Police fire emergency scanners

[Chrisnick]

Hi all. I have an old RS scanner that I believe is out dated. If I wanted to hear police and other emergency stuff what type of scanner do I now need? I am looking for more of a small handheld one.

When my RS scanner worked I used to listen to the airport, no better heads up on weather than the air traffic controllers it seemed like. I have an app on my iPad that I can hear "some" stuff on but nothing really in my area.
(Southern NH). I guess this digital trunking super secret stuff is hard to get.

Any advice on a scanner which will allow me to hear Govt stuff around me is appreciated.

Thanks all!!!

[sonoma]

just get a new digital scanner that will hear 800 mhz with all the lower freq and you will have about all you want. I have some new scanners and they have all the freq built into the scanner for all states. you just program into it what state you are in and you can receave all the local channels. there will be some that you will not receive and what I do is write down all the freq I hear in my area and then turn off all the ones you do not hear so the scanner does not scan what is not in your area. most even have a band where you can program manually all the channels you want to hear then the scanner is not scanning all the ones you do not want.

if you will type in your search bar scanner or police or air freq channels it will give you about all that are in your area after a few quick searches. then you will know what scanner you want.

[DevilDog66]

Radio Shack sells one that is on sale right now that does the APCO P25 phase 1 & 2 modes and will also get government freqs as well. I own the Uniden model BCD436 I believe are the numbers. The Uniden does it all, just program in your zip code and BAM your scanning freqs in your area/state. Its a bit pricey but it is a highly capable scanner. The RS is a good one as well and may be a little bit easier to program. I guess its just personal preference, but you can't go wrong with either one.

[MDYoungblood]

Hi all. I have an old RS scanner that I believe is out dated. If I wanted to hear police and other emergency stuff what type of scanner do I now need? I am looking for more of a small handheld one.

When my RS scanner worked I used to listen to the airport, no better heads up on weather than the air traffic controllers it seemed like. I have an app on my iPad that I can hear "some" stuff on but nothing really in my area.
(Southern NH). I guess this digital trunking super secret stuff is hard to get.

Any advice on a scanner which will allow me to hear Govt stuff around me is appreciated.

Thanks all!!!

Radio Shack sells one that is on sale right now that does the APCO P25 phase 1 & 2 modes and will also get government freqs as well. I own the Uniden model BCD436 I believe are the numbers. The Uniden does it all, just program in your zip code and BAM your scanning freqs in your area/state. Its a bit pricey but it is a highly capable scanner. The RS is a good one as well and may be a little bit easier to program. I guess its just personal preference, but you can't go wrong with either one.

The Uniden HomePatrol I and II are about the best you can get, does the same as the BCD436HP and they can be mobile too, be prepared for price shock when you look at them and figure in a good outside antenna too.

3's

Greg

[Trapper444]

I second the Home Patrol 2. Even with the rubber antenna it was receiving good but now I have a Diamond 130 J antenna on the roof and it is Tony the Tiger GREEAAAAT!
You can get a book that has detailed write ups about the operation. Recomended. Even with the minimal pamphlet that comes with it you should have no problem listening right out of the box. After messing around with it for a day, I figured a lot out on my own. Basically, if you press on a station, (touch screen) it will stop on it and then you can open the sub menu. I.E:, avoid it, info, advanced, etc...

[ Post made via iPad ]

[Trapper444]

After typing all that I just realized I forgot to mention the playback and record feature. We just listed to a call of a guy falling off ladder, 15' head injury. I hit record and the scanner went back and actually recorded the file and saved it.

We recorded a car chase the other nights start to finish. Maybe 6-7 miles from me. Started at his ex wife's house with and In the end the guy ran over stop sticks they had put out. The record feature just records the transmissions so what we originally listened to over about 15 minutes when played back was about 3 minutes of Audio. Very cool.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[jon6667]

i have the whistler tx1 hand held scanner. it sweet but 500.00 for one.

[Trapper444]

We just listened to a guy a few miles from us on 95 lead the town and then state PD on a chase with a pickup truck towing a trailer. 63 MPH but refused to stop. They blew out his two front tires with stop sticks and he still rode the guard rail for a ways.
It all started when he was next to a cop at a stoplight, looked at him and realized it was a cop and then took off. They weren’t even gonna stop him.
I’m guessing alcohol was involved, LoL
Good dinner time listening.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[DevilDog66]

AWESOME!!!! Usually when people stop next to me at a light and look over, they want to run too!

[Thunderbird641GA]

I bought a lightly used Uniden Home Patrol 1 scanner about 20 months ago, and got a new MFJ-1728B antenna for it. I mainly listen to railroad communication with it, but it picks up everything in the area (Police, Fire, Aviation, Taxi, Schools, CB, Ham, Weather, etc.) if I select everything on the menu. It is an AMAZING scanner, easy to use, and can be found increasingly cheap used online. I use a RAM seat bolt mount in my truck. If you want to hear it REALLY well when driving around (the built in speaker works well enough if you have a quiet vehicle and/or no children), I'd highly recommend getting a male to male 3.5mm audio cable and connect it from the headphone jack on the scanner to the AUX jack for your vehicle's stereo. Just measure the approximate length of cable you'll need before you buy one. Then you can blast the receive as loud as you want!

[culperwoodhull]

I second the TRX-1. It picks up on P25 Phase I & 2. Though I mostly use it from home and have no outside antenna hooked up on my vehicle or house, I'm sure it could be MUCH improved with a nice antenna setup.