Uniden BR330T vs Uniden 3500XLT (part 2!)

From Rob Davies:

Hello Mark (and everyone else!) If you own a 330T is it worth getting a 3500? From a civ air point of view, the performance variations between the two scanners are at their smallest in this part of the radio band. e.g. If a signal comes in scratchy with one flickering bar on the sig meter on the 330T, the same signal on the 3500 will be solid one bar with a possible flicker into two bars. The listening comparisons also bear this out. The further you move away from vhf air (in either direction) the performance variations can be as much as two solid bars on the sig meter in favour of the 3500 (The difference between unreadable and loud and clear in some cases..) The 3500 has three different selectable bandplans (3 being the most uk centric) It also has Close Call Do Not Disturb - no more dropouts in audio every two-ish seconds with CC DND enabled - downside = CC DND only works when you are not actively receiving a transmission - whereupon if that's an issue revert to the CC Pri mode which is the same as the 330T's sole CC mode. There are more gaps in the 3500's coverage, but I haven't found them yet from a monitoring point of view. If you *don't* already own a 330T buy a 3500 immediately, it's an ABSOLUTE bargain for the price v features - Since the 3500 arrived I haven't used my AOR AR8200MkIII (which is 2.5 times the price of the 3500) Only buy an 8200 if you need the frequency extremes that it covers - The 3500 is better for all the rest. If you *do* already own a 330T find a fellow local enthusiast to compare the 330T against their 3500... or maybe not... it may just be expensive. Just my personal findings and opinions.... Your mileage may vary.... Don't run with scissors... etc etc etc In my case having bought the 3500 I don't regret having done so :-) btw... Alternative review of the 3500 here: http://www.ukmidlandscanner.co.uk/uni3500.htm btw again as I write this the best 3500 price seems to be with Nevada on ebay @ 150ukp with *free* p&p - other vendors charge the same basic price plus 6 or 7 quid p&p. -Rob

Thanks Rob, I will certainly give the 3500 some thought. I do think considering the cost and the features available for airband listeners, it's got to be the best value for money scanner available at the moment. My 'benchmark' scanner has always been the Yupiteru MVT7100 in terms of sensitivity, and I think the Unidens are equal to it but with a lot more features.

Going off-topic now, I turned on the scanner a few nights ago and immediately intercepted a 'pan pan pan' call from an RAF C130 working London (Swanwick) military on UHF - seems he had lost one engine and required a direct routing into Lyneham. being in Leicester, I lost him as he descended towards Lyneham, anybody else catch this? Anyway, cheers for now and do please hit the comments button if you have anything to contribute. Mark.