It does it all!

I purchased my BCD996T in October of 2006 as a replacement for my analog BC80XLT. I was very impressed at all of the features that it was capable of. It was originally purchased to monitor my local area police in Michigan; however, since they switched communications over to encrypted digital, I can no longer receive most local digital communications. The radio still serves as an emergency weather alert radio and for monitoring the ham bands. It has also served me well on vacations in other states, receiving digital and analog communications from the Indiana SAFE-T system, and the Kentucky digital system.

The greatest advantage of this receiver over all of the other ones (except ones with the same capability) is that it has dynamically allocated channels. There is absolutely no wasted space with this unit, which means you can place even more systems into it to fit your scanning needs. Another great feature is that the scanner supports GPS input. This provides an automatic system management function that will lock and unlock systems based on your location. It also provides you with hazardous road information based on information your GPS has, which is helpful when travelling in areas that you are unfamiliar with.

Some of the problems that I have had with it are: fuses blowing often (I think I was hooking things up to it in a bad way), a scrambled display (this fixed itself), and a backlight issue (a firmware release fixed this). If you have a need for a digital scanner, 6000 channels, or both, then this is the scanner for you. It has an MSRP of around $540, so be prepared to spend some money when you are considering this radio.