Having never had a trunking scanner before, I decided to go the handheld route so that I could use it both in the shack and in the car. I took advantage of the recent Radio Shack sale and picked up a PRO-96 for $399. After discovering some shortcomings with the unit, I read everything that I could find on the web comparing it to the Uniden BC296D. There is considerable feature comparison and various opinions to be found on the web about both units but none that helped me in strongly differentiating between the two. With liberal return policies on both units, I then ordered the BC296D and had the Xmas holiday to compare the performance of both in my shack. Here is what I discovered that resulted in my decision to return the PRO-96:
1) The PRO-96 has slightly better audio from its speaker but since I use a cheap surplus computer speaker in the shack to plug the handhelds into, it did not make much of a difference to me.
2) The PRO-96 has some third-party software available to upload/download data but it cannot be computer controlled during normal scanning according to the manufacturer. I have found three or four software programs available for the BC296D that can not only be used to transfer data but also to control it during scanning...the best being ARC250 in my opinion ($39 via
http://www.butel.nl). Neither scanner comes with any decent software from the manufacturer, you have to obtain itself yourself from a third-party source.
3) The trucking capabilities and trunking performance seemed to be very similiar in my opinion, they both seemed to track trunks that had good signals very well.
4) The sensitivity of the BC296D seems to be much better, especially in the VHF aviation band and in the 155 mHz simplex range. Using both radios on the same antenna using a multicoupler, the BC296D could pick up SeaTac tower on 119.9 whereas the PRO-96 could not hear the tower even with squelch broken. Also, I noticed that the BC296D picked up the Seattle trunk much better than the PRO-96...this system has a marginal signal strength at my QTH in Woodinville.
5) The Pro-96 uses standard AA batteries (or equivalent rechargable batteries) whereas the BC296D uses a 4.5V propriatory battery that must be special ordered if you want a spare - also battery life is less than the PRO-96. This was one positive point for the PRO-96.
6) The PRO-96 probably has a slightly better display to read but with computer control in the shack for BC296D, this is not a significant point to me.
With the sale price of $399, the PRO-96 was a better buy but since I also listen to aviation (VHF and UHF) and overall receiver sensitivity was an important issue for me, I went with the Uniden BC296D even though I had to pay $100 more than the PRO-96. The second feature that helped me make up my mind was the capability to computer control the scanning while in the shack, something that you can't do with the PRO-96.
Both units are good trunk trackers with equivalent digital capabilities but I felt that for my broad spectrum scanning needs, the BC296D did a better overall job.
Gordon, N9BHH/7
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