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POLICE SCANNER
RADIO
Abc's of monitoring "live action"
Scanner radio!
A
guide to The Best "Police" Radio Scanners
by
N4UJW Hamuniverse.com (A Ham Radio Web
Site)
Please read entire article, you will be glad you
did!
If you have ever been on the scene of an auto accident, fire, weather, plane
crash or most any other disaster of any type, chances are you have heard
the chatter of the police, emergency, rescue and fire crew radios as they
go about their daily job of saving lives, welfare, property and enforcing
the laws using their radio communication equipment to coordinate and relay
information at the speed of light via radio. Or you may have wondered just
how those transmissions from private, commercial, and military aircraft
sound and what goes on behind the scenes in a disasters with fire
departments, rescue vehicles, state agencies, highway patrol, marine,
local governments, utility trucks, taxi cabs, ham radio operators and
others.
Most of these agencies, departments, and
others transmit and receive on Federal Government assigned
frequencies in the Vhf and Uhf range of frequencies above standard
broadcast FM stations of the radio spectrum and cannot be heard on your
standard car or home radio but can be heard on "Police type Radio
Scanners".
Click here for an
audio sample...wav file of what you could hear! Allow time to
load~
"Police" type radio scanners designed to receive these
frequencies or bands can be purchased from several sources, new and used
with various bells and whistles and are easy to operate. In this article,
I suggest and recommend one source over all the rest! Scanner Master!
Basic Operation
and features of a
"Scanner"
The standard "Police Scanner" receiver has a
Volume control, Squelch, Scan, Manual, Program and other buttons, switches
and knobs to control the receiver functions and the bells and whistles. It
comes from the manufacture designed to receive one or more "bands" of
frequencies and may have "banks" for each band and may cover a wide range
of frequencies authorized for use by public service agencies and lots of
other not so well known users like Amateur Radio Operators, (Hams),
Federal, State, county offices, utilities, scientific and research,
weather, business, TV station live remote broadcast crews and hundreds
more. "Police" type scanners are usually designed to receive several VHF
and UHF bands and can be purchased with hundreds of programable memory
channels. They are available both in base (home setup) and portable models
and can operate on batteries and AC power. Most portable scanners can
use rechargeable batteries for hours of use or can be operated from a car
cigarette ligther adapter. The portable radios come with a small
"Rubber Duckie" antenna and the table model (base) radios usually come
with a telescoping antenna much like that on a portable AM/FM
radios.
Most scanners, whether they are base or portable, can have an
external antenna added to increase their range.
What Frequencies are Most Active?
The most active frequencies on the "Police" scanners are
the Public Safety related departments such as Police, ambulance and rescue
crews along with highway patrol, fire, ham radio and the aircraft
frequencies. 24 hour weather can be heard easily on scanners from the
National Weather service and is a must in bad weather. Modern scanners are
designed to receive a special "ALERT" WARNING from the National Weather
Service when bad weather approches. You get the warning first when others
without a scanner don't! The Amateur radio frequencies in the 2 meter and
440 band are also very popular and you may even hear your Ham neighbor's
voice on one of the frequencies! There are two general types of scanners,
portable (handheld), and table models of which some can be used in your
car.(Check your state regulations on using any scanner "mobile")! The
portable scanners are battery operated and most can be put in a shirt or
pants pocket or carried by attaching to a belt. They generally perform
well but their range is limited by the short "rubber ducky"
antenna.
Usually an external scanner antenna can be added for more
range.
The table top or desktop scanners usually are more powerful,
(sensitive). They come with a telescoping antenna and can be attached to a
rooftop or outdoor scanner antenna for more range if needed and have
larger physical size and better sound quality due to larger speakers and
are usually much easier to us than a handleld scanner if you have small
fingers.
All
scanners are programable by the user for the particular frequencies or
"channels" you may wish to hear and most even "scan" a band or bank
of frequencies for active channels and add them to the memory and have
connectors to add a recorder or your computer to record the activity while
you are away without missing anything!
You can also attach
earphones to them for private listening! The band scanning and memory
functions are extremly useful to the listener if you don't know the
frequencies in your area!
Over the many years that I have been involved in
Scanning, Shortwave Listening, and Amateur Radio, I have learned that "you
get what you pay for", and sticking with well known name brands and
popular sellers from a company with a good
reputation is the way to go when you want to purchase an
item.
Buying "Police scanners" by checking around and using wise
buying information is no different than buying any product. You must
consider all the pros and cons for your particular use and
consider sources of good information wisely.
"Crowding of the
Public Service Bands leads to Modern Technology
advances"
In the larger metro areas, crowding of the
frequencies has become a major problem and modern technology came to the
rescue with Trunk Tracking.
Since early in the 1980s, when trunking
radio systems were first built, public safety scanning had taken a down
turn. While trunking systems had generally been a boon to its users,
offering tremendous flexibility with limited spectrum, the news media,
off-duty police and fire officers, hobbyists, and others were often left
out with no options.
I won't put you to sleep with how trunking works; but
in a nutshell, trunked systems generally use anywhere from three to 29
frequencies, computer controlled and are controlled by a single data
channel, can provide communications for hundreds of groups of users, from
the dog catcher, police, to the fire department arson squad on a shared
basis. Conversations on trunked systems often jump to other frequencies
between replies. It becomes very difficult, if not impossible, on a
standard scanner, to follow a conversation when one second your listening
to the dog catcher and the next to the Chief of Police on the same
frequency!
