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I think lots are using unpublished channels now.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.
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.
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.
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.
Ours are trunked also. They do drop down channels but you can not understand them. Sounds like they are underwater. Useless in this area.
A fancy scanner might be useless without the encryption key.
No scanner can use an encryption key, only the agency radios. Most traffic is still in the open with a few TAC channels encrypted. Also they can flip the encryption on or off whenever they please. Even small towns are switching to digital trunking with built in encryption. It’s a multimillion dollar per county or city business. A local county bought almost 400 radios for the school system of all things….
What to do with my scanner when the cops go to encryption?
Encryption is a four-letter word among scanner enthusiasts. Encryption is the act of scrambling a signal to make it unmonitorable to radios not equipped with the proper technology and (most importantly) the proper key. The encryption keys are code numbers that are set up to assure that only permitted radios may hear and participate in a communication.
There is no way to decrypt a modern encrypted communication with a scanner, even with any of the various updates. Contrary to the occasional belief, the “Extreme Update” etc. does not open encryption. Neither will any firmware updates.
The only way possible to hear an encrypted communication is with a properly programmed System Radio programmed with the encryption keys. Occasionally police departments with encrypted systems will provide a system radio with basic talkgroups to media, wreckers, neighboring agencies and others that might have a legitimate need to monitor them. Unfortunately this privilege does not extend to scanner users.
So now what do you do if your agency goes to encryption? Often the police will be the only ones to go encryption so you may still be able to listen to other agencies like Fire/EMS, Street and Utility departments and mutual aid channels, often on the same radio system as the encrypted agency. Often the old channels are still in use for other purposes, as backup, tactical, or car-to car use. Some agencies only have encryption on certain channels, for example Tac or Swat, while leaving Dispatch in the clear.
Your scanner may still be used for many other services that rarely use encryption and you may discover all new listening experiences. For example, railroads, aircraft and business operations may still be monitored. Try listening to these services for a while and you might get interested in them. They can be fascinating, even more so than police traffic.
There is also the (slight) possibility that the agency could remove or reduce the use of encryption. In these days of mistrust of the police, however unjustified, encryption can be seen as a block to transparency. Some agencies have since removed encryption from routine dispatch channels for this reason.
PS: Modern encryption is most common these days on P25 digital systems but can also be used on other digital systems. Older analog systems occasionally used rudimentary scrambling that could be cracked with decoder kits or even monitored by some people that could make it out audibly. Those systems are pretty much all gone these days and rarely encountered due to the ease of being overcome.
Just because the police are gone from your scanner doesn’t mean the scanner is totally useless.
Listening to railroad chatter. I bet that's like edge of your seat excitement.
I've tried to download a couple scanner apps on my computer. They all have lists by county and our county is never on them. I guess they have a closed system. I deleted them all as a waste of time.