Police Scanner - Suggestions?

[spaggyroe]

My dad has mentioned that he would like a police scanner. He has a b-day coming up so we would like to get him one. The problem is, I know virtually nothing about them.

Does anyone have advise as to brands, models, features, etc that would work well for an entry level police scanner?


Thanks in advance.

 

[jruss]

Not a real scanner, but I have a Police Scanner app on my phone. That would be a cheap $0.99 gift

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Is there much to hear on police scanners these days? I had a Uniden when I was younger (like 15 years ago) and it was a riot to listen to. You could buy a freqency book that listed all of the local police agencies, fire, emt, etc. On top of that you could scan and figure out what was what. Mine had 900mhz before they quit including that (which allowed you to listen to portable phones ). Towards the tail end of my 'scanning', more and more agencies were going to 'trunking' systems and outright digital which I believe was coded? I figured those two things while overcome-able, would limit the functionality of the scanners. Many ham radios will scan broad frequencies, I use mine from time to time if I'm driving or chilling in camp, often I pick up a construction company or a rural ambulance service. I too would be interested to hear of anyone using a modern police scanner.

 

[Caleb]

Is there much to hear on police scanners these days? I had a Uniden when I was younger (like 15 years ago) and it was a riot to listen to. You could buy a freqency book that listed all of the local police agencies, fire, emt, etc. On top of that you could scan and figure out what was what. Mine had 900mhz before they quit including that (which allowed you to listen to portable phones ). Towards the tail end of my 'scanning', more and more agencies were going to 'trunking' systems and outright digital which I believe was coded? I figured those two things while overcome-able, would limit the functionality of the scanners. Many ham radios will scan broad frequencies, I use mine from time to time if I'm driving or chilling in camp, often I pick up a construction company or a rural ambulance service. I too would be interested to hear of anyone using a modern police scanner.

I don't have a scanner, nor have I used one but you are correct that a lot of agencies have switched to trunking systems or digital but a lot are still on analog. You can get scanners that can scan all of those systems (digital ones tend to be $$$ but they can also do analog systems generally). http://www.radioreference.com is a good resource for finding the frequencies to scan.

 

[JL Rockies]

I used mine to listen to the neighbors talk on their cordless phones back in the day when there were only 10 channels.

 

[Coco]

I got a free app on my phone, I kick it on every now and again, and usually listen to the local agencies. UHP is usually the most active, grand county is kinda active. Also able to listen in in other states. I have some california agencies in it too.