In article ,
Al Klein wrote:

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 10:43:40 -0600, Paul Carter
said in rec.radio.scanner:

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)?

A RS Pro-97 or Uniden 246 will do. Or, if you want to prepare for
digital in the future, a RS Pro-96 or Uniden 396. (I'm assuming
hand-held. Everything but the 396 comes in mobile flavors too.) The
SP system is digital, so if that's important to you ("important", as
in a couple of hundred dollars more) your choices are the Pro-96 (or
2096 mobile), the Uniden 396 or, if you want computer control, digital
and mobile, the Uniden 996 which a) won't be out for a few months and
b) will carry a price tag near $900.

You have to decide whether you want analog-only/analog-digital,
computer control or just computer programming, fire tone-out (Uniden
only), frequency counter (Uniden only), etc. Look at all the specs,
and the prices (RS has in-store reductions on at least the Pro-97 -
maybe the 96 also - through the middle of December, but only in-store,
not on line), and decide which one best suits your needs,
reception-wise, feature-wise and price-wise.

Remember, only you can prevent ... er ... make the choice.

The State Police system is still analog EDACS, no digital at all.

It is true however that eventually the ISP system will migrate to the
digital StarCom system but the Chicago area will be the last to go, not
likely to occur until at least 2008.

Currently only the McLean County area (Bloomington/Normal) is actively
using StarCom, some other downstate sites are in testing phase.