I want to buy a police radio scanner

[vaskidmark]

Fourth appearance of rescue squad and cops in the neighborhood in the last 18 hours.

Looking out the window or standing by the front door yeilds no information except that folks from several streets over seem to come watch the show in spite of having satellite TV (must be reruns of all the "reality" shows, or they are hoping the local TV news will show up so they can get in the scene).

I'm thinking a scanner might give me the opportunity to listen in on the dispatches, thus giving me some idea of why this place is turning into a trailer park.

Please - I need recommendations before I go down to Radio Suck and let them sell me something off the shelf.

stay safe.

skidmark

[Manedwolf]

First, find out if your area has gone to digital yet. Mine has. If it has, you'll need a $400 digital scanner. With anything else, you'll hear nothing but static.

[vaskidmark]

First, find out if your area has gone to digital yet. Mine has. If it has, you'll need a $400 digital scanner. With anything else, you'll hear nothing but static.

Yep, we're digitized.

Whatcha suggest for $400?

stay safe.

skidmark

[Manedwolf]

First, find out if your area has gone to digital yet. Mine has. If it has, you'll need a $400 digital scanner. With anything else, you'll hear nothing but static.

Yep, we're digitized.

Whatcha suggest for $400?

stay safe.

skidmark

Not Radio Shack, IMO. Not much into that, but there's a lot of better stuff from companies like ICOM and the like. There are some serious radioheads about on here who can probably help a lot more.

Also check your local laws. In some areas, it's illegal to have a police scanner in your vehicle.

[vaskidmark]

I'm not planning to put the scanner in my vehicle.  I "work" from home - I'm a semi-retired consultant who obtains occassional commissions for various projects.  A number of them lately involve being awake in the overnight hours, so I'm becoming aware of the rescue squad & police visits to the neighborhood.  I'd like to be aware of what's going on instead of just seeing the flashing light.

Waiting for the radioheads to chime in.

stay safe.

skidmark

[AZRedhawk44]

Fourth appearance of rescue squad and cops in the neighborhood in the last 18 hours.

Is this an older-folks neighborhood where a lot of ambulance/paramedic calls can be expected, or a younger-folks neighborhood with lots of toddlers who can find the drano or pest spray?

What's a "rescue squad?" 

[BrokenPaw]

I "work" from home - I'm a semi-retired consultant who obtains occassional commissions for various projects.  A number of them lately involve being awake in the overnight hours, so I'm becoming aware of the rescue squad & police visits to the neighborhood. 

Job Listing:

Mafia Hitman
Work From Home!  Part-time consulting position!  Earn commissions for various projects! 
Some projects involve night-time work.  Ability to keep abreast of police activities a must.
Salary commensurate with experience.

 

-BP

[cosine]

What's a "rescue squad?" 

Ambulance/paramedics.

[vaskidmark]

Fourth appearance of rescue squad and cops in the neighborhood in the last 18 hours.

Is this an older-folks neighborhood where a lot of ambulance/paramedic calls can be expected, or a younger-folks neighborhood with lots of toddlers who can find the drano or pest spray?

What's a "rescue squad?" 

I'm probably the oldest one in the area - mid-60s.  Mostly young families, mix of HIspanic & Black, significant teenage population, waaay too many vehicles with no useful motor but sub-woofers worth millions - I tell you, MILLIONS!

The folks being transported are neither the elderly (with a few excepttions - see below) not toddles roaming the kitchen cabinets at 3 AM for Drano snacks.  Also a significant number of folks getting chauffered in the police cruisers, too.

"Rescue Squad" is the local EMT - volunteerr organizations instead of county-paid professionals.  Very capable & competent.  They have saved my bacon a time or two when the heart misfunctioned.

stay safe.

skidmark

[vaskidmark]

I "work" from home - I'm a semi-retired consultant who obtains occassional commissions for various projects.  A number of them lately involve being awake in the overnight hours, so I'm becoming aware of the rescue squad & police visits to the neighborhood. 

Job Listing:

Mafia Hitman
Work From Home!  Part-time consulting position!  Earn commissions for various projects! 
Some projects involve night-time work.  Ability to keep abreast of police activities a must.
Salary commensurate with experience.

-BP

Salary comensurate with results.  Fixed it for you.


stay safe.  And stay out of my neighborhood - I've got this gig sewn up and do not want to deal with any competition, know what I mean?

skidmark
 

[Tuco]

Actually the high-end radio shack stuff is among the best for listening to local and regional trunked traffic - Made by Uniden. (the old Bearcat)

http://www.radioreference.com/

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Radio_Shack_Scanners

The ICOM, JRD and TENTEC pro units will allow you to hear a cow fart on the otherside of the county, but are much less user friendly, require discone antennas, scan slower, and can cost up to 10x as much.

The real issue with RadioShack is not the quality of their scanners, it's the quality of their employees.  Find an older guy with his ham call sign on his nametag.  Otherwise you can learn all you need to on RadioReference.

