Anyone own police scanners?

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Badart

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I'm stumped. I recently picked up a Realistic Pro 2004 from my grandfather. I have input the frequencies from my local fire and police channels and I am still getting nothing. My squelch is turned down far enough. I know it works because I can pick up music radio stations. I followed the instructions that I have online and have bought a new long antenna from Radio Shack. I'm stumped or maybe there is nothing going on out there. What ya got?
 
They may have gone digital, just like TV. Check out your local fire dept, they should tell you.
 
When I worked for the FD, once every couple years we changed frequencies. It's supposed to be "public information" so they would blame not releasing it on backlogs.

Also are you sure your using their dispatch frequency and not a special allotted kick down frequency?
 
If you entered the frequencies properly and are scanning those frequencies you should hear them. Maybe nothing is happening in your town.

Moe
 
Yes many have gone digital rendering some scanners useless. I have had that happen to mine. BUT! try this site...it is pretty cool and seems to work well. http://www.radioreference.com/ Just put in your locale you'd like to hear and it does the rest!
 
I haven't followed two-way stuff for some time. In a previous life I worked for a Motorola Service Shop for a few years.

They may have gone to trunking, or digital

OR I'm not sure where the industry is with this, but I believe "we" are in the middle of narrow banding channels ("splitting" the channels) to allow for "more room" for more stations

I assume you know some of the obvious "stuff" like freqs for the local weather transmitters, or friendly up to some of the local amateur radio operators and find out the frequencies for some of the local amateur FM repeaters. These exist mostly in the 2meter, (144-148), 1.25 meter (222-225mhz) 3/4M, (420-450mhz) amateur bands.

Some Google hits on narrowbanding:

https://www.google.com/search?num=3...18730l22l22l0l12l12l1l440l2374l0.3.6.0.1l10l0
 
Badart said:
Not sure what that means.
Click to expand...

Each department has multiple frequencies. Your main dispatch frequency and others that are used to "kickdown" incidents that need their own frequency to coordinate on the ground, without tying up the main net.
 
When I first got my first one, I went to a friends house and copied the freqs, he was using and worked. He had some different ones than what I had.

Moe
 
xlexl said:
...................... "kickdown" ......................
Click to expand...

I have to admit, I've never heard that particular terminology used, either.

Around here, there is no "main net" except that say, in the city, they tend to use one repeated channel. If something "happens" they may clear one or more freqs and go at it.

Also, in certain jurisdictions with multiple channels, many times these are repeated channels, and may have the receiver(s) for the repeater system in different places, so some channels have different geographical coverage.

Much of this is due to several reasons, including budget, and possible RF interferance issues on some radio sites. That is, sometimes a receiver cannot be located on certain hills. One great example of this in the local area is Mt Spokane, which only has one building --the channel 4 TV transmitter. This is NOT what you would call "an optimum receiver site."

I recall one very small city owned site in Pullman, WA that only had 3-4 radios. We located another in there, and ca-bing, ca-bang, one of the existing radio's transmitter caused a "mixing" situation with the harmonic output of another transmitter, and was EXACTLY on the input freq of the new radio, a wireline base station.

So even in small sites, interferance between systems can by a problem.
 
67Dart273 said:
I have to admit, I've never heard that particular terminology used, either.

Around here, there is no "main net" except that say, in the city, they tend to use one repeated channel. If something "happens" they may clear one or more freqs and go at it.

Also, in certain jurisdictions with multiple channels, many times these are repeated channels, and may have the receiver(s) for the repeater system in different places, so some channels have different geographical coverage.

Much of this is due to several reasons, including budget, and possible RF interferance issues on some radio sites. That is, sometimes a receiver cannot be located on certain hills. One great example of this in the local area is Mt Spokane, which only has one building --the channel 4 TV transmitter. This is NOT what you would call "an optimum receiver site."

I recall one very small city owned site in Pullman, WA that only had 3-4 radios. We located another in there, and ca-bing, ca-bang, one of the existing radio's transmitter caused a "mixing" situation with the harmonic output of another transmitter, and was EXACTLY on the input freq of the new radio, a wireline base station.

