The BC-246T
For as long as I can remember, scanners have divided channels up into banks. For example, in a 1,000-channel scanner, you might have 10 banks of 100 channels each. In fact, the Radio Shack Pro-97 works in exactly that way. There is, however, a problem to this approach. You cannot program multiple types of trunking systems into a single bank. That means that if you want to monitor two channels (perhaps police dispatch and fire dispatch) on one system, you are left with 98 other channels on that same bank that are left unused.
 Some of you who have experience with this type of scanner might be getting ready to correct the above statement, so let me beat you to it. Sure, you can program other channels into that same bank as long as they are the same type of system. (i.e. Motorola Type II, EDACS, etc.) However, in a real scenario, you will likely want to use banks to turn on and off the systems that you want to listen to.
Breaking up channels into banks is a terrible system in my opinion because it forces you to lock-out those channels that you aren't interested in right now. Even with modern-day improvements in managing locked-out frequencies, they're still a pain to keep up with. Uniden has come up with a much better approach called Dynamic Memory.
Dynamic Memory doesn't break up the channels into banks or even into channels. While the Radio Shack Pro-97 identifies itself as a 1,000-channel scanner, the BC-246T doesn't specify exactly how many channels you get (1,600 is about the average) because it uses scanner memory the way that your computer uses memory!
When you are adding frequencies to the BC-246T, you add them into systems. Each system can then be divided into groups. You can program a maximum of 200 systems each with a maximum of 20 groups. If you are programming conventional (non-trunked) systems, the number of channels available is limited only by the amount of memory remaining and the 246T allows you to easily check the percentage of memory used via its menu.
One of the systems I listen to is Ft. Worth, a Motorola Type II system. Ft. Worth divides up police coverage into North, South, East, West, and Central. I have placed each of these regions into groups which allows me to easily turn on and off Ft. Worth Police entirely or just specific regions. I can also tell at a glance exactly how I have things configured via the display on the 246T. Turning on and off systems and groups is fast and easy.
As a Bonus ... Other Things I Like
There are so many things to like about the BC-246T that it's hard to determine which ones to highlight. Many of the best features of this scanner are smaller features that are especially nice because of how well they are implemented. For example, the backlight of the 246T is highly configurable so that you can configure it to remain on for a specified number of seconds, infinitely, or so that it comes on when a signal is received. The latter is a great feature when you're using batteries because it allows you to easily see the source of a signal while saving battery life.
Another great thing about the BC-246T is that it comes with everything that you need to use it fully. My Radio Shack scanner came with an antenna and that's about it. No batteries, no AC adapter, no cable to connect it to my computer, etc. All of that would have cost me over $50 more than I spent for the scanner. The 246T comes with all of the above at no extra charge. In fact, it comes with 2 rechargable NiMH batteries and an AC adapter that doubles as a battery charger.
The 246T also allows you to alpha-tag just about everything. That means that instead of looking at a display that says you're listening to 867.8375MHz and TGID 2992, the display will say that you are listening to Ft Worth police North Patrol on the Ft Worth / Tarrant county system. (You can easily edit these talk groups to display whatever you desire.)
There are plenty of other great features about the 246T that I won't go into here because I really want to shift the focus to the UASD software from Uniden. If you want more information on the 246T, see the Uniden Web site.
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