Police / Emergency Scanners

AcidMaX · 2004-11-01, 07:18 AM

Being an ex-fireman/paramedic (long time ago now

) i have one next to my desk. It's great to hear what is going on since we have the all-in-one warning system here. That is the big whistle the blows for everything and the same sound is for fires, tornado warnings etc, so we keep it on just to hear what is happening at the time.

The thing to keep in mind with scanners is who/what you want to listen to. You don't just go out and buy a scanner and expect to pick up everything. Certain police organizations are now using trunked frequencies which means you need to have a trunked scanner to pick them up. You need to figure out what you want to listen to, then research what frequencies the police / fire / ambulance units are using around your area and then get the scanner that fits. It's not always as easy and just picking one up.

You can get scanners from different places. BearCat makes some ok scanners, I have a radio shack one but they are usually a rip-off. You can find tons of them online depending on your budget of what you want to spend. You can even get some of the good ones used on E-Bay.

Hope that helps.

Andy

2004-11-01, 07:18 AM	#11
AcidMaX Programming till my fingers bleed. Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Michigan Posts: 876	Being an ex-fireman/paramedic (long time ago now ) i have one next to my desk. It's great to hear what is going on since we have the all-in-one warning system here. That is the big whistle the blows for everything and the same sound is for fires, tornado warnings etc, so we keep it on just to hear what is happening at the time. The thing to keep in mind with scanners is who/what you want to listen to. You don't just go out and buy a scanner and expect to pick up everything. Certain police organizations are now using trunked frequencies which means you need to have a trunked scanner to pick them up. You need to figure out what you want to listen to, then research what frequencies the police / fire / ambulance units are using around your area and then get the scanner that fits. It's not always as easy and just picking one up. You can get scanners from different places. BearCat makes some ok scanners, I have a radio shack one but they are usually a rip-off. You can find tons of them online depending on your budget of what you want to spend. You can even get some of the good ones used on E-Bay. Hope that helps. Andy