Posted: 12/6/2008 5:19:05 PM EDT
| I found all of the frequencies for my area but am unsure exactly what it all means. Will a standard no-frills scanner work for this area or am I going to need a fancy trunking one? http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=275 |
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Here's a site that will tell you what frequencies are in your area and if they are trunking or not.
Radio Frequencies I use a Rad Shack Pro 95 with interface cable so I can reprogram from the computer. There's a lot of good radios out there. I do like the computer interface option a lot. Its much easier than manual programming. Most Radio Shacks will also program your radio for you if you buy one from them. It only takes a minute or two with a computer interface. Edit: Doesn't look like yours is trunking. Usually they will only say something like Sherriff Smartnet II, you click on that on the site and then you get a list of frequencies some in red. It will typically be as many frequencies as your whole page just for one agency. Here's the closest county to me with trunking. Knox County. If you click on the Public Safety on this site, it will show you typical trunking. Besides frequencies it will have HEC and DEC call out. Tj |
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The Pro 95 is an older 1,000 channel dual trunking model no longer offered by Radio Shack but still available on Ebay. As for do I like it, it blows away my old analog unit for ease of use once you learn how.
I think their low cost equivalent now is a Pro 164 $150 which I have no experience with. Its not a trunking unit. It should however work fine for the OP. For the larger metropolitan areas with trunking its the Pro-96, $350. Of course, they carry Uniden, Bearcat, and a few other brands as well as table tops. The ones I listed are handheld. The reason why I lean RadioShack for those just getting into radios is there is quite a bit of learning curve involved, things like how to program, what to program, software, and computer interface cables etc. If you buy a unit programmed for your area then you can use it while you learn or get software and cables. The beauty of a software driven program unit is you can use the unit in more areas than just your home area by creating programs, saving them to your computer, and simply downloading. As for how neat a scanner is, its quite the nice tool when something unusual is going on in your area. I even use mine when the power goes out to listen to the utility guys to get an idea if they know what the problem is and how long it will take to fix it. Tj |
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I have a Uniden BCD996T that works well for me. If I were you I would look into something that does P25. ALL public safety will be going digital in the near future. [federal mandated] With the newer scanners you have many more options and features to play with and when you area switches over you will be ready for the change. I tried the Radio Shack digital scanner out and was not impressed. I'm used to Motorola gear and the Uniden came closer to what I'm used to. Uniden offers free updates also via the web. Another +++ Again I have tried both the Uniden and Radio Shack side by side and the Uniden is by far the best.
The close call feature on the Uniden is really fun! With close call switched on if anyone with-in a mile or so keys up a transmitter , The scanner will capture it and tell you what freq. and tones the radio in on. This is great for listening into military aircraft. It does this while scanning your programmed freqs. |
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Quoted:
Here's a site that will tell you what frequencies are in your area and if they are trunking or not. Radio Frequencies I use a Rad Shack Pro 95 with interface cable so I can reprogram from the computer. There's a lot of good radios out there. I do like the computer interface option a lot. Its much easier than manual programming. Most Radio Shacks will also program your radio for you if you buy one from them. It only takes a minute or two with a computer interface. Edit: Doesn't look like yours is trunking. Usually they will only say something like Sherriff Smartnet II, you click on that on the site and then you get a list of frequencies some in red. It will typically be as many frequencies as your whole page just for one agency. Here's the closest county to me with trunking. Knox County. If you click on the Public Safety on this site, it will show you typical trunking. Besides frequencies it will have HEC and DEC call out. Tj Can you explain everything you just said in my (dumb guy) language? I have some old scanners from back in the day. I want to get back into it and maybe into HAM. Trying to pick up everything I can. |
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Ok... getting no responses. I just recently came upon another older base / mobile scanner unit that belonged to my uncle. I fired it up and got nothing. Then out of curiosity I pulled this thread up and started researching. I have an old Realistic PRO-2023 and an old Radio Shack PRO-50. The one that my uncle had was a Uniden-Bearcat BC350A. All of these were made before PDs started "trunking". I had no idea what trunking was. What I have gathered is that it is a computer controlled freq-hop.
Here is the wiki article on scanning that lead me to what trunking was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanner_(radio) Here is the wiki article on trunking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunking Basically, trunking made all my old scanners useless. The good news is that there are trunking scanners. I found a partial list of trunking scanners: http://www.strongsignals.net/access/content/trunkscan.html A quick look at Radio Shack revealed that a trunking model can be had in the $220 and higher price range. Sigh........I guess a new scanner is in my future. If anyone needs an older model mentioned above...IM me. 
Now, I have another question. Does anyone know how prevalent APCO-P25 is? I understand that it is an attempt to standardize public safety radios across North America and according to the article includes encryption. There are scanners that decode this but is it worth it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_25 |