President Bush's economic stimulus package recently allowed me to upgrade the scanner in my car from a BC-780 to a new BCD-996T. So far I've found the 996 to be a good selection, it is doing everything I expected it to and is performing well in bands that I monitor frequently. The 996 is a more advanced radio than the BC-780 that served so well and gives me more monitoring capability and more memory. It allows me to monitor not only analog signals, but digital signals as well. I can store less frequently used frequencies and talkgroups, store systems from areas I visit occasionally without having to reprogram the radio, and have close-call capability for finding new frequencies. It also has several features that make it an excellent choice for a mobile scanner: easily adjustable backlight and temporary lockout. Another outstanding feature is the ability to program in sites for trunking systems and to select which sites you want the scanner to monitor.
The BCD-996T is very similar to the two BC-780s I own in sensitivity and selectivity. In RF-Hostile environments such as the areas around Memorial and Candler hospitals and the area around I-516/US 17, the 996 can be easily overloaded in parts of the VHF spectrum, from 350-360 MHz and from 380-390 MHz. This is no different from the performance of the BC-780 in the same areas. The 996's performance on all of the bands I monitor regularly is quite good provided the appropriate antenna is used. I mostly monitor military aviation VHF and UHF, so I use a Diamond SG7200NMO antenna, an amateur radio antenna that I have found to perform quite well for military UHF. Using that antenna, I have excellent reception on military VHF, military UHF, marine VHF, Federal VHF, and Federal UHF. On the Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF TRS, I've found that I can monitor the Hunter AAF and Richmond Hill sites for much of my daily commute. The SG7200NMO does not work well for 800 MHz however, so I usually don't use the 996 for 800 monitoring. Using an antenna designed for 800 MHz monitoring, the 996 does quite well on the Chatham-Effingham TRS with no problems on digital or analog systems. I've found that I can monitor the Kerry St. site, the Montgomery site, and the Quacco Rd. site from most areas of the city.
I have conventional and trunked systems for the areas along the route from Savannah to the Warner Robins Air Museum, for the areas along I-95 in Georgia, and parts of southern South Carolina where I travel occasionally programmed into the 996. Frequencies for all of the military operating areas, ranges, air traffic control, and military units that operate in this area are programmed in as well. Even with all of this programmed in, I'm still only using approximately a quarter of the radio's memory!
One tool I've not had the chance to play around with yet is "Close Call," which turns the scanner into a frequency counter of sorts. It can run the close call feature full time or in the background; when it detects a strong signal, it tunes the scanner to that frequency and alerts you so that you can monitor the frequency. This is a great feature for event monitoring and for finding frequencies in an unfamiliar area.
Two features that make the 996 a great choice for mobile installation are its easily adjustable display backlight and temporary lockout. You can easily adjust the display backlight on the 996 by simply pressing the volume knob. That cycles the display between backlight off, 3 brightness levels of a green display, and 3 levels of a red display. No longer do you have the problem of the display being too dim in bright sunlight or too bright at night; you can change the setting without having to pull over and play with the menus. When mobile monitoring, it is not unusual to come across some local interference that causes a channel to hang up in just that small area of town. The 996 offers two different forms of channel lockout: permanent and temporary. Temporary Lockout is accomplished with one push of the lockout button; this only locks the channel out until the next time the scanner is powered off and on. Permanent Lockout locks out the channel until you manually unlock it. If you run across some local interference, you just hit the lockout button once; when you are out of the offending area, turn the radio and off (just a twist of a knob) and everything is back to normal.
With trunking systems, the BCD-99T allows you to program the systems by site. You can turn these sites on and off within the system much like you can turn off groups of talkgroups within the system. This feature is great for monitoring systems like the Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF system where not all traffic is heard over every site. It also makes transitioning through site coverage areas very easy, another excellent feature for a mobile scanner!
Mac McCormick, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net
