Use a radio scanner to listen to all kinds of radio broadcasts, public services, police, fire brigades, emergency rooms and many more. There are several types of scanners to choose from. Prices range from 50 Euros for a conventional second-hand scanner to equipment over 400 Euros with digital voice and triple line detector. Read on for more information.
Steps
Step 1. Choose the types of services that interest you
Police, Firefighters and First Aid are common choices, but there are many others. More and more public order institutions are using innovative technologies to transmit voice and data and which increase the cost of scanners significantly. If these institutions are not of your interest, you can save a lot of money.
Step 2. Obtain a list of frequencies in the area of interest
Buy a scanner frequency catalog from a library. These items are often sold based on areas of interest and are also in a reduced format when they are limited to indicating only some law enforcement agencies and not all radio license holders (such as taxis, businesses, etc.). Google is also a great source of information. To find the frequencies you want, enter "Scanner Frequencies" with the name of the area you are interested in in the Google box.
Step 3. Review the Frequencies
If the services in the areas of interest have frequencies in the range of 800 Mhz (MHz = megahertz), you will be asked for additional options to listen to those services. In this regard, you can find out more in the "800 Mhz" section below.
Step 4. Carefully evaluate the scanners for sale
There will probably be an amateur radio shop under your house. They are great places to at least check out the radios they sell. However, rarely are the staff in these stores truly qualified to give you the best purchase advice. Compare for yourself the features, prices, options available. etc.
Step 5. Learn the lingo
Look for terms and phrases used to indicate the characteristics of the scanner. Most radios offer one or more frequency bands: 25 - 30 MHz CB & 10 Meter Ham Band, 30 - 50 MHz VHF Low Band, 88 - 108 MHz Commercial FM, 108 - 137 MHz Aircraft Band (AM mode), 148 - 174 MHz VHF High Band, 216 - 406 - 450 - 470 MHz UHF Band, 470 - 512 MHz UHF "T" Band, 764 - 775 MHz 794 - 806 MHz and 806 - 960 MHz 800 MHz Band (without cells). Here are some examples below:
- If you are interested in listening to commercial radio, the scanner must be able to tune 88 to 108 Mhz in WFM (Wide band FM)
- If you are interested in listening to the Police on 42.4 MHz, or 460.15 MHz, etc. the radio must be able to tune into these frequencies and the common NFM band (Narrow band FM).
- An older, non-programmable scanner is probably activated by quartz crystals. Years ago, crystals could be purchased for specific frequencies. If you wanted to monitor a frequency of 42.40 MHz, you would have to buy a quartz crystal and install it in an open jack on the radio. If you wanted to do a search on 8 channels, you had to buy 8 quartz crystals. Each crystal cost between 5 and 10 Euros, so a certain amount had to be spent only for the frequencies. Moving to another city meant buying a new set of quartz crystals. Fortunately, programmable radio put an end to the crystal radio era.
The Uniden Bearcat BCT15 base / mobile scanner supports trunk tracking and alpha tagging.
Step 6. How many channels?
As mentioned, programmable radios years ago replaced quartz ones. Digital programming has opened free access to 50, 100 and even 1000 radio channels. A simple memory in which a frequency could be entered via a keyboard made programming free, even if sometimes a little complex. Managing more than 12 frequencies can be a challenge. So much so that some radios offer an option according to a hardware and software system, which allows for quiet programming via computer. The more frequencies you want to program, the more inviting and useful this option becomes.
Step 7. Evaluate search and speed skills
Google finds many frequencies in your area. A scanner catalog gives you even more. But are they all the existing ones? Absolutely not. Many frequencies are not heard. Some because they do not have a license, others because they are clandestine, others because they have not been included in the list, perhaps because they have not yet found. The ability to analyze all frequencies in a given range is a useful feature for locating unpublished frequencies. When analyzing a range, or when locating an already saved frequency, the ability to transmit fast is also very important. Imagine: even if there were no broadcasts and the scanner scanned from channel 1 to 100 in 1 or 2 minutes and then restarted, how many broadcasts would not be heard on channel 134? The scan, therefore, can remain on each channel for half a second. But if only 1 / 10th of a second remained, it would scan all channels 5 times, instead of just one.
