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So many questions! (buying a scanner)

PLAFETTE

PLAFETTE

Janie
Mar 3, 2009
18
0
11
Oregon
Hi Everyone, this is only my second post here. I posted about an old 1960s lafayette KT320 in the "repair" thread.

Besides wanting to get that old radio working better, I am pretty seriously considering buying a scanner. Originally I was limiting my price to under $100, but after several days of research on the web, I can see I won't get what I want for that little money, so I have changed my mind and will spend up to about $180 if I have to, to get the features I would like to have.

I should probably mention that I am not interested in broadcasting -only in listening to different kinds of things.

Today I was told at Radio-shack that our local police agencies (here is Oregon), are using digital signals now and also they are switching frequencies every few minutes. I asked some questions but the salesman admitted he does not know much about these things. He said the radioshack stores in this area don't carry many scanner models, so I am back online to do my shopping.

I think that "switching" he was talking about is just what I see described on the web as 'trunking" something or other. (?). There isn't any other kind of frequency switching besides "trunking," is there? I see radios advertised on the web, saying "double trunking" and even "triple trunking." I don't really understand what the difference is.

I would really like a scanner that will pick up international SW broadcast stations, local police and fire transmissions, maybe marine or aircraft talk, and ideally even some SSB talk, maybe some radio-telephone calls and just miscellaneous things like that. For me it is just fun to find and hear different kinds of things on these radios.

Mostly I just like to see what kinds of things I can find when I play with these radios. I have always been fascinated by shortwave radios since my father introduced me to them when he traded something of his for an old aircraft radio. I loved that old airplane radio. This was a real monster and it gave me electric shocks sometime when I turned the frequency dial. (That dial was hand-held and attached to the body of the radio by a four foot long cable!). I think there was a "Hardy Boys" story that involved an old shortwave radio and that piqued my interest at a very early age. I have never even REMEMBERED this bit about a Hardy Boys story - until right this minute!!!!


Anyway, the radios I have had in the past have all been SW - up to maybe 30MHz. Nothing newer than circa 1970. I did have a very cheap scanner for a while 15 years ago, but other than that I have no experience with scanners or HF or VHF or UHF receivers. So I don't really even know what is up on those higher frequencies besides police and fire and ems.

I guess one big question is: Are only police and fire and such using digital signals now or are HAMs and international radio stations using digital signals now too?

Here is the scanner I have been giving a lot of attention to the last few days as I researched and hunted around - mostly because it came up on eBay at a lower price than at online retailers and seems to have some good features:

UNIDEN BC-350C BC350C MOBILE BASE POLICE SCANNER.
But I need to know if this 350 will handle the "trunking" business and if it picks up digital broadcasts as well as the older style continuous signal kinds of SW and other broadcasts.

Before looking so much at scanners, I was almost ready to buy this multi-band radio.
Sony ICF-SW7600GR
This one has a BFO for SSB, which I do like.
I really liked the reviews I saw about this radio.
However this only goes up to 30MHz,
so it would not get any police type signals would it?

Also before I started looking into the scanners, there was also a "Degen 1103" that sounded pretty good to me. But that too, stays under 30MHz.


Maybe all my interests can't be met by one radio. If not, then I will try to get that old lafayette KT320 working better - to cover the non-digital signals on bands up to 30MHz; and buy a scanner if I can get one for under, say, $180, that will cover 500MHz and maybe some 800MHz - and get around the local "trunking" and digital signal issues for me.

I would appreciate some suggestions and/or discussion about these issues and questions - to help guide me towards making a decision of some kind.

I am really grateful that there are forums like this to turn to for help like this. I have gotten great help from a computer forum when I was re-building and improving an old computer last summer.


Thanks!
 

Today I was told at Radio-shack that our local police agencies (here is Oregon), are using digital signals now and also they are switching frequencies every few minutes.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, they're using one of the digital trunking methods available.

I asked some questions but the salesman admitted he does not know much about these things.
Click to expand...

Yeah, welcome to Radio Shack. Would you like to buy a cell phone? :glare:

I think that "switching" he was talking about is just what I see described on the web as 'trunking" something or other. (?). There isn't any other kind of frequency switching besides "trunking," is there?
Click to expand...

