Police scanner

[Dave Lehnert]

Years ago I had a police scanner. Was kinda fun to listen to as we lived close to a fire house. You always wondered what was going on.
The county way back when switch to a new system and was unable to buy a scanner that would pick up anything.
Fast forward to today. I was looking on the web and seems that you can once again pick up communications. I was in town tonight and stopped into Radio Shack and they confirmed that the more expensive units $300+ could do such. Had to have a 3 trunk system or something like that.

Anyone can give me a quick education on what I need and how hard are they to program etc.. I just want to get local police and fire. Nothing fancy.
Just want an opinion other than from a salesman in a store.

[Sam Layton]

Dave, I think you can get them on the computer. Do a google search. However, you can't take it around with you.

Sam

[Tommy Curtiss]

I belong to a VFD in the little community I live in, and about a year ago we went to a P25 digital radio system as the county changes, the radios went from about 250.00 to 1300.00 each,,but the coverage area is so much better,,you might stop by a fire dept and just ask them,they will be happy to tell you the system they are on and then Radio Shack or Ebay can hook you up,,and they also did this with a trunking system so the police had much more places to talk for covert operations,,so the bad boy's didn't know they were coming before they got there!!

But their are scanners found reasonable out there that you can listen to "somethings" like fire,storm chasers,and the like for cheap

[Tony De Masi]

Also keep in mind that any public safety organization in the country can qualify for federal monies through DHS, Homeland Security, for upgrades to their comm systems. Those that can kick in some money of their own are not only upgrading systems to digital but also digital encryption. This will make in increasingly tough to get communications as a listener.

Tony

[Dan Friedrichs]

As Tony said, many systems are now digital and encrypted. You have little chance of hearing them. Trunked systems are not the same thing as digital.

[Don Jarvie]

Google your town or county for the scanner codes. Most are 6 to 7 digit XXX.XXXo here in Massachusetts

If the scanner code follows this format a handheld Radio Shack scanner should work. I bought one to use at the Nascar races and it doubles as a police and fire scanner.

[Dave Johnson29]

Originally Posted by Dave Lehnert

Anyone can give me a quick education on what I need and how hard are they to program etc.. I just want to get local police and fire. Nothing fancy.
Just want an opinion other than from a salesman in a store.

You can find freeware or shareware to help program them.

The scanners usually come with a book full of frequencies but often they are out of date. The frequencies are available online but the best I found was to just set a range and let the scanner find them. Then download the frequencies into the software and identify them.

As has been stated encrypted protocols and trunking has made it a lot less interesting.

[Dave Lehnert]

Thanks for all the help.

I am not sure I will want to spend $200 to $400 for a scanner that may not pick anything up down the road. That is what happened to my old scanner when they went to the 800 system.

[Scott Hildenbrand]

This is a good site that lists frequencies for your area. The frequencies used are all public knowledge data and is required to be disclosed, along with tower locations for FCC licensing.

http://www.radioreference.com

[Paul Atkins]

Sam, did you mean the frequencies or the broadcasts? I think the computer is pretty mobile now. Is there an Iphone ap for it yet? I had a scanner and listened to the sheriff around her for awhile. I think the last time was about a naked neighbor of mine with a shotgun chasing aliens. (No, really.)