RadioBanter - buying 780 or 245xlt

"Dwayne" wrote in message
.net...
In article , gtucker1
@wi.rr.com says...
i have chance to either a 780xlt or 245 xlt a base scanner is nice but a
handheld is more portable looking for suggestions whats missing if i
take
the 245xlt.....

You will be missing a bunch. You need to ask your self if you want to
carry the radio around with you or just use it in you house or car. The
780 is a whole lot more radio then the 245.

Agree there, I bought both (stung the savings account a little but, but what
the hey I can always put the money back later). I keep the 245XLT with me
all the time, and use a car kit to feed the sound from the 245XLT to the
vehicle's stereo. It sits in the cup holder. The 245XLT is very portable,
even had it in the camera bag with the antenna pointing out, and the sound
fed
into portable CD headphones.

It can be broken down easily and slipped into the glove box. I spent extra
at a radio shop in Seattle and got a very good rubber duckie for it.

I've had the 780XLT with me on longer trips. It's good as more frequencies
can be packed into a specific channel bank
("1" for fire/police, 3 for aviation, 4 for railways, 5 for marine, etc.)

The problem with the 245XLT is that it doesn't have alpha numeric display as
does the 780XLT. Too bad too, sure wish
Uniden had put in that feature when the 245XLT went to its final design
approval.

Then 780XLT will require some tuck in cables to a BNC connector that will
fit the cable going from the antenna. I spent some
time placing cable in the vehicle for a magnetic mounted antenna. If done
right the cabling won't be butt ugly and you'll end up
with a spffy clean clean installation.

The 780XLT is 200 ch more (roughly 2 more banks) than the 245, but for me,
the 780XLT is great as a base station radio.

I'd say the best thing if you want to move your scanner around, I'd go for
the 245XLT, and then later on get yourself a
780XLT. In each case once you've unpacked the 245XLT get yourself
programming software if you want to change around
the scanner on trips. It also helps to clean the scanner of unused
frequencies.

The digital models? Unless there is active APCO-25 radio activity in your
area, I wouldn't bother even with the additional
channel capacity. The digital models will not work on Pro-Voice based radio
no matter how hard you press the buttons and
grunt and grit your teeth or grovel to the gods.