Inexpensive Police Scanner

[7shooter]

Following a terrorist shooting ( terrorist lost ) in my town my grandson pointed out that my phone has a scanner. It works pretty good but I am looking for an inexpensive hand held police scanner.

Any suggestions ?

 

[Salty RI]

You might find something here.

Amazon.com: police fire scanners

 

[4011]

Lots of depts are going to an incripited system. You can't listen in. Son gave me a nice scanner. Can't hear the old dept. anymore.

 

[Muss Muggins]

Lots of depts are going to an incripited system. You can't listen in. Son gave me a nice scanner. Can't hear the old dept. anymore.

Public safety agencies are all over the map now with the systems they use. You need to find out what system the department you want to listen to uses before you buy a scanner . . .

 

[Faulkner]

All the departments in our area are encrypted. Kind of a bummer as I used to listen to a handheld Radio Shack scanner well before I was a LEO.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Before running out and buying something, you might want to check online. A lot of police radio dispatch, 911 and emergency services are streamed online. Smartphone Apps too.

For giggles I just clicked on Chattanooga's police dispatch. Fist thing was police dispatch reporting a guy weaving on the road texting... hey ... it's still early in the day.

 

[Okie21]

Go to radio reference.com and listen online. Not sure if it works on a smart phone.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[Okie21]

Go to radioreference.com and listen online. Not sure if it works on a smart phone.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[7shooter]

Thanks for the suggestions.

My PC and my Ipad get the local police and fire broadcasts as does my phone. I think what I'll do is go to a local store and ask them what works here.

Another option for me is to call a friend who retired a few years ago as a dispatcher from the state patrol and ask him.

 

[NYlakesider]

Years back I was a serious scanner listener. I had a mast 20' above my house with a very good antenna and a pre amp hooked up to my scanner. Now understand I know very little about that stuff but a good friend with all sorts of FCC licensees set me up. Basically if it was in the air I could get it. All was well for years and then they went to trunk radio on more and more agencies. I had listened in for quite a while so I sold my equipment just before I moved.

One thing I did notice that our local cop shop did not at that time scramble or be on a trunk system. What they did do with the real important stuff was have a unit call in by a cell phone to the base so you never heard it go out. A typical secret call on the air would go something like this O (officer) 6 call us ASAP! After all the good stuff was over they would then go back to radio for normal transmission!

 

[Mainsail]

You gotta get the terms right first.

Most services are running trunked radio systems, most of those are digital, and some are encrypted. You can, with the right scanner, listen to trunked and digital signals. There are no commercially available scanners to listen in on encrypted signals and it would be illegal to do so.

The trunking schemes are proprietary and the radio users like police and fire agencies pay a license (like the license you have to use your copy of Windows operating system or Apple OS) to use them, and you will likewise pay a license fee to the patent owner when you buy the scanner. A base model scanner is pretty inexpensive, the price goes way up if you need a scanner than can follow a trunked system, most of that is for the license.

As mentioned, find out what the agencies are using where you live before you spend the money. scannermaster.com has some deals.

 

[pawngal]

Cheap analog scanners are everywhere.
Digital, expect to pay $300+ Better ones $500+

You have to know what you need

 

[Abbynormal]

Do a search on XXXXXXXXXXXXXX location live Police radio and see what
you find.