Tag Archives: Police Scanners

What Law Enforcement Thinks about People Using Scanner Radios

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radio

Most police scanners are not illegal to use in a fixed location – say, your home or office — or in vehicles, in certain states. The primary thing to remember, when monitoring chatter on scanner radios, is this information is being communicated between the dispatch center and the agency dispatched to investigate the call. Police agencies do not think these types of communications require blocking to prevent the general public from hearing the communications over a police radio scanner.

Law enforcement wants people to be aware of and understand that the information communicated over police scanners should not be taken as fact. For example, someone reports a suspicious person lurking behind the bushes outside of their neighbor’s home. Until the police investigate the call, it does not necessary mean there really is a person. Once the police arrive on the scene, the suspicious person could turn out to be a chair with a tarp draped over it, and a rake leaned against the chair in such a manner to make it appear like it is a person.

Further, police do not always report over scanner radios the outcome after investigating calls. In cases where there is an event in progress, police have other means for communicating with dispatchers and other key agencies, like their in-vehicle secure computers and cell phones. Whenever information is vital to a case or sensitive in nature, it is normally not openly shared over police scanners.

Now that you understand this essential bit of information about police scanners, using these devices is an ideal method for learning what is going on in your community. Not everything communicated over scanners is published in your local paper or broadcast on the evening news. In addition, a radio scanner is used by some people as a method of being alerted about a weather emergency, civil emergency, or other critical event occurring in your community, as it is occurring. For instance, several scanner radio models operate off of batteries. If you lost power due to a severe thunderstorm, your scanner would be an effective way to be kept updated about the status of the storm.

However, whenever communications are not blocked, people are still able to find out basic information about events in their local community. Just remember this is preliminary information about the event, and there could easily be more details not being openly communicated.

To learn more about police scanner radios, or for assistance in selecting a model, contact us at 1-800-SCANNER (1-800-722-6637) today.

Why People Use Police Scanners

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scannerPolice scanners allow people to listen to communications of local police, fire, public works, and other agencies in their communities. The scanner is similar to a radio receiver, as it scans multiple frequencies and finds transmissions as they occur. Keep in mind, the radio scanner is a one-way receiver for monitoring two-way radio traffic, and it does not transmit. For example, your local dispatcher sends a communication to the fire department. Your fire scanner picks up the transmission and allows you to hear what the dispatcher is saying. When the fire department responds again, the scanner allows you to hear the response.

People use police scanners for various reasons. Some people are radio enthusiasts and enjoy listening to their scanners to find out what is going on within the local community. Off duty police officers, volunteer and off duty full time fire fighters, EMTs, and other professionals use scanners to be alerted to events going on locally, as well as in nearby communities. News agencies also use scanners to find out if there are any interesting activities going on which should be reported to the general public on the evening news broadcast or in the morning newspaper.

Why People Are Choosing Police Scanners over Police Scanner Apps

There are numerous police scanning apps for mobile devices and smart phones. However, the use of these apps may be illegal in many states whenever they are used outside of the home. On the other hand, it is perfectly legal to purchase, own, and operate police scanners inside your home. There are a few exceptions you should be aware of, depending on where you live. It is your responsibility to review your state’s laws in regards to scanner usage. For example, in certain states it is against the law to use a scanner in your vehicle. In most states it is illegal to use a scanner or scanner app while committing a crime.

Another reason people prefer scanners over apps is because they monitor a wider range of frequencies, including older analog transmissions. Many of the free apps you find online only monitor specific channel frequencies and digital transmissions, so you may only hear chatter from your local police department, but not pick up any traffic from fire departments, emergency responders, and other agencies in your location. If you want to know why the fire truck just drove past your home with its lights on, you need to use a real scanner instead of a mobile app.

One key benefit of using scanners is they operate independently and can be left on for as long as you want to listen. With a mobile app, you have to open the right one in order to monitor communications. If you receive a phone call, text message, or want to use a different app, you have to close the scanning app. Additionally, if your battery goes dead or you lose cellular service, the app stops working.

For more information about police scanners or assistance in choosing a model, contact us today at 1-800-SCANNER (1-800-722-6637).

Scanner Master Road Trip – Upcoming Dayton Hamvention

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By Richard Barnett

Dayton Hamvention 2012
Location: Dayton, OH – Directions
Dates: Friday, May 18, 2012 – Sunday, May 20, 2012
Booth: #402 – Show Map

Scanner Master will be back at its usual inside booth #402 at the Dayton Hamvention in Ohio from May 18th-20th. Rich Barnett will be there along with Gommert Buysen of Butel ARC Software. If you’ve never been to the Dayton Hamvention it’s the world’s largest gathering of Ham radio operators including a great many scanner enthusiasts. GRE, Icom and others will have booths and Rich and Gommert will be in the Scanner Master booth to answer any questions and of course sell scanners and accessories.

Please stop by and say hello and take a look at some of our new products and accessories.

Make sure you check the Scanner Master Blog for updates from the road to Dayton, OH.

Scanner 101 – Tips on picking and installing a Roof Top Antenna

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Have you been putting off installing a roof top antenna for your scanner? A roof top antenna is the best way to increase your scanner’s range.

What antenna should you pick?
When selecting you should keep the following in mind:
What type of communication systems are you monitor? VHF, UHF and 700/800/900MHz so on… If the area is using the same type of communication system you may want to consider a single band antenna. If there is a mix I would recommend “wide band” antenna.

Mounting your antenna
When selecting antenna you want to keep in mind; how and where you’re going to mount it. So many options available from non-penetrating, tripod, and wall mount. Keep way from power lines and telephone/cable wires. The higher the better, be sure you clearing anything that would block signals such as chimes.

Coax Cable
Your antenna performance depends on great coax cable! We carry LMR-400 Coax cable which is a high-end low signal loss coax. When planning out your coax routes, be sure you have a little extra, but not too much. Shorter runs are always best. Keep this in mind: the old carpenter rule of thumb, measure twice, cut once!

Will you have multiple listening locations?
Depending on how many listening locations you have in mind, you will need a 4 Port or 8 Port Multicoupler. This should be placed somewhere in a central location in your home or office. I would recommend running LMR-400 Coax cable (no more than 100 feet) from the antenna to the Multicoupler. From the Multicoupler to the scanners I would recommend LMR-400 or RG-6 Coax (no more than 50 feet). Both of the multicouplers have a built in pre-amp to cut down on signal loss going to the monitoring locations.

Installing the antenna
If your pretty handy this can be something you can do on your own, with help from a friend. Just following instructions provided with the antenna. If heights are not you thing I would recommend hiring help.

Scanner Master is your one stop shop for your entire base scanner antenna needs – from antennas to coax to mounting gear! Spring is here; don’t keep putting it off! Make 2012 the year to upgrade your scanner’s reception.

Quick Links:

Not sure?
Give us a call at Scanner Master 1-800-