So even in small sites, interferance between systems can by a problem.
Click to expand...

My FD experience was in NORCAL, we had 3 dedicated channels, I know local popo had a few more but not sure of the exact count. My terminology may be off Im only aware of what we called them in the station.
 
My "guess" is that they're trunking. That means that they are transmitting on one channel and recieving on another. I hear that a lot on my ham radio that pretty much has dark to daylight reception. Try scanning the band edges and write down what you hear and the freq...

You may end up knowing more about your areas freqs than even the local emergency responders do. They think channels, a real radio guy thinks frequencies. No offence to those who do the real work (xlexl). It needs to be easy for those guys to get the job done with no mucking around.

Ham KD0NTS
GMRS WQNH201

Yes, I have two FCC licences. :)
 
xlexl said:
................... we had 3 dedicated channels,.
Click to expand...


My first real job in my senior high school year was weekends, "radio operator" (HA) fer the local PD.

The sheriff of (N Idaho) Boundary, Bonner, and Kootenai counties, AND the cities of Sandpoint and Coeur d Alene were all on ONE frequency, and the Idaho state PD used that freq as well. This was back in the days of "low band" clear down around 39.*** mhz--called megaCYCLES back then. Antennas were great big 5 ft or so quarter wave whips, and sometimes, our city car (yeah, we had ONE) could talk clear down to Coeur d Alene, some 45 miles away. And this is hilly country.

The mayor, who nobody ever figured out WTF HE needed a radio (or a car) for, was "car one." The patrol car was "car 10." Hell, you couldn't have the PD sounding like it only had ONE car!!!!!

(In the summer weekends, someone would man the Cushman "meter maid" wagon, and another would steal the fire chief's car. They would hassle the juvees with beer, and confiscate the beer, bring it back to the office. So then we had "3" cars!!!!)

You REALLY knew what was going on then, and you didn't need a scanner. All you needed was one radio on one frequency.

Our whole city crew was on that one freq, PD, fire, city work trucks, and the "meter maid."

Yup. showin' my age.
 
67Dart273 said:
My first real job in my senior high school year was weekends, "radio operator" (HA) fer the local PD.

The sheriff of (N Idaho) Boundary, Bonner, and Kootenai counties, AND the cities of Sandpoint and Coeur d Alene were all on ONE frequency, and the Idaho state PD used that freq as well. This was back in the days of "low band" clear down around 39.*** mhz--called megaCYCLES back then. Antennas were great big 5 ft or so quarter wave whips, and sometimes, our city car (yeah, we had ONE) could talk clear down to Coeur d Alene, some 45 miles away. And this is hilly country.

The mayor, who nobody ever figured out WTF HE needed a radio (or a car) for, was "car one." The patrol car was "car 10." Hell, you couldn't have the PD sounding like it only had ONE car!!!!!

(In the summer weekends, someone would man the Cushman "meter maid" wagon, and another would steal the fire chief's car. They would hassle the juvees with beer, and confiscate the beer, bring it back to the office. So then we had "3" cars!!!!)

You REALLY knew what was going on then, and you didn't need a scanner. All you needed was one radio on one frequency.

Our whole city crew was on that one freq, PD, fire, city work trucks, and the "meter maid."

Yup. showin' my age.
Click to expand...

Curious..... Lived your life up near Cour'D elene? My Uncle after WWII was a forest ranger in the Golden Triangle and I was his pall berrer, by his request...
 
ramcharger said:
My "guess" is that they're trunking. That means that they are transmitting on one channel and recieving on another. I hear that a lot on my ham radio that pretty much has dark to daylight reception. Try scanning the band edges and write down what you hear and the freq...

You may end up knowing more about your areas freqs than even the local emergency responders do. They think channels, a real radio guy thinks frequencies. No offence to those who do the real work (xlexl). It needs to be easy for those guys to get the job done with no mucking around.