Soakers.

[AZRedhawk44]

I'm probably the oldest one in the area - mid-60s.  Mostly young families, mix of HIspanic & Black, significant teenage population, waaay too many vehicles with no useful motor but sub-woofers worth millions - I tell you, MILLIONS!

The folks being transported are neither the elderly (with a few excepttions - see below) not toddles roaming the kitchen cabinets at 3 AM for Drano snacks.  Also a significant number of folks getting chauffered in the police cruisers, too.

"Rescue Squad" is the local EMT - volunteerr organizations instead of county-paid professionals.  Very capable & competent.  They have saved my bacon a time or two when the heart misfunctioned.

Got it.  It ain't health emergencies that are causing the late night visits from the folks with sirens then.

[Manedwolf]

Actually the high-end radio shack stuff is among the best for listening to local and regional trunked traffic - Made by Uniden. (the old Bearcat)

http://www.radioreference.com/

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Radio_Shack_Scanners

The ICOM, JRD and TENTEC pro units will allow you to hear a cow fart on the otherside of the county, but are much less user friendly, require discone antennas, scan slower, and can cost up to 10x as much.

The real issue with RadioShack is not the quality of their scanners, it's the quality of their employees.  Find an older guy with his ham call sign on his nametag.  Otherwise you can learn all you need to on RadioReference.

Soakers.

Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a Uniden off a discount site than to pay Radio Shack's 25% markup?

[Gewehr98]

We encrypted our Sheriff's Department radio transmissions.  I'd wager that happens in other jurisdictions, too.  A Radio Shack scanner won't help in that endeavour.   

[Balog]

I support being able to legally own a scanner. I also support the increased opsec of cops encrypting their traffic.

[vaskidmark]

Thanks for all the guidance.  All I know right now is that I seem to be getting into technical stuff that is going to take some time wading through.

I'm going to start by using the scanmaster dot com support service for recommendations for an out-of-the-box setup.  I'll probably post again with what they have suggested, looking for more guidance from you folks.

In return, I am offering deep discounts on services in my now-disclosed occupational field, including 2-for-1 pricing if both parties are in the same locality. 

stay safe.

skidmark

[Tuco]

Wouldn't it be cheaper just to buy a Uniden off a discount site than to pay Radio Shack's 25% markup?
[/quote]

No. 

Uniden models do not directly correlate to RS models.
Uniden manufactures scanners specifically for RS, RS doesn't relabel Uniden scanners.

[MillCreek]

Many years ago, I had a nice digital scanner from Uniden.  I found it again when I was cleaning out the garage a year ago.  I plugged it in and set it to scan for the local frequencies.  I discovered that all the local LEO have gone to encrypted transmissions.  The local FD still transmits in the clear.

[G_P]

if you can afford it and don't mind the looks go for a mast mounted antenna on your house. i had one when i lived with my parents and it was pulling in signals from over a hundred miles away if conditions were right.

i have the old Radioshack scanner in my new rented house but the landlord wont let me bolt that 40' mast to the house it picks up the local stuff just fine with the basic collapsible antenna thats built in and thankfully our small town pd has not gone digital so i can hear them and almost all of the counties fire/paramedic dispatch. It will even pick up those ancient cordless phones from the early 90's

for convenience   try to find one that can link to your computer so that you can just download the frequency lists to it instead of manually entering hundreds of them manually like i have to do!

[Ezekiel]

If you really desire encrypted transmissions, there's got to be a way...

Probably involves bribery, though... 

[Manedwolf]

if you can afford it and don't mind the looks go for a mast mounted antenna on your house. i had one when i lived with my parents and it was pulling in signals from over a hundred miles away if conditions were right.

i have the old Radioshack scanner in my new rented house but the landlord wont let me bolt that 40' mast to the house it picks up the local stuff just fine with the basic collapsible antenna thats built in and thankfully our small town pd has not gone digital so i can hear them and almost all of the counties fire/paramedic dispatch. It will even pick up those ancient cordless phones from the early 90's

for convenience   try to find one that can link to your computer so that you can just download the frequency lists to it instead of manually entering hundreds of them manually like i have to do!

Most HOAs and quite a few zoning boards would also axe that sort of eyesore.

[mtnbkr]

Most HOAs and quite a few zoning boards would also axe that sort of eyesore.

They can try, but the FCC sez otherwise.

PRB-1 deals with Amateur Radio: http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=prb-1&id=amateur&page=1

There are similar restrictions on HOAs, etc for the purpose of OTA reception of radio and TV: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Rental properties are different, but that's because the person who wants the antenna is not the owner.

I called my HOA before putting my antenna up (Hustler 4BTV vertical, about 22' tall) and they said they couldn't regulate antennas and to enjoy.

Chris

[The Annoyed Man]

Anybody own any of the scanners from Uniden?

I see them in ham-radio catalogs all the time.