Purchasing a radio scanner in 2008

I have always been interested in radio frequency scanners, however I never really took the plunge and purchased one.

I have documented myself a lot and i'm aware of the legal aspects of scanning, i'm aware that many sensitive communications are now digital (and even better, encrypted), i'm aware of the trouble you might get into if you always show up first on accident scenes etc.

My questions are pretty simple... Do you feel it is still worthwhile to purchase a scanner in 2008, as a hobbyist? Do we have several more years of scanning ahead or is everything going to be digital and encrypted in the next 2-3 years?

I am considering the portable Uniden BC-246T; any comments on this specific model?

Thanks.

I don't know about everything going digital....but here locally they went to 'trunk units' a couple of years ago(what ever that is) and I only lost a couple of channels(like the tactical ones). I use mine mostly to know when something is going on in my immediate neiborhood, and to know when one of my patients is being sent to the local emergency room(work as a RN suppervisor). Mine is on 24/7, now I can't sleep without it being on....

Just a note... Trunked is digital. Some have digital control channels with analog voice channels.

You can check out http://www.radioreference.com/index.php to see what type of systems are around your area and/or just google for your area.

The only problem is if the local police/fire use encrypted trunked systems. There is no easy or legal way of getting around this. Even 'tho the local police went to this, they still use the old open frequency for normal traffic. They seem to use the encrypted when handling sensitive information.

I still use the scanner to listen to police, local hams, and the power company. The last two are good in bad weather.

-Tommy

Only digital trunking is digital, analog trunking is not. For example the local police, fire, ems around me on an analog trunked system but the state police are on a digital trunked system. My pro 97 scanner does analog trunking but not digital so I can pick up local but not state.

This is what i've heard basically, in my area some police channels (tactical channels?) are digitally encrypted. However, that leaves plenty of open channels to monitor.

As for everybody going digital/encrypted, I have spoken with a veteran HAM operator and he told me that going that route is still pretty expensive so we should still have a few good years of listening enjoyment ahead.

P.S. : I just ordered a Uniden BC-246T online. Woohoo! :P

Larger cities are going digital, but most smaller ones are still analog. I have several scanners that by todays standards are out of date. RS Pro-2006, Pro 2021, Pro-51, 2 Pro-2026 and a few others.. I still have lots to listen to on them.


If you are concerned about it, buy a used one at a Hamfest (do a search for Hamfest they are going on all the time, almost every weekend of the year) Or you could buy one off e-bay, but the prices on e-bay are higher then a Hamfest.

I was correcting the trunking=digital post by saying that trunking doesn't mean digital since there is also analog trunking.

All my scanners are the non-trunking kind, I keep telling myself I need a trunking scanner but have not bought one yet. I’m going to the Dayton Hamfest in a few months (The biggest electronics flee market in the world) I’m going to look there for one to play with.

If any of you are interested in anything electronic the Dayton Hamfest is the place to go. People from every country on the planet go to this event every year. Almost every major radio and electronic company comes to this hamfest. There are hundreds of inside vendors (mostly the new electronic items) and thousands of outside vendors in the flee market area (it’s a very big area, almost impossible to see it all in any depth in one day)

I go to it almost every year; the saying is that if you can’t find it at Dayton, it’s probably not made. Two years ago a guy has an actual German WWII Enigma machine there, I never asked what it cost, had to be a lot. The flee market area is an interesting place to roam around; I always come home with a lot of new toys to play with from this event.

This year it’s on May 16, 17, & 18, 2008

Here is the web address for it.
http://www.hamvention.org/

I just did a search and the German WWII Enigma Cypher Machine is going for 100-thousand dollars right now.

Heck I should buy 2 of them, just to have a spare…

Use radio reference website to look at agencies in your area.(I think there are some Candian discussions and some data there)
Then look at the discussion forums for your area. You might learn of plans that would change the existing systems.

The State of Colorado went to digital trunking (APCO 25) about 8 (or more) years ago. Many smaller jurisdictions such as Counties and Cities are using the same system as occupants of the same towers/frequencies. More are moving onto the system as $$ permit.

If you can't receive digital trunking here you're missing a LOT.

There is also something called "rebanding." This has actually occurred in Colorado. What it has meant is that many digital trunked transmission sites were moved in frequency. Most of them remained within the capability of my Radio Shack scanners (Pro-96 and 2096)
Some additional towers were installed which are in the 700Mhz range and aren't usable by the Radio Shack products.
The Bearcat digital trunking scanners are ok and GRE (the oem of the Pro-96) has come out with new radios that can deal with the 700Mhz sites as well as a few other things.

There are some systems used in some juridicitions for which there are no scanners which work. (Aurora, CO. is one)
And encryption can be put onto the digital systems if agencies desire. So far these seem to be covert surveillance activities.

I find having these expensive scanners to be essential to my situational awareness on a long daily commute so I can re-route around accidents, drug busts, wrong-way drivers and so forth.

But they are costly and non-trivial to program.