There are other ways to switch frequencies, but local police/fire/etc. don't use them. They were talking about trunking. One other thing you need to be aware of is that some police agencies are using encrypted digital systems so you'll never be able to listen in on those. Many are using unencrypted systems however, to save costs.

I guess one big question is: Are only police and fire and such using digital signals now or are HAMs and international radio stations using digital signals now too?
Click to expand...


Digital communications is rapidly expanding. Hams are starting to use digital stuff in the VHF/UHF range, but it's different than what police/fire/etc. use. Hams also are starting to use digital modes on HF for sending and receiving files, pictures, etc. over the airwaves. Of course, now broadcast TV is switching over to digital. Unfortunately a lot of the standards are still evolving, i.e. even ham digital VHF/UHF doesn't have one standard yet. This makes it difficult to purchase a scanner than can receive all of it.

UNIDEN BC-350C BC350C MOBILE BASE POLICE SCANNER.
But I need to know if this 350 will handle the "trunking" business and if it picks up digital broadcasts as well as the older style continuous signal kinds of SW and other broadcasts.
Click to expand...

NO. I looked at the specs and I don't see anything about it being able to handle trunking systems. It's also not digital, and it won't handle SW, either.

Before looking so much at scanners, I was almost ready to buy this multi-band radio.
Sony ICF-SW7600GR
This one has a BFO for SSB, which I do like.
I really liked the reviews I saw about this radio.
However this only goes up to 30MHz,
so it would not get any police type signals would it?
Click to expand...

All of the local police/fire is going to be well above 30mhz. There aren't very many scanners that will receive SW as well as VHF/UHF. There are even less that also will do trunking, digital, and digital trunking.

Maybe all my interests can't be met by one radio.
Click to expand...

I doubt it. Maybe someone else will know if there is a receiver that can do all that, but I've never heard of one. I think you're better off trying to have a separate SW listening radio and police/fire/etc. scanner. I think you're also going to have to budget quite a bit more than $180 to get a digital trunking scanner right now. Hate to break the news to you...

Make sure that your area is using digital communications before buying a digital scanner. It would be a waste to invest in that only to learn that they're using plain old analog. What's your city? It shouldn't be too hard to find out what they're using.
 
... a few words now... and more tomorrow

Thank you!

I live in Eugene.
Yes - I will see if I can find out if I really need the digital or not.

Meanwhile, if I do need digital,
what do you think about this one?
It is only a bit over $200 at eBay (until 11am Tuesday!)

Radio Shack Pro-96 1300 MHz Digital Trucking Scanner - eBay (item 120384401242 end time Mar-03-09 12:07:56 PST)

Here is a review or two:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3548

I will read your comments again in the morning and probably reply to more of it.
It is almost 2am and I am too tired to stay up any longer tonight.

But you clearly wrote very detailed comments and I really appreciate that!
 
Cannot find information on local Police comm type

I did some searching online today but did not find anything that tells me for sure whether or not the police and fire are using digital signals here. There is a web site that does stream the local sheriff's communications. I notice that while most of it is very clear, a few of the transmissions sound like they are being scrambled in some way.

Lane County, Oregon Live Police, Fire, and EMS Scanners

That site has a forum but the one thread devoted to OREGON, has zero posts in it.

I guess before I decide whether to get a scanner I should find out more about what else I might hear above 30MHz besides police and fire and such things. The police are not my main interest in radio listening, they are only a side interest for me and not terribly important.

What else is up there above 30MHz that can be picked up fairly well?
 
Those links are helpful!

Thanks again! These links to Oregon frequencies will be helpful. And knowing that most of the "action" here is non-digital will help me with my decisions too. I have read people saying that eventually the police everywhere will go digital, but they also say that it is very expensive for them to do that. There is very little money for police efforts here. There is not even enough money for jails. People arrested for just about anything short of a homicide are released after a day or two due to over-crowding in the jails.


So I think it will be a long time before they make any expensive upgrades to the radio systems here. That means I can buy a scanner that does not have all the digital and trunking features and still do pretty well with it. This is good.

I have an old real "cheapie" multi-band radio that is not even a brand that anyone would recognize. Must have bought it at a garage sale or at goodwill for $5 some many years ago. The name is "Electro-Brand Public Service UHF Citizens Radio." (It does not have the citizens band on it though).

