Wanna buy a scanner, any help?

[Jeff K]

Been thinking about buying a police/ems / fire scanner. I saw some priced 

What do i need to know to buy one, and not spending a ton of money?

[IamGCW]

Most are trunked.  You need $$ for those scanners.  Often those service are retransmitted over the web to your smart phone (iphone/android app).  And it is free. 

Check out Grove industries for scanners and find what you want.  Then watch Craigslist for one.  I prefer Icom radios/scanners.

Gil

[Jeff K]

I have a REALLY smart phone. Someone else pays the bill. 
Down side is it is just a phone, not an entertainment center.

[YoungPUP]

Here ya go. Have had one of these for 12 years and worked for everything that I needed for Hazmat and the fire department. http://www.uniden.com/scanners/800-mhz-bearcat-base-mobile-scanner/invt/bc355cg

[Serk]

Here's something you can play with from your computer just to play around:

http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/?rl=rr

[wiggydotcom]

Jeff, I have a Uniden that I really like--a BC246t. It's an analog scanner and therein lies the problem.
A lot of departments are going digital. And digital scanners are very pricey. It wouldn't be unusual to pay 400 bucks for a good one.

Two of our nearby big cities, Aurora and Naperville did a joint venture and went to an OpenSky system. The reason I mention it is because NO scanner will pick that system up as of yet. I think it's somehow internet based.

Maybe someone familiar with Ham Radio or Telecommunications background can chime in.

So I'm just saying what might pick up your local systems today could soon become obsolete-although it's pricey for the municipalities to convert over to new systems.

I would start with Radioreference.com and look up your local towns emergency services and see what kind of systems they are on. That will give you an idea of whether an analog scanner will get you by or if you'll need digital.

[DenverDave]

First thing check Radio Reference website to see which frequencies your local agencies are using and if you need a digital scanner. Analog is the older technology and the scanners are much cheaper. Trunked radio systems arrived about 10 years ago and trunked radio capable scanners are fairly cheap. Trunked digital radios are the future and sooner or later most major scanner traffic will be trunked and/or digital trunked. Keyword to look for is "APCO 25" which is the digital radio standard.

Analog scanners only work with analog systems, digital scanners will work with both analog and digital.

You can program an analog scanner manually, a trunked or digital scanner will, almost, require a computer to program, unless you are very patient and have lots of time (days or weeks).

Most upper end scanners cover the most used frequencies, some include the military air frequencies and some do not. 

Base and portable units offer the same capabilities, the displays on the base units tend to be larger and easier to read.

Analog scanners $100-150
Trunked scanners $200-300
Digital scanners $400+
Programming cable $25
Programming software $30

Other options are scanner applications for your smart phone, tablets or computer. You can listen to radio traffic from all over the country.

I use a Ipod touch on a wifi network to listen to scanner traffic along with my computer and a digital scanner.

Dave

[john]

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