Reviews Uniden BCD396XT Handheld TrunkTracker IV Digital Police Scanner

This Uniden BCD396XT Handheld TrunkTracker IV scanner is great. Don't be fooled by the reviews about it being hard to program. It has a lot of features you will not use, but it's better then not enough features. Also, programming manually is advanced, but very easy to do with the open source software FreeScan and a RadioReference Account!

This is the top of the line legally available for civilians. It gets everything you can get legally. It's a bit pricey, but as the sign in the speed shop said, "Speed costs money - how fast do you wanna go?" Worth the money if you want to get everything.  But it's not that difficult to get up and scanning your local EVERYTHING if you do a little research. I have found RadioReference.com to be an invaluable source of information.

• Handheld scanner for monitoring police and fire signals, weather transmissions, ham radio bands, and more
• Store 25,000 total conventional channels, trunked channels, and trunked system frequencies for quick recall
• TrunkTracker IV Digital Scanning lets you monitor APCO 25, Motorola, EDACS, and LTR systems in addition to conventional channels
• GPS Compatible so that the scanner can automatically select and scan nearby agencies
• Close Call RF Capture detects and tunes to nearby transmissions with no programming needed

Order the car charger, also you will need a 9 pin male adapter with a usb port. The scanner comes with a 9 pin female adapter. Order ARC-XT Basic Software. This is the software that makes programming much easier. It also has an online manual you can click for reference.

Under the internet tab you will see the radioreference icon. Click that and order a 6 month subscription for roughly $9.00 create your user name and password and they also accept paypal. This internet site will work inconjunction with your ARC-XT software and allow you to click on your state or where ever your located and you simply scroll through the couinties, then click import, followed by copy to clip board, next you click the upper send icon which is a radio icon. This automatically sends all frequencies and names of the department to your scanner.

With all the radio traffic I am now able to monitor, I find it very difficult to put the Uniden BCD396XT Handheld TrunkTracker IV radio Scanner  down and I think I may be suffering from ASD (Addictive Scanner Disease)! This scanner has helped me navigate traffic on the interstates many times. I won't send this one back. Eventhough I think its overpriced, I'll be keeping it.