It does have the 150-165 frequencies of our local police on it and it even has 600 - 655MHz. I haven't mentioned this radio before because when I tried it a few times last week I could not find anything on the SW, PB, UHF or air bands. But tonight I attached that wire I strung up as an antenna and it helped. Thanks to those frequency links you gave me, I was able to take better aim and I did hear two or three police transmissions on that thing.

This thing is very very touchy to tune and the sound quality is terrible. It seems to "grab and hold" onto any signal I come across - although not necessarily right AT the strongest part of the signal's frequency. Then if I try to go a little further to sharpen the tuning, it seems to hold and not release it easily. When it does release it, the signal is off scale completely. So sometimes I have to deliberately go beyond the signal and come back at it from the other direction to try again to get right on it before the radio "locks" onto it prematurely. That is the best I can describe what it is doing.

I am thinking it might be a superheterodyne regenerative circuit. Somewhere in my memory there seems to be something about that kind of circuit that seems to fit this sort of 'locking on' to signals even to the exclusion of nearby signals. This is also a real problem when two signals are close together because it holds onto the first one I encounter and doesn't let it go until I have dialed past the 2nd one. So again, I have to reverse direction so as to come at the other signal first. If I don't keep going back and forth I would not even discover that here were two signals close together. One of the police signals I found tonight was next to some kind of repeating CW that had almost a heart-beat sort of rhythm to it - on top of a steady signal. It sounded much like when someone presses their transmit microphone on and off without speaking, but this thing had a constant rhythm to it.

Anyway I guess I am kind of babbling...

Oh, the other thing that antenna helped me to find on that cheapie was a airplane on it's way to the local airport. I heard him broadcast his headings and altitude a few times. Didn't hear the tower though. I am about 12 miles from the airport.

This cheap little radio did help me confirm that there definitely some local police signals can be picked up without digital equipment. I wouldn't have found them though if you hadn't given me those frequency links!
I could only hear the officer's voice well enough to understand. The dispatcher's voice was way too quiet in relation to the background noise - and the squelch on that thing is almost useless.

Overall though, this is all progress. I am enjoying this.
 
Thank you for your recommendation. But oh my goodness, that one is far beyond what I am allowing myself to spend. This is kind of an "intermittent" hobby for me, not something I do a great deal. That looks like a very wonderful scanner.
 
scanner

Hopefully i caught you before you bought the radioshack digital scanner! The Pro-96 scanner WILL NOT work with the local system. Here in lane county, we have a motorola P25 simulcasted trunking system, which is a very difficult system to receive with a scanner.
I bought this scanner awhile back, and it worked great on the old conventional P25 system. Now that they decided to spend millions of dollars on this new system, these scanners are as good as garbage. i spent numerous hours trying to make it work, and being a RF technician, i swore i'd be able to figure it out.

I have had SOME luck with the newest uniden digital trunking scanner, but it still cuts in and out.

Bottom line: If your looking to receive eugene pd, springfield pd, eweb, or lane county sheriff, the uniden is not the scanner for you.
Not to mention it doesnt do LTR trunking, one of the most common!

You can still recieve OSP, and Firecom.
 
If you need frequencies, or info on differnt radios go to RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference and you will find it there. It is the largest database of frequency information. when you get there click database and a map comes up, click your state, and then your county, and you will get a complete list of frequencies above 30 MHz. As to your question concerning trunking,there are at least 3 or 4 different systems at my last count but lots of stations are now going to a system called apco 25. I am 54 and have been a radio enthusiast all my life, if you need help you can email me and i will help if i can.
 
Thank you!

Randall said:
If you need frequencies, or info on differnt radios go to RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference and you will find it there. It is the largest database of frequency information. when you get there click database and a map comes up, click your state, and then your county, and you will get a complete list of frequencies above 30 MHz. As to your question concerning trunking,there are at least 3 or 4 different systems at my last count but lots of stations are now going to a system called apco 25. I am 54 and have been a radio enthusiast all my life, if you need help you can email me and i will help if i can.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the helpful link!
And thank you for offering your help!

I got my tech license on April 9 this spring and will be taking my general on May 13. I've been able to get quite a bit of sheriff and ems on my 2m radio, but I will take a look at the site you sent me and see if there are a few more I might be able to get.

I just put up a dipole for 14Mhz and hope to Tx on that band when I get my general.

Where are you located? you may reply by private message if you wish or if my email address shows in my profile - email me.
 

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