Need a New Scanner - Non Valk

[carolinarider09]

I need a new radio scanner: 

Story:  Live in a small town with volunteer Fire and a employed Police force.  We use to have a siren that went off downtown, when there was a "fire" alert (called in or whenever the fire department was activated).  When that happened, I'd turn on the scanner and see where that issue was located.

Have not heard it in a while and last night at a local town meeting I met the Fire Chief and found out it had been out of service for five months, awaiting parts.

Also found out that they had changed radio frequencies to 800 Mhz.... So I need to purchase a new scanner.  Would like to have a portable one but I have the ability to attach a Desktop to an outside antenna if needed.   

Looked on line and there is a Bearcat that is listed but it appears that it does not cover 800Mhz.  Well the base station does but not the handheld. 

So.   looking for any recommendations for a scanner that covers 800MHZ.  Would prefer a Handheld but don't want to spend $500.....

Oh, the Fire Chief said that if I took it down to the Country Police Building they would program it for me.  I found that very interesting.   

Anyway, if you have recommendations I would be delighted to hear them. 

Thanks

[Earl43P]

Way back when...I used  https://www.radioreference.com/  for my local scanner freqs on my laptop while at home. They have since morphed into:

https://www.broadcastify.com/  which you can access from any Smartphone and listen without owning a scanner. Saves $$ if your agencies are "on their list".  Mine are, so I do occasionally listen (typically when I hear a lot of sirens or somebody texts my wife or from being notified via Fakebook/Messenger that a motorcycle accident has occurred).

In practical terms, so much actual info does NOT go out on the scanner due to privacy concerns and the first responders do a lot of their "work" by cellphone. YMMV if you're in a small town, our freqs cover a large county, multi-agency dispatch network.

[Serk]

...must be nice... Our police/fire got tired of the citizenry listening in, and switched to fully encrypted radios just to keep us nosy busy bodies from hearing what they are up to... 

[carolinarider09]

...must be nice... Our police/fire got tired of the citizenry listening in, and switched to fully encrypted radios just to keep us nosy busy bodies from hearing what they are up to... 

Yes I had heard of that I some areas.  Apparently not here in "rural" SC yet.   But.......

Our county Sheriff seems to be a good guy interested in what we think.   

[Serk]

Our county Sheriff seems to be a good guy interested in what we think.   

Overall I can't complain TOO much, when I was renewing my FFL I had to send a letter saying I'm an FFL and all that stuff to the CLEO, I e-mail'ed it to the chief of police and asked if that e-mail was sufficient, and he replied along the lines of "Yes, the less we know the better, you're good, deleting your e-mail now, thanks..."...

But yeah..... Still sore about losing the scanner, I think they got tired of citizens showing up to incidents before they did...

[Jess from VA]

This one's probably not what you had in mind.  I got loaded into one of these scanners last week.

[carolinarider09]

I had something like that this year or last, I forget.  But it was lower down as I remember but then,,,,,

[carolinarider09]

Information from another forum:

Yep, they are all migrating from analog to digital. I think the cheapest scanner that can handle some of the digital stuff right out of the box is a TrunkTracker which is around $400. Some have paid upgrade options, but by the time you purchase what you want you're better off just buying the G5.

Now, he can download the Scanner Radio app for his phone that will allow him to listen to the police and fire. It does work really well, but he will be tying up his phone.

Scanner Radio: Listen to live police and fire radio
Scanner Radio is an app on iOS and Android that lets you listen to live police and fire radio. Receive breaking news as soon as it happens with breaking news alerts.
scannerradio.app

The recommended scanner for today and probably tomorrow (unless they encrypt the their transmissions). 

https://bearcatwarehouse.com/collections/uniden-police-scanners/products/uniden-sds100-digital-police-scanner?msclkid=ff1bc167d5701fef7151a261fa323d86