Ham KD0NTS
GMRS WQNH201

Yes, I have two FCC licences. :)
Click to expand...

I completely agree, no offence taken. After 4yrs in the FD and 8yrs in the US army infantry i'm well aware of the caliber of people that are required to run and use the radio, and your right it has to be simplified for us. I didnt start actually understanding radio until I was in the army a couple years. And it wasn't exactly the smartest move I made. Talk about adding a serious work load. Being able to work with "Comsec" "time""frequency hop" and swapping frequencies is baffling to most people. Hell it was to me too when I was in the FD, and there are much more knowledgeable people out there as far as civilian radio goes(ramcharger) because I honestly didn't have a grasp of how it worked than. And maybe I shouldn't have jumped into this thread because of it and I apologize if i just mucked things up. Just trying to help with what I knew than.

Heres what I "know" we had 3 different channels(how they worked the frequencies I dont know I wasnt an engineer I was a nozzleman) I just know that when we got a fire we had to drop down off of the dispatch channel because when you have several fires coordinating people on the ground at the same time dispatch couldn't dispatch anything(the BC ran 2 radios in his truck). I was told PD had more because they generally had more to coordinate. Was just trying to mention to the original poster the possibility that he may have been on a PD frequency but not a dispatch one. Since I have been in WA(Tacoma area) there as been a lot of controversy in the PD over what is said over the radio by officers( think Lakewood and the show "cops") and not all conversations had between officers over airwaves are public domain anymore. How they do it i'm not sure, maybe someone else can chime in but im fairly certain that COMSEC for law enforcement id federally prohibited.
 
ramcharger said:
Curious..... Lived your life up near Cour'D elene? My Uncle after WWII was a forest ranger in the Golden Triangle and I was his pall berrer, by his request...
Click to expand...

If you're referring to the Idaho/ Wyoming/ Montana triangle, that's a long-*** ways from where I grew up. I grew up in Sandpoint, which is only around 40-50 miles S of the Canadian border.
 
xlexl said:
I completely agree, no offence taken. After 4yrs in the FD and 8yrs in the US army infantry i'm well aware of the caliber of people that are required to run and use the radio, and your right it has to be simplified for us. I didnt start actually understanding radio until I was in the army a couple years. And it wasn't exactly the smartest move I made. Talk about adding a serious work load. Being able to work with "Comsec" "time""frequency hop" and swapping frequencies is baffling to most people. Hell it was to me too when I was in the FD, and there are much more knowledgeable people out there as far as civilian radio goes(ramcharger) because I honestly didn't have a grasp of how it worked than. And maybe I shouldn't have jumped into this thread because of it and I apologize if i just mucked things up. Just trying to help with what I knew than.

Heres what I "know" we had 3 different channels(how they worked the frequencies I dont know I wasnt an engineer I was a nozzleman) I just know that when we got a fire we had to drop down off of the dispatch channel because when you have several fires coordinating people on the ground at the same time dispatch couldn't dispatch anything(the BC ran 2 radios in his truck). I was told PD had more because they generally had more to coordinate. Was just trying to mention to the original poster the possibility that he may have been on a PD frequency but not a dispatch one. Since I have been in WA(Tacoma area) there as been a lot of controversy in the PD over what is said over the radio by officers( think Lakewood and the show "cops") and not all conversations had between officers over airwaves are public domain anymore. How they do it i'm not sure, maybe someone else can chime in but im fairly certain that COMSEC for law enforcement id federally prohibited.
Click to expand...

Brother, I said before, the guys that need info RIGHT NOW don't need to know the intrcriceis (sp?) of radio! BTW, I might be moving to Lakewood.... :) Are these guys really dramatic? Yikes!
 
67Dart273 said:
If you're referring to the Idaho/ Wyoming/ Montana triangle, that's a long-*** ways from where I grew up. I grew up in Sandpoint, which is only around 40-50 miles S of the Canadian border.
Click to expand...