Step 8. Decide which type of radio you prefer
A base, mobile or portable radio? It is a matter of personal preference. Some places, however, restrict the use of mobile scanners. Be sure to check the rules in your area with the authorities before installing a scanner in your car. Technology applied to energy conservation and battery life has made portable scanners more popular than ever. However, carrying a radio of that size often generates prying eyes, questions and maybe some theft. Of course, a portable radio can be used with a headset, which can make it more difficult to understand broadcasts. Some handheld radios are installed in racing cars, so you can make it easier to assign a channel to a team's frequency and mark it as a car number, to make identification easier. Radios with a base do not risk the consumption of batteries because they are plugged directly into an outlet. The audio on base units is superior to that of portable radios because the speakers are usually larger and have more power. The displays are usually on all the time and in most cases offer more space to store frequencies and record the name of the main stations. Sometimes, some portable radios also support this option.
Step 9. Maximize reception
You can't listen if you can't hear. Almost all of these types of radios have a replacement antenna for improved performance. Remember that the antenna is as high as possible and that the power or coaxial cable between the antenna and the radio is as short as possible. Choose an antenna that is "adequate" for the programmed frequency bands. If the radio has VHF-Low and VHF-High frequencies only, and the antenna is designed for UHF and 800 MHz only, replacing the old antenna with a new one for VHF-Low frequencies should improve reception. Unsuitable antennas probably won't negatively affect local services, but it can make a difference if you try on a monitor service 2 or 3 countries away.
Step 10. Make sure you have a radio system and jacks for the recorder if you want to combine all the broadcasts received
When the scan is stopped, the radio closes a circuit that starts a tape in record mode. When scanning restarts, the recorder stops until the next activation. A full day of broadcasts can be reduced to an hour or two of seemingly uninterrupted dialogue.
800 Mhz Radio Systems
An 800 Mhz transmission system consists of 10 or more frequencies that make up a "talk group". Each frequency in the group must be programmed into the scanner. A scanner line knows that when a talkgroup becomes active, it must stop scanning for the remaining frequencies, decode the broadcast information, and move the scanner forward to the next active frequency in the group. This ensures the listener is guaranteed not to miss any broadcast. When the swap is complete, the scanner switches to the standard scan mode. Without a scanner that detects broadcasts, the listener is dissatisfied, because at the end of each broadcast the frequency changes with the next broadcast. In 5 short exchanges of broadcasts or "conversations", the broadcasts will be sent to 5 different frequencies of 800 Mhz. They are not suitable for use in a specific sequence. Lineless scanners are unable to decode the information exchanged by transmitters about the next frequency. This causes the user's radio scanner to quietly advance into the next frequencies stored in its memory, frequencies that are probably not the same as those encoded by the transmitters. In addition, online transmission methods differ by manufacturer. If all of the transmission methods you want to monitor are provided by different companies in your area, the scanner will need to support each of the available types. Many modern scanners are able to do this safely.
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Some recent adaptations of the 800 Mhz bands generate (sometimes insurmountable) difficulties in monitoring. Currently, there are 5 or more methods used by companies to transmit at 800Mhz. The simplest are:
Conventional (without line), service similar to that of 800 Mhz, which can be monitored by any scanner capable of intercepting the 800 Mhz frequencies used by the service
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Aside from the conventional method, the others are more complex and expensive. There are major companies that provide these services. Find the most important ones in your country.
Motorola offers Motorola I, Motorola II and Motorola I / II hybrid
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Among other things, Motorola uses the APCO 25 Project, a digital system that can be monitored on any scanner capable of decoding a digital voice. It can be implemented in a line or conventional system.
