What is the difference between digital and trunking scanners

The low-end scanners only display the radio frequency. The mid-range and high-end also allow you to program from the front keypad of the scanner or via PC software an alpha tag so in place of or in addition to the frequency you can also show "Newton Police" in the display for example. It makes scanning more enjoyable. If you're just going to program your local police and fire department though it probably doesn't matter whether you only see frequency.

For listening exclusively at the race track any scanner will do from the low-end to the high-end. We do recommend an alpha-capable scanner though such as the Uniden Bearcat BCAT so you can see program the name of the driver, too. Whatever scanner we recommend for your area please note that gradually new and advanced radio systems are coming online as federal funds are available and as the FCC is encouraging municipalities to switch to digital radio systems.

We can make no guarantees as to when new radio systems may come online and require your area to switch to a more advanced radio system but the process generally takes a considerable amount of time.

So, again, if you're not sure if you need a digital high-end scanner, a trunking mid-range scanner with alpha, or whether a low-end model will do for the area in which you'll be scanning check out our Compare Scanners page. Classifieds New listings. Log in. Search titles only. Search Advanced search…. New posts. Search forums. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.

Thread starter Jeff Start date Jul 29, Barry Stone. First, to answer your subject line: You don't need a trunking scanner to listen to railroad communication. Trunking is used mostly by public service groups, like police, fire, and transit, but can also be used around airports for ground operations, and by bus and taxi companies. Even then trunking is only used in larger cities. Thus, if you want to use the scanner for listening to other than railroads, consider a trunking scanner.

Otherwise, you don't need it, nor do you need a digital radio, for that matter. However, they can be difficult to program, don't have some convenience features that are found on scanners, which can be useful, or those features can be difficult to use.

They also may not cover the frequencies you are interested in. On the ham handhelds, you have to go into a menu system to access the necessary programming item, requiring you to hit 5 or 10 keys to lock a frequency out, and the same number to unlock it later.

Analog trunking-capable scanners successfully monitor trunked radio systems. Larger cities are switching to digital systems because of clearer sound and a greater range of reception. With digital systems, channels may be encrypted, and only authorized users hear the transmission.