What Scanner Do I Need to Monitor StarCom21? 

You need a digital capable scanner. Both Uniden and Radio Shack/GRE make these, but they do differ on what capabilities they have.
Here is a list of the various digital scanners, and what each can do on SC21. There are no other scanners available that can monitor or track SC21 than those listed.

Mfr.

Radio

Yahoo
Group

MFR
Webpage

RR.com
Wikipage

Owners
Manual

Purchase
Radio

NAC
Decode

 

GPS
?

Rebanding
Flash??

Tower 
ID

Radio
ID? 

Discr.
Tap

PC
Programming

Digital
AGC

Comments

Radio
Shack

Pro106/
Pro-197

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

 

 

Yes

Yes

Hex

 

?

 

 

NEW 11/08

GRE

PSR500
PSR600

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

 

 

Yes

 Yes

Hex

 

PSREdit
PSREdit YG

 

NEW 11/07 
PSR600 FCC Docs

Uniden

BCD396t
BCD396XT

Link
Link

Link
Link

396
396XT

Link
Link 

BCD396 

No
Yes?

 

No
Yes

Yes

Dec

 No
?

Link/
YES!

bcTool OR
Butel

 

XT NEW 11/08 
Note 3

Uniden

BCD996

 Link

 Link

996

Link

Link

No

 

Yes

Yes

Dec

 No

?

bcTool OR
Butel

 

 

WiNRADiO

WR-G305e
WR-G305i 

 

Link

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Added 12/08


Explanation of above column headers

NAC Decode

GPS

Rebanding

Tower ID

Radio ID

Disc. Tap

Discriminator Tap

Digital AGC

If you have any updates, corrections or additional information to what is listed here, please send to starcom21 @ radioreference.com (remove spaces)


Discontinued Models -- NOT recommended for Starcom21

Mfr.

Radio

Yahoo
Group

MFR
Webpage

RR.com
Wikipage

Owners
Manual

Purchase
Radio

Hear/Track
800 Audio

Hear/Track
700 Audio

GPS
?

Rebanding
Flash??

Tower ID
Display

PC
Programming

Comments

Uniden

BC296D
BCD796

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

 

 

Yes

No

No 

Yes

No

BCTool OR
Butel

 

Uniden

BC250D
BCD750

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link
Link

 

 

Yes/No

No

No

No

No

BCTool OR
Butel

Note 2

Radio
Shack

Pro96
Pro2096

Link
Link

Link
Link

Link

 

 

Yes

Yes/No

No

Yes

Hex

 

Notes 1, 4


The Radio Shack Pro96/2096 & GRE PSR500/PSR600 display tower ID's in a different format than used by Uniden's BC396 and 996. Most references (including RadioReference.com and CARMA) use the Uniden style of tower ID's. Displaying Tower ID's allows listeners to identify the tower in use & determine range and distance.

Note 1: RS Pro96 & 2096 can be modified to hear 700 MHz. communications after a software mod with Win96 (www.starrsoft.com) but will still not track 700 MHz. sites.
Note 2: BC250 & 785 can monitor digital audio on 800 MHz. sites, but will not track StarCom21.
Note 3: Uniden BC396 and BC996 as well as GRE PSR-500 and PSR-600 can monitor all StarCom21 sites.
Note 4: Digital AGC on, P25 Threshold of 9, P25 Response Time and P25 Reference Gain both to -2 

 

What Scanner Do I Need to Monitor StarCom21? 

You need a digital capable scanner. Both Uniden and Radio Shack/GRE make these, but they do differ on what capabilities they have.
Here is a list of the various digital scanners, and what each can do on SC21. There are no other scanners available that can monitor or track SC21 than those listed.

Radio Shack Pro-106


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$500

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Reviews

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

No

NAC Decode

Yes

GPS Abilities

No?

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Hex

Radio ID

?

Discriminator Tap

No

PC Programming

S

Antenna   

BNC

Comments:  NEW, November 2008

Radio Shack Pro-197


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$500

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Reviews

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

No

NAC Decode

Yes

GPS Abilities

No?

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Hex

Radio ID

?

Discriminator Tap

No*

PC Programming

S

Antenna   

BNC

Comments:  NEW, November 2008

Uniden BCD396XT


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

TBA

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

Yes

NAC Decode

Yes

GPS Abilities

Yes

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Dec

Radio ID

Yes

Discriminator Tap

Yes

PC Programming

B

Antenna   

SMA

Comments:  Announced 11/08; available first quarter 2009

GRE PSR-500


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$550

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

No

NAC Decode

Yes

GPS Abilities

No?

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Hex

Radio ID

?

Discriminator Tap

Yes

PC Programming

S

 Antenna  

BNC

Comments: 

GRE PSR-600


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$550

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

No

NAC Decode

Yes

GPS Abilities

No

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Hex

Radio ID

?

Discriminator Tap

Yes

PC Programming

S

Antenna   

BNC

Comments: 

Uniden BCD396T


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$500

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

Yes

NAC Decode

No

GPS Abilities

No

Rebanding Flash

Yes

Tower ID

Dec

Radio ID

No

Discriminator Tap

Link

PC Programming

B *L

Antenna   

SMA

Comments: 

WiNRADiO

 
Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

Varies

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

?

NAC Decode

?

GPS Abilities

?

Rebanding Flash

?

Tower ID

?

Radio ID

?

Discrimator Tap

?

PC Programming

?

 Antenna  

?

Comments:  WR-G305e   WR-G305i 

Uniden BCD996T

 
Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

Yes

NAC Decode

?

GPS Abilities

?

Rebanding Flash

?

Tower ID

?

Radio ID

?

Discrimator Tap

?

PC Programming

B

Antenna   

SMA

Comments: 

Coming Soon! (Hopefully)

 
Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

?

NAC Decode

?

GPS Abilities

?

Rebanding Flash

?

Tower ID

?

Radio ID

?

Discrimator Tap

?

PC Programming

?

 Antenna  

?

Comments:

Programming Software - Key/Links

B -- bcTool OR  Butel
P -- PSR Edit   YahooGroup 
S / W5 -- Win500 (Starrsoft)  YahooGroup
A5  -- Arc500  YahooGroup

ScanControl  Link
ID Tracker II  Link


Pro96com -- Link

UniTrunker -- Link

Radio Shack Pro-2096


Click for Larger Image

SRP (approx)

$

YahooGroup

Link

MFR Webpage

Link

RR Wikipage

Link

Owners Manual

Link

Purchase Radio

Link

eBay Search

Link

Fire Tone Out

No

NAC Decode

?

GPS Abilities

?

Rebanding Flash

?

Tower ID

?

Radio ID

?

Discrimator Tap

?

PC Programming

?

Antenna   

 

Comments:  Discontinued, Sold out from Radio Shack online 1/09; may be available in store
      Not recommended for Starcom21; can not track 700 Mhz sites, but can monitor with a mod.



See RadioReference Wiki for a larger scope chart for comparing digital scanners  LINK