Which is very nice territory as well! And yes, that was my uncles territory. One man, one horse, and one rifle. Tough man. Would you like a scan?
 
ramcharger said:
Brother, I said before, the guys that need info RIGHT NOW don't need to know the intrcriceis (sp?) of radio! BTW, I might be moving to Lakewood.... :) Are these guys really dramatic? Yikes!
Click to expand...

I hope you do! it would be nice to have you around always wanted to meet you, been a lot of help and entertainment to me on here.

The cops out here are absurd, but for most people they don't have run ins with em, if you drive a nice car and dont run on the fringes of the law or do anything that falls into the "grey" area your mostly fine. If they for some reason they get a hardon for you, your screwed.

If it comes down to you seriously coming out here PM me ill give you my number and ill give you at least a handful of better places in this area to live in that don't stretch your commute and don't have you living near hoodlums or tweekers.
 
xlexl said:
I completely agree, no offence taken. After 4yrs in the FD and 8yrs in the US army infantry i'm well aware of the caliber of people that are required to run and use the radio, and your right it has to be simplified for us. I didnt start actually understanding radio until I was in the army a couple years. And it wasn't exactly the smartest move I made. Talk about adding a serious work load. Being able to work with "Comsec" "time""frequency hop" and swapping frequencies is baffling to most people. Hell it was to me too when I was in the FD, and there are much more knowledgeable people out there as far as civilian radio goes(ramcharger) because I honestly didn't have a grasp of how it worked than. And maybe I shouldn't have jumped into this thread because of it and I apologize if i just mucked things up. Just trying to help with what I knew than.

Heres what I "know" we had 3 different channels(how they worked the frequencies I dont know I wasnt an engineer I was a nozzleman) I just know that when we got a fire we had to drop down off of the dispatch channel because when you have several fires coordinating people on the ground at the same time dispatch couldn't dispatch anything(the BC ran 2 radios in his truck). I was told PD had more because they generally had more to coordinate. Was just trying to mention to the original poster the possibility that he may have been on a PD frequency but not a dispatch one. Since I have been in WA(Tacoma area) there as been a lot of controversy in the PD over what is said over the radio by officers( think Lakewood and the show "cops") and not all conversations had between officers over airwaves are public domain anymore. How they do it i'm not sure, maybe someone else can chime in but im fairly certain that COMSEC for law enforcement id federally prohibited.
Click to expand...

Roger that and once again thank you for your service. In no way did I mean to mitagate what you do nor condensend. Like I said, Channels were made to save lives.... :prayer:
 
ramcharger said:
Roger that and once again thank you for your service. In no way did I mean to mitagate what you do nor condensend. Like I said, Channels were made to save lives.... :prayer:
Click to expand...

Don't worry I didn't take it that way :) I have an understanding of radio and frequencies now but my knowledge of civilian side is slightly lacking at this point. I probably shouldn't have chimed in, but did.
 
xlexl said:
I hope you do! it would be nice to have you around always wanted to meet you, been a lot of help and entertainment to me on here.

The cops out here are absurd, but for most people they don't have run ins with em, if you drive a nice car and dont run on the fringes of the law or do anything that falls into the "grey" area your mostly fine. If they for some reason they get a hardon for you, your screwed.

If it comes down to you seriously coming out here PM me ill give you my number and ill give you at least a handful of better places in this area to live in that don't stretch your commute and don't have you living near hoodlums or tweekers.
Click to expand...

Roger that xlexl! Thank you so much for what you've done to keep us safe here in the states. Just like my uncle, the Western states are for me and BTW. I am certified to enter any CBI computer building plus working on my fed permit. I'm not just some fly by night dirt bag.

:cheers:
 
ramcharger said:
Roger that xlexl! Thank you so much for what you've done to keep us safe here in the states. Just like my uncle, the Western states are for me and BTW. I am certified to enter any CBI computer building plus working on my fed permit. I'm not just some fly by night dirt bag.

:cheers:
Click to expand...

Well i'm sure there is plenty of work out here for you than :) never thought you were a dirtbag, too knowledgeable and driven for that :) I love the west coast, it would be really great to have you out here though.
 
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