Unfortunately digital trunking is going to involve encryption modes that make scanner monitoring of those transmissions useless. DES is already becoming quite common, and with the advent of Project 25, it is likely that most digital trunking systems (especially those in public service will be runnning high level encryption (256 bit) or cipher by 2010. Given the mandate deadlines for implementation thanks to stupid laws like the HSA, most agencies will have to capitulate in order to keep qualifying for federal funding, or else risk getting left behind and out in the dark for mutual aid ops.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I must've retrofitted thousands of trunked portables in central Washington with DES boards, and that was 5 years ago.

YES...if.

If you can afford a digital scanner, get it.
There are fewer and fewer occasions to get traffic on plain analog radios, except in a few places (New York is still very "analog-friendly".

I find that a good general-purpose scanner is very, very handy, in many situations.
I carry a portable ham radio, which I use more as a scanner, when I travel to listen in to the air traffic when I'm stuck on the ground. You learn more from clearance delivery than you ever will from the gate agent.

I listen to the weather radio channels, I tune in news media, and of course, I like to listen to local fire departments.

Well worth it.

What is a digital scanner?

To my knowledge you can’t decode digital signals if you wanted to with any scanner. And I believe it’s illegal to do if you could. Not that that would stop me as I use to listen to cell calls when they were analog. But once a signal is digital it’s unreadable by a scanner.


PS listening to the news media is illegal, I would never do that……..

.

I went with the Uniden BC-246T analog trunking scanner. Plenty of channels, light handheld form factor, DCS/CTCSS, Close Call feature... pretty much the best package I could afford (more or less 200$).

Seems like I should purchase software to program it because, according to what i've read on several forums, it can be a pain to program manually. In the manual, they say that to move from character to character (when inputing names for your frequencies), you need to hold the FUNC button and press 2 or 4 (depending on the way you wish to move the cursor). UGH!

Anyways, sounds like a winner! I really couldn't justify shelling out 500$+ for a digital scanner.

Bzzt!

There are many digital scanners on the market - Radioshack and Bearcat sell them.

http://www.radioshack.com/search/index.j...canner&sr=1

Perhaps you're thinking of encrypted digital, which is a whole different situation.

If you can cite specific law about news media, I'd love to see it.

I can cite tons of laws about radio scanning, and not a one grants news media any special legal protection.

The only thing that's universally illegal in the USA is scanning cell phones.

For the sake of completeness and full disclosure we must mention the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1934 which makes it illegal to DIVULGE (not listen to- divulge) the contents of radio transmissions except for broadcast and amateur.

So recording the transmissions and sending them to the TV news station would be illegal. The news media would have to understand this pretty clearly. They can go to the scene if they hear something on the scanner but they can't use what they hear in the story unless they can get the police to release recordings.

Indeed, that's the case here in Bucks County, PA, where we have a 500 Mhz Morotola Astro system, and as I recall encryption is a trivial addition to the system.

On the one hand, as a civilian, I like being able to hear what's going on, on the other hand, as a responder, it can be a bit frustrating to have "flash crowds" around a call because someone hear the call on a scanner and text messaged a bunch of folks to "go check out the meth lab bust" - so we end up with a lab bust call AND a crowd to be managed. I don't have the people to deal with it.

In Florida, a news person and amateur radio operator are specifically exempted from requirements that do not permit scanners in vehicles. Given the time the section was written and/updated, the intent of the section appears to be that news papers and amateur radio operators provided a public service and could monitor all police frequencies. At the time, all government radio systems would have been "in the clear". There is no specific exemption for "digital" or "encrypted" communications.

Florida State Statues (FSS)

FSS 843.16(1) - A person, firm, or corporation may not install or transport in any motor vehicle or business establishment, except an emergency vehicle or crime watch vehicle as herein defined or a place established by municipal, county, state, or federal authority for governmental purposes, any frequency modulation radio receiving equipment so adjusted or tuned as to receive messages or signals on frequencies assigned by the Federal Communications Commission to police or law enforcement officers or fire rescue personnel of any city or county of the state or to the state or any of its agencies. Provided, nothing herein shall be construed to affect any radio station licensed by the Federal Communications System or to affect any recognized newspaper or news publication engaged in covering the news on a full-time basis or any alarm system contractor certified pursuant to part II of chapter 489, operating a central monitoring system.

FSS 843.16(3) - This section shall not apply to any holder of a valid amateur radio operator or station license issued by the Federal Communications Commission or to any recognized newspaper or news publication engaged in covering the news on a full-time basis or any alarm system contractor certified pursuant to part II of chapter 489, operating a central monitoring system.

^ Yeah, it's so tough for me to keep track of the state laws that I am afraid to bring my scanning ham radios to the U.S., nevermind my "pure" scanners. In Canada, the law is that the airwaves are public domain/property, so anybody can listen to anything i.e. it's up to the source to encrypt if they don't want people to hear...seems fair enough. What can be illegal is disclosing what you hear to a third party, but you can use the info for yourself. So listening to cell phones is allowed, if you can, but most get over that quickly enough.

There are still plenty of interesting and useful "plain analog" things to listen to, at least here. Taxis and towtrucks are a good source of info. EMT, lots of Fire and Police still. All sorts of businesses, etc. The hams and the aircraft, (marine) weather channels. Well, that's just some of what I have programmed in for locally.

