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Im thinking about getting my wife a police scanner for her birthday. She's always talking about sirens and wondering what is going on, I don't see anything wrong with that. Anyone got a scanner they like or know anything about them? I've looked online at reviews but I trust you clowns more than the average person. Not a lot more but just more.

I don't have a recommendation, I do own one that I haven't listened to in years.

Back in the mid to late 90's, people were buying scanners , the one I have in particular, from Radio Shack and you could pick up all kinds of things - like going to NASCAR races and listening to the pit crews, or your neighbors baby monitor. Cell phones also operated in the 900mhz frequency range and you could pick up everyone's cell phone conversations coming off whatever tower was closest to you. You heard some interesting stuff, that's for sure.

back then listening to the police was the last thing I was wanting to hear with that thing.

I still have it, its laying around somewhere.

Check and make sure your local LEO channels are public before spending money on one.

I think lots are using unpublished channels now.

There are apps to download on your smartphone for that.

I've seen the apps, none carry our local traffic.

It may be because you simply will not be able to access it then, but if you get a scanner make sure you can before you buy it. Lots of stuff unavailable now it seems. Good luck.

Thanks for the heads up, I appreciate that.

There's a scanner app - better than the physical ones that need to be programmed.

Scanner Radio Pro

In your app store. I use it when I travel too.

All our channels are pretty much scrambled around here.

A lot of public service is digital and trunked, both require a complex to program and relatively expensive ($400 to $700) scanner. You can check on your local area at www.radioreference.com you might be lucky enough to have your area still on analog frequencies in the clear.

Some frequencies are encrypted and there is no scanner available that will decrypt. More and more counties and cities are encrypting now.

whu?
Encrypted, scrambled?

I’ll be durn

Most fire and police radio systems are "trunked". That means there is one central computer constantly coordinating frequencies. A message may travel on one freqency, the reply back on a second, and the replty to that on a third. The frequency hopping scheme is not public, so you might get bits and pieces. Add to that, many systems are encrypted. Odds are you won't get much use out of the scanner unless you are in an area using the old system.

Every once in a while, I used to enjoy listening to fire and police traffic on my ham transceiver. But now, all I get is static unless I tune to Box Elder County, which is still old style.

Just download the broadcastify app to your phone. It's free and just like the very expensive scanners, they are boring as hell after twenty minutes.

again, my county is not on there

I have had a Radio Shack hand help scanner for years and it still picks up police/fire/ems. Sometimes on calls they go quiet, so I assume they have some way to get off of the published frequencies or something. Highway Patrol and most larger municipalities and counties are trunked.

Uniden model BCD 436HP trunked/digital around $520 preprogramed for you local channels.Had mine about 1 years works great.The only down fall if you use batteries verses electric the AA batteries only last 48 hours if you leave it on all of the time.

A fancy scanner might be useless without the encryption key.

I have several scanners... Over the past few years they have gotten a lot quieter as various PD's shift to secure radio communications. I still hear the Idaho State Police and a number of Fire Departments but the local PD has gone silent.

I have played with the smart phone apps but hearing local transmissions is still of more interest to me. Guess I should have monitored Chicago PD over the weekend!

Wife has had and listened to scanners for many years. They can be useful sometimes like when roads are blocked and forewarning in emergency situations.

At the same time though they can be very nerve-wracking like when police and emergency responders are dispatched to vehicle wrecks and you have kids, grand-kids, family members you know aren't home yet or dispatched to areas where family or close friends live and/or work.

Any time our local LEO/EMS/Fire etc goes to a "tac" channel - you don't get to hear that part but there's still good stuff from time to time.