Big news. Radio Shack just sent their new digital trunking scanner to the FCC for approval. Photos and the manual are now online.

This is significant because right now Uniden manufactures the only two digital trunking scanners on the planet (BC250D, BC785D) and they charge the ripoff price of $375 for each. But wait – If you actually want to monitor digital systems with those scanners, you spend another $300 for a digital decoder expansion card. So in the end you’re paying almost $700. Total ripoff.

The good news about this Radio Shack scanner is that it’s got all the guts to decode digital signals built in! No extra expensive crap required! Pricing hasn’t yet been announced, but I’m willing to guess it’ll be a good deal less than $700.

Let’s hear it for competition!