No, not a code scanner to open up someone's truck....Or a scanner for images and documents for your computer. But a police scanner....

Got one for christmas from the ex-wife-to-be folks and it is really cool. It's a Radio Shack Pro-94....pretty slick, can do a lot. It is really amazing what you hear on these...incredible what goes on in a "small town..."

--karl

 

I personally don't have one but a couple of friends of mine do. they keep them on constantly and it is amazing the things that go on in a small town! But they always are the first to know about a wreck or a fight or a road block so its pretty cool. Enjoy your new toy!

 

My buddy has one. They are alot of fun to listen to. You get to hear about the dumb things people are really up too. I swear my friend has too much time, I think that he has memorized over half of all the codes in the book. This thing is a novel of codes that the cops use. Not matter it's a blast, kinda funny sometimes!!!!

 

Don't know how it is in small towns but here in Holland and a few cops I talked to in the States use mobile phones as soon as it gets real interesting, so sorry but the worse of it you might not be hearing.

 

Yeah, the cops here use cell phones, too. Mostly to talk to "citizens" about issues that dont need a visit, or to call dispatch or the police station about some admin issue. Sometimes dispatch says "can be handled by phone" like a runaway report.

They also have "CAD" (computer aided dispatch) where some of the information they need and get goes onto a computer in the car from dispatch. They often say "can you put this on my screen?" so they have more info.

--karl

 

I just hooked up a scanner in my truck a
few days ago (my wife got tired of the noise
in the house). I love it. www.cityfreq.com is
a good site to look up frequencies, even in
small town. They are broken down state by
state. I live in a small town and they really
are fun to listen to. Good luck with yours!

 

i got one. I got it from radioshack last summer. It's sweet. There's all kinds of stuff that goes on that you'd never know about.

 

trapper,

Thanks for the link, I have been looking for good site to get these freq. That is a great site.

 

Yeah, I've had a scanner for years, fat lot of good it does me now. It's basically a paper weight these days. Police, fire, and ambulances are switching over to 800 mhz digital and analog (scrambled) systems. As funding becomes available, expect more cities across the nation to convert over to digital systems.

 

the one i have is able to pick up and track the new digital systems

 

Newer scanners will "sync up to" or track digital trunked systems. But only those using analog transmissions can be monitored (understood). No scanner will ever be able to de-scramble encoded digital transmissions.

It's only a matter of time before all Public Safety/Service systems will be totally digital and thus can't be monitored. However, there are still a lot of cordless phones, walkie talkies, baby monitors, etc. out there that can be.

XLT_D

 

I think I read on the scanner ng that uniden has introduced a few new digital models, dont know what the cost is.

The one I have, a RadioShack Pro-94 is normally $250, it was on sale over xmas for $150. It doesnt do digital. Dont know if it is being discontinued, but those on the scanner list seemed to think it's a great scanner even for $250. I know I am having fun with it...

Radio shack also has the police call book which lists all kinds of freq's not just cops. comes with a CD that is national, the book is regional.

Keep On Sannin'!

--karl

 

BTW, my friend's a cop and he showed me how their new 800 mhz system works. Every radio has a unique code number that you have to punch in to "sign on" to the system. If you don't sign in, the radio is not recognized and it won't transmit or recieve on the system. They don't have to worry about crooks stealing a radio and using it to monitor transmissions.

Neat stuff!

 

are you talking about the onboard computers they have in the cruisers?

 

Dennis: yup, that is how I understand they work. My local psa's use a trunking 800mhz system also. but, they also seem to broadcast on the conventional 15x.xxx as well. I can tell because I can pickup the same conversation over both conventional and trunking. I dont know (havent figured out) if they broadcast from a conventional freq from the car and then it is rebroadcast from the repeater over the 800mhz freq's where it is translated to the talk group ID. Gotta get into it somemore...

--karl