This is especially frustrating on
busy urban metro systems with the standard scanner. A trunk tracking type
scanner is a must in large metro areas like New York, Miami, San Franscio,
Chicago, etc.
Years ago when many of us
first began to scan, we knew that our local police operated on (as an
example) 460.100 MHz, the local hospital on 155.340 MHz, fire on another
frequency and the local highway department on 37.900 MHz. With trunked
systems, you can never tell on which frequency (again, among a group of
three to 29 frequencies) a particular agency will use. Many people who
monitored, as part of their work, such as the news media reporters,
off-duty public safety officials like fire or police, and casual scanner
hobbyists like you and I, simply gave up monitoring (scanning) when their
local departments went to trunked systems technology.
It wasn't worth
the hassle and effort. Those news reporters and off-duty emergency
personnel may have suffered, and the scanning hobby, (you and I),
suffered, as did the scanner industry.
Up to this point in time I
have not mentioned any Brand Names or suppliers in this
article:
Uniden was the first
manufacture of scanners to stay abreast of technology and changed all of
the above!
Their new TrunkTracker scanners, allow you to follow
the communications of agencies which operate Motorola analog trunked radio
systems.
Simply put, these radios are amazing! They work
beautifully, they themselves are extremely flexible, and, perhaps best of
all,
TrunkTrackers are a breeze to use and are not priced so only the
rich and famous can afford
them! They do it all!
A trunked system capable "Police" type scanner requires
special technology to listen to or follow this type of system plus as an
added bonus, are still able to receive the older systems you may have in
your area. In short, they do it all
and you can bet your boots that Uniden will stay ahead of technology
to supply us with the best scanners for the money. Uniden's popular
"Bearcat" models outsell others due to the company staying way out in
front of the
competition!
You can't go wrong with a
"Bearcat"
scanner by
Uniden!
SCANNERS -
Background and Uses
Why Scanners and Some History
Communications monitoring has been a hobby, business and a function of government ever since radio was first developed. Scanners, also known as Police Scanners, which were developed in the 1960s and quickly blossomed in the '70s, allow multiple public safety communications channels to be rapidly "scanned" or checked for activity (public safety transmissions are not continuous - unlike AM-FM and TV broadcasts).
The timing of the invention of the scanner could not have been better. Civil unrest in the U.S. at the time, as well as a general interest in learning more about local police and fire operations, helped grow the business.
Soon police departments were using scanners to supplement their two-way radio systems; volunteer firefighters began using scanners to monitor their department's radio traffic; reporters were using scanners to get their stories; and radio hobbyists were using scanners for the challenge and fun of monitoring radio communications systems.
Today scanners serve the same purpose law enforcement, the news media and radio buffs, and for average Americans who, concerned for their personal and neighborhood safety, for reasons of crime, or more importantly today, terrorism, want to stay informed.
Key users and uses of scanners include:
Public Safety
Patrol cars and dispatch centers use scanners to monitor, and cross-communicate with, neighboring police and fire departments. In today’s world scanners can provide critical communications "interoperability.”
News Media
Photographers, videographers, reporters and assignment desk editors use scanners to learn of breaking news stories the moment they happen.
Home Security & Personal Safety
Keep a scanner on your night table, kitchen, living room or in your car, to stay abreast of all police and fire activity in your community. Stay informed of weather or civil emergencies.
Corporate Security
For disaster planning and operations there is no better way to stay informed of conditions around your building/campus than to monitor the communications of the local emergency services.
Public Buildings, Hospital and School Security
Whether it's for storm alerts or any other local emergency situation, having a scanner can keep your employees, clients and visitors safe and well informed.
Neighborhood Watch
Learn of criminal activity in your neighborhood and what you should be watching out for.
Radio Hobbyists
Scanning is not only informative and fun, it can provide an education in the physics of radio communications.
Gain an appreciation for the job performed by police officers, firefighters, HAM RADIO OPERATORS, EMT's (scanning is a great way to learn about the work our public servants perform). Learn about the operations of railroads, airports, utilities and more. Challenge yourself by seeking out distant stations or discover new frequencies to monitor.
Do all this while staying informed to the happenings in your community.
Scanner Master has served the scanner community since 1978. They focus exclusively on scanners and understand the equipment second to none. They also help develop and test many of the products they sell.
Scanner Master
editors also write the best-selling national frequency
guides. When you buy scanners from Scanner
Master, not only do you get the highest level of expertise behind
the sale, they can program these scanners for you as well. Other
dealers who don’t specialize in scanners, or who are just interested in
moving boxes out the door, can never provide the level of expertise they
offer. ScannerMaster will make sure you have the right scanner
for your area. They will make sure you have the right frequencies and
programming if necessary, and make sure you have the support you need that comes from buying from Scanner
Master.
You will not go wrong with Scanner Master....they are professionals in my opinion.
N4UJW
Hamuniverse.com (An Amaeur Radio Web Site)
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NOTICE
The
installation, possession, or use of scanning radios in a motor vehicle may
be prohibited, regulated, or require a permit in certain states, cities,
and/or local jurisdictions. Your local law enforcement officials should be
able to provide you with information regarding the laws in your
community.
Portions of this article Copyright N4UJW Hamuniverse.com
2006