Hello there SARbound,
So, how did that Uniden BC-246T work out for you?

I realize that your post was from nearly a year ago. I am considering the purchase of a Scanner myself ... so, naturally, I began searching ETS for information and found your post from 3/2008.

I searched Radioreference.com (as was mentioned earlier in the thread), and it appears that my county police/fire/emergency services are not yet using a Trunking system. But, of course, there is no guarantee that they will not change to that in the future.
A Uniden BC246T or the (less expensive) BC92XLT might do the job for me, at least for now.

So, now that we're into 2009, what's the general consensus from those of you that are experienced with Scanners?
Are they still worthwhile, or are new Trunking and/or scrambling technologies expected to make Scanners essentially useless very soon?

There is still some rebanding going on that may make some obsolete but the big deciding factor is what going on in your AO and if they have any plans to change systems in the near future.
I moved in 2008 and now am in a digital trunking area so my analog trunking scanner can't do the local stuff, time to sell it I suppose.

The national interoperability plans specify digital trunking so if you aren't in a digital area yet eventually you will be.
It's only a matter of time * money. (lots of money)

When you get your first digital capable radio expect a very, very steep learning curve on using it.

I've just started looking at the new digital trunking scanners. The limited offerings that are suitable for use in my area are in the $450-$500 range. It's been many years since I purchased my current scanners so I'm wondering if the current pricing includes an early adopter premium like other electronic equipment does.

Radio Shack was selling the Pro-106 and Pro-197 scanners for $300 (list $500) just before Christmas.

They had huge demand at that price. (they misunderstood the market!)

They are excellent scanners.

They replaced the Pro-96 and Pro-2096 which are still very good digital scanners though they will suffer if rebanding to the 700Mhz range happens in your area.

Digital scanners are always going to be more $, partly due to licensing requirements for the decoding software. Thats why you see 500 digital and 200 analog when there is very little difference in them otherwise.

Yes, the $500-ish price range that most of the Digital Scanners seem to have, makes me hesitant to take the plunge.

Does anyone know if these "national interoperability plans" will also involve some sort of encryption or "scrambling" of the communications? I would sure hate to spend the bucks for a digital scanner, and find out that it quickly becomes useless because the various agencies also start to use encryption that would "lock out" civilians.

RadioReference has discussions in depth.

There is a modulation scheme called ProVoice that's not decodable by hobbyist scanners.

And sometimes some agencies encrypt everything.

In Colorado, so far, only some tactical channels are routinely encrypted. And ProVoice hasn't worked out well so it's been turned off where tried here.

But it's always a risk.
OTOH it's also a risk that the encryption on the system won't work for the users either.

I use my scanners twice daily for the commute so it's well worth the $$ to stay on top of things.

Heard the big grassfires near Boulder paged out last week (for instance)

Good advice... I will do some more digging around at RadioReference. Yesterday was my first visit there; it looked like there was a ton of information there.

Right now, I am leaning toward a "basic" scanner to start with; maybe the Uniden BC92XLT. From what I can determine so far, that unit should work well in my area.

Radio Shack is reported to be selling the Pro-96 digital trunking scanner for < $200 in store.

It's been the workhorse among Colo scanner fans for 2 years. Pretty good price though it's no longer the current model.

Apparently, no. Here in Bucks County we're on a Motorola Astro Digital Trunked System, 500 Mhz, and while radio prices have come down a bit, a walkie-talkie is still over $2,000, and scanners that can pick up Bucks County are still $500, and have been for about 5 years. I don't know why this isn't coming down, I'll suspect that there's some kind of licensing royalty involved, as this would explain the lack of price drop.

As far as a national radio plan - not going to happen in the next 5 years or so, maybe not ever. The 700 Mhz "D" block auction fell apart, NYC isn't playing along with a national radio system, etc. etc.

Thanks, Martin. I guess I'll go ahead and bite the bullet at current prices.

I don't know if your area is covered but, in my area, I can get all of the local Fire, Police, Ambulance, State Troopers, Coast Guard, and a few other things online. You could check to see if there is a scanner set up for your area at:
http://www.scanamerica.us/index.php

Interestingly, they just recently added the Washington D.C. police, that should be interesting tomorrow.

Well, I just ordered a GRE PSR 600, on sale for $449.95 plus shipping. Given the complex nature of these scanners, my geek level will likely be tested and, ultimately, raised. No big deal since I enjoy tinkering with stuff like that and I have plenty of time until our area moves to digital trunking.

What a mess down in DC today, listening to the Wash DC police EMS gives you an appreciation for the mess that the innauguration frenzy is creating... trying to contain crowds, ambulances being routed to distant hospitals rather than nearest trauma center because they need to avoid the federal area... DC police and Park Police having different agendas... better to watch on tv.

They were doing roll call for all units to see where available resources are, trying to find some folks to relieve officers that had been at intersections since midnight (it's 11:30am local time), tough to stay sharp after 12 hours on a standing detail.