Do people still listen to scanners?

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

one thing you have to remember about streaming sources, you are depending on someone with a home scanner board casting correctly. You are solely depending on how they are programmed and how their scanning it set.

Example. Oak Ridge. They guy that streams Oak Ridge is set pretty good, I have a few more things in my actually scanner that I want that he does not have in the board cast stream. Because I consider them important to me. Plus I have my banks setup so that I can turn off certain things if I don't want to hear them.

I can turn on a Bank to bring in EMS if I believe something is going on with EMS i want to hear, another bank if I want to hear County and Life Star. However I don't always want to hear them so I can turn them back off easy.

Setting up a scanner comes down to the way you want it for yourself. The way I want mine might drive another person crazy.

I highly recommend the RR site for those who want to listen and who live in an area that is supported, but what Vontar says is true about being limited as to what one may be able to hear. There also seems to be a lot of areas of TN that is not supported.

A few years ago someone was providing the feed here in Jackson and had the SO and the PD. Then that person stopped and who ever picked up the feed only fed the SO. Since I am right on the line and still in the city I wanted to hear both.

I got hooked on listening after working as a dispatcher years ago in FL. so my Christmas present to myself last year was a GRE-PSR-500 handheld scanner. I like the idea of knowing what is going on around me. I am also a paid member of the radioreference site so that if I was to move or just take a trip somewhere I can download the frequencies for where ever I am going from the site. That sure beats the old manual way.

GRE is the company that has always made the Radio Shack and Realist branded scanners. I was skeptical as I have always previously had Bearcat scanners.

GRE PSR-500 Police Scanner Radio

I found this one to be a good mid-range scanner for my purposes and on a couple occasions I have even picked up the car to car transmissions from Clarksville, I could not understand them very well but was really surprised to even pick them up from so far away.

I probably dont use 25% of the things that this little thing will do. We have certainly come a long way from the days of buying the crystals for each frequency that we wanted to listen to. I do love the idea of using the computer for programing these newer ones.

I had gone nearly 10 years without having one, the last Bearcat that I had would not pick up when the officers went to a Tac channel, this one does so that is also pretty neat to hear.

I have asked at least one of our LEO members here about the legality of having the scanner in the vehicle with me and he said there was no law against that in TN that he knew of. I will take it with me from time to time and it has allowed me to avoid an accident scene.

All in all I really like having a scanner, especially during the tornado warnings. On Friday and Saturday nights it is amazing just how busy our LEO's are. There is also very few days that go by that there is not a "shots fired" call in this area. As serious as their work is, at times the scanner is very good entertainment. I have heard some really funny things that are said on the Tac channels.

I will hate it if they ever get to the point that we can not hear anything which I do think will eventually happen. But for now all is good and mine stays on almost 24/7.

[TN-popo]

Seems like nothing ever happens in Murfreesboro.

LOL...

[Defender]

I got into scanning many years ago with one of those 8 or 10 channel Radio Shack crystal scanners. Soon upgraded to several different ones. Still have all my scanners: the crystal driven one, also, a Uniden Bearcat 10 channel a Radio Shack Pro-2006 with a computer mod, A Motorola Mobile programmable, a Yupiteru handheld and another highend handheld whose name I cant remember,lol. I kinda got out of it when Nashville went to Digital Trunking. None of mine support digital or trunking, lol. I miss it, but couln't spend too much money to get back into it. Plus I seem to recal that there is a pending "rebanding" project that may make many scanners obsolete if they end up moving the assigned frequencies all around. Anyone know anything about this? Also, Id be open to ideas on how to upgrade or trade some of my current equipment.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

I got into scanning many years ago with one of those 8 or 10 channel Radio Shack crystal scanners. Soon upgraded to several different ones. Still have all my scanners: the crystal driven one, also, a Uniden Bearcat 10 channel a Radio Shack Pro-2006 with a computer mod, A Motorola Mobile programmable, a Yupiteru handheld and another highend handheld whose name I cant remember,lol. I kinda got out of it when Nashville went to Digital Trunking. None of mine support digital or trunking, lol. I miss it, but couln't spend too much money to get back into it. Plus I seem to recal that there is a pending "rebanding" project that may make many scanners obsolete if they end up moving the assigned frequencies all around. Anyone know anything about this? Also, Id be open to ideas on how to upgrade or trade some of my current equipment.

Barewoolf, between www.scannermaster.com and the www.radioreference.com sites you should find answers to any questions that you may have. I must admit that after not having one for so long I was quite overwhelmed with all the new advances that have been made.

[Ropin4gold]

Ive got the Uniden BCD996XT and it will pick up everything except TRBO and Clarksville around here. They also make a portable 396XT that does the same. $450-$500. I've had a scanner since I was 10 years old living in Las Vegas. Good listning back then.

Go on the Radio Reference site and do some reading. It is the best site I have found concerning scanning.

[vontar]

goto

Feed Archives for: Oak Ridge Police and Fire

in the archives for Oak Ridge

on 6/10/2011 time frame about 12:02 a.m. to 12:32 playing about 12:21:41 a.m. they had a report of one stolen BEER, (singular)

archives are only available for about a week, but if you hear something good, you can download it from the site.

I had to download this one. First thing I ever downloaded, several officers looking for a guy that may have stole 1 beer. Good use of my tax dollars. At todays gas prices I am sure they spent more in fuel alone looking then the beer was worth.

[CLC]

Don't know about the " average Joe with a scanner" but the " average Jane with an iPad " can listen here in the states and lots of other countries! Australia is a lot of fun to listen to! I check it every now and then, to see if anyone I know got caught! LOL

[Guest bnoland]

It's going to depend on the department. Shelby county sherrif use radio and computer but they still use the radio a lot. With mpd we use radios for everything. We have a handheld PDA but it is only for reports, checking vehicle and people status.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Don't know about the " average Joe with a scanner" but the " average Jane with an iPad " can listen here in the states and lots of other countries! Australia is a lot of fun to listen to! I check it every now and then, to see if anyone I know got caught! LOL

The internet would be excellent for listening in on Australian emergency channels. For one thing, our USA radio equipment wouldn't work down there because all the radio waves are upside down!