Posted: 12/10/2006 12:17:13 PM EDT
|
I'm looking at buying a police scanner as a Christmas present, and I have been unable to find any reviews or other useful information. The person I am buying this for is technology illiterate, so the scanner needs to be fairly easy to use. I'm looking at spending about $150... also looking to use it as an AM-FM radio, if possible. The unit will most likely be used on a boat, so I think I would prefer a base unit instead of a handheld. So, requirements are: 1. Simple 2. Roughly $150 3. AM-FM (if possible) 4. Base unit Please advise. |
| Uniden Bearcat BC350A, simple to use, has all the channels,(fire,police, weather etc) has pre-sets and favorites stored, the deal with this one is its already pre-programmed. Take it anywhere in the country and plug it up and it works, no programming needed, it has frequencies already stored and it works great. bout $100 a few yrs back. |
|
These days, it *may* be more complicated than that. Most larger cities have gone to "trunking" systems, where conversations jump around between a group of frequencies. These require "trunking" scanners which can read the ID tags and follow those conversations around as they frequency hop. Usually, different departments each have an ID, so if, say, you want to listen to the southside fire department district's dispatch, you select that ID, and your scanner will follow the ID through the frequencies. To listen to Metro PD, you select a different ID, etc. These systems require a bunch of programming to set up, but most of these radios can be plugged into a computer, which makes it much easier. There are several different trunking systems, including some newer digital ones, and the newer the system, the higher-end your scanner needs to be. Of course, most smaller cities still use fixed-frequency analog systems, so even a cheap $90 scanner will pick up those. These systems will probably be phased out over the next 10 years or so. The best thing to do is do a Google search on "scanner frequencies seattle" or whatever city/town you are intersted. Someone will have recorded the freqs in use, as well as the type of trunking system, if applicable, for that area. You can also buy guides in book form, but Google is free and usually more up-to-date. You need to know what you want to listen to before you buy. And, you aren't likely to find one with AM/FM radio on it anyway. -Troy |