scfanner to use

Have one and bought one as gift. Good radios. Im barely scratching the surface regarding the use of all the features. I programmed both using FREESCAN and buying a short term subscription to RADIOREFERENCE. Just watch some tutorials on youtube and bookmark the ones that help you the most. When you read about these radios and they talk about trunking and other things you may not understand just look it up online to try to become familiar with those terms. Dont worry if you never quite understand those terms, you really dont have to and you can still program it by studying the youtube vids, as i said. Youll need a special cable to hook up to your computer. Dont buy a cheap immitation get the brand name. Poke around on amazon or online it will pop up for you.

This is a review of the Uniden BCD996P2 system. I am a US licensed amateur extra radio operator,, so I have some experience with radios and their operation. I am also a software developer, avid linux user and advocate. The programming aspects of the system did live up to what many of the reviews stated, it is not for the feint of heart. To get any P25 systems into this system you will be well advised to use some programming software. I had to create a windows system on a spare laptop in order to get the firmware update software package to work with the device (strike one) Once updated I attempted to setup my countys government P25 system (phase 1), specifically for the fire department (no, they were not encrypted channels). I programmed the device by hand with no joy. I downloaded multiple software packages that worked with the scanner to try to automatically load the configuration into the system. I even subscribed to radio reference to take advantage of their configuration file downloads. Still no Joy. (strike two). I spent an entire weekend trying various methods to program this scanner. I tried just about every permutation of options that I could find. For some reason there is something that the local P25 system is doing that this scanner appears to be incapable of decoding. I was able to get multiple other P25 (phase 1 and 2) systems working, every other system that I tried and was with in listening distance in fact worked. (strike three) There is next to no online documentation, and it would appear that Uniden is abandoning support of this product. After all of this, I returned the product, totally disappointed. (gave it 2 stars, because it worked for some sites well enough, but the not for the system I intended to use it with) I looked at the next higher cost option, but at $700, and with such a miserable experience with this $400 scanner I opted to buy an $30 USB SDR device and try my hand at open source, which worked perfectly (on linux!). I can put up with windows only options for programming the system, and complex programming requirements. But for $400 the device should just work out of the box.

The BCD996P2 Arrived this morning. It’s a breeze to program with the computer. If you’re a bit of a scanner geek you won’t have much trouble. As for people who don’t program their own scanners or are just starting out and in too much of a hurry to learn the scanner you probably will get frustrated. I really like the quality of the audio coming from this radio. It’s very easy on the ears. I’ve been listening to p25 phase 2 out of three counties all day in my living room with just the stock antenna. The radio has a ton of features and anybody who likes tinkering and experimenting with radios will never get bored of this scanner.

Thi is a great scanner using to listed to Motorola Type 2 P25 systems. It takes some figuring out to program, but you can use FreeSCAN software and a standard USB cable to program.

Thank you to Police Scanner Outlet first. I thought this was a fair price. I found it is a great price. I like this radio better than the ones with all the WIFI and SD card stuff. I had the BCD396xt and the BCD996xt and now I have the BCD996P2. It is running well. Our tower just changed to Phase 2. MPSCS So Im ready. The 996xt, 396xt, and 996P2 are very good radios. I compare them to the tip line. I also have RS651, PSR600, RS106 and others to compare them to. I had all I needed to start off running from Police-SCANNER-outlet. Get yours next. Thanks PSO. Oh Im a ham radio op. and I know the radios that get what I want to hear...New Radio Is Top Right

You definitely need a programming cable and free program software to get all you want....

This radio works well for both standard and trunked frequencies that don’t use simulcast. Be sure to research the area you live in and the channels you want to scan. More and more of the country is using integrated P25 systems. While this can handle P25 Phase 1 and 2, it doesn’t work well if those are simulcast-same frequency from multiple towers. Simulcast exists in many if not most metro areas that use P25. The SDS100 or 200 are needed to properly listen to those sites.