RF Scanners

[nodle]

Is anyone else into them? Growing up I got into CB's and had a nice base station. Then I ended up getting a handheld followed by a vehicle mounted one. Then I got into scanners. Growing up we had an excellent Radio Shack and it was the place to hang out. I had a base scanner and also a mobile one. (back in those days you could listen to cordless phones too). Years ago on a trip back home the wife picked me up one since I had been talking about them. They are great to listen to for Police/Air/Marine/Weather/HAM/etc. I was also around a lot of people that use to have their HAM license with their own call numbers (they always had them on their license plates). Never got deep on that side though. I have been thinking about purchasing either a discone antenna or a ST2 antenna for outdoors and mount it up on my roof. Will probably go with a ST2 though. Anyone else into RF stuff?

 

[WayneKerr]

I went to a recent Emergency Response tabletop meeting. There were several HAM operators there. The common thing among them, is that they were all old. If you are into it, you should contact someone in either the PD, FD or at the county level to direct them to the local HAMS if you don't already know them. Several reasons, they might be able direct you to a good supplier, sell you old gear, and most importantly, help you study.

In 1996 I was around a group of people that thought HAM was cool, and were going to study for their FCC license. I thought it was a cool idea, but didn't have money for a study book or test.

Have you ever heard of DX'ing? Basically, you just tune into a signal until you can figure out what station it is.

 

[nodle]

Ya @WayneKerr you are right most HAM operators are old. I think it was real popular back in the 50-60s. Times have just changed. To broadcast on a HAM you do need to have a license like you said. I have heard it's fairly easy to get. Not really into the HAM stuff more looking at just boosting my scanner range/quality. Still for such a tiny little stock antenna I can pick up quite a bit including aircraft. No haven't heard of DXing.

 

[nodle]

The sad part is this stuff is slowly going away due to encryption. You use to be able to listen to police/fire etc. I mean it seemed like growing up all your old relatives had a base scanner in their living room somewhere. Now with all the paranoia by our country most of this stuff is going away due to encryption. It's really a dying art.

 

[nodle]

Been kinda getting back into this again. Been trying to understand more about how these work. Thankfully in my area it doesn't seem like they have switched to digital or encryption yet. I found a list based off your state then country that shows which frequencies are being used and what for here:

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/

I programed mine last night and was picking up the local police.