I want to get a good scanner for the house to know what activity is going on in the neighborhood so I can be prepared (most likely for a fire).

What is a good home "base" scanner. Where I live I don't need a digital trunking or whatever they cal it system....

Let's discuss the receiver as well as the quality antennas

Thanks!

You might not need digital trunking capability now but are you sure you won't need it sometime in the near future? There are a lot of departments switching around here (Ohio).

I have recently acquired a GRE-500 (portable) and a GRE-600 (base) and I'm very pleased with the performance on digital and non-digital traffic, trunked and non-trunked. They are virtually the same scanner 'cept for the packaging. GRECOM also makes the same scanners with the Radio Shack name on them.

http://www.scannermaster.com/GRE_Scanners_s/284.htm

Disclaimer: No affiliation

goto radioreference and look in the database for your area to see if they are untrunked, analog trunked, digital trunked, or encrypted and buy the scanner you need. But as already stated you may want to buy better. I bought an analog trunking scanner which was fine for the city of Columbus OH but then moved to Deleware county who uses digital trunked so I'm going to sell mine for a digital.

Here is my area on that site (which looks awesome by the way).
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=191

How do I know if they are untrunked, analog trunked, digital trunked, encrypted, etc? I just see frequencies...

The trunked systems in that area are listed at the bottom of the page
All Trunked Radio Systems in El Dorado County

System Name Type City
AT&T (Formerly Pacific Bell and SBC) LTR Standard Various
Crystal Communications LTR Standard Rescue, CA
Cumulous Communications LTR Passport Various
Day Wireless Systems Motorola Type II Smartnet Folsom
LaRue Communications (Rescue) Motorola Type II Smartnet None
Nevada Shared Radio System EDACS Networked Standard Various
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. LTR Standard Various
Signature Wireless LTR Standard Placerville
SMR Tadlock & Associates LTR Standard Sacramento

The more interesting stuff above that since it just has the frequencies isn't trunked.

The names like Motorola Smartnet II are the trunking system used so you if you want to listen to that system then you have to find a scanner that supports it.

My area for example http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2060 lists fire and EMS frequencies but has this at the top "The Delaware County P25 800 MHz system is now on line and in service. The VHF fire/EMS frequencies will continue to be used for dispatch paging and mutual aid crosspatch only, but most of the below frequencies will be removed from service" So I can still hear a little bit on the frequencies listed but I need to upgrade to something that will do P25. You can go to their wiki and see what each type is, for example the P25 is a digital trunked system.

Yeah - looking up "what kind of system" is important. Luckly, here in NYC, the major services are NOT trunked (although DoITT has been putting in a 900Mhz trunked system for the city)

I have 2 scanners, and rarely use them - in fact, what I did was program what I want/need into my ham radios, which can all receive "out of band"

As for antennas - it's an "interesting" problem

_IF_ what you are listening to is in the "VHF High" and 470 Mhz bands (common), a good "dual band" ham Radio antenna will work really well, and give you some gain - the problem then comes in if you want to listen to stuff "away" from those bands - if you want to JUST add VHF low (aka 45-60Mhz or so), going to a "tri Band" 6m-2m-70cm ham antenna works well

Now - if you want full flexibility, you go to an antenna called a "discone" - which covers all bands - but equally badly Discones work at basically any frequency above their desigen frequency (well, they can have an upper limit based on design), but they have NO gain, and don't tend to eliminate frequencies you don't want

Todd,

I suggest that you join RadioReference.com's forum and ask questions in your state's forum. There are many knowledgeable forum members who should, based on what you want to monitor, be able to offer guidance on what you need and what you might need in the future.

RadioReference.com is a great site for scanner enthusiasts. With a paid membership and the right software, many scanners can be programmed via computer, saving much time and frustration.

Thanks, I think I will join up and see.

I wish I could listen via the PC but I`m on limited bandwidth... thats what I get for not living in big`ol`city

I would gladly give up my bandwidth to live further away from town.

Exactly Easy choice... even though I do work from home on the PC. It's amazing how much BW you can save by optimizing and tweaking your browser, forum settings, e-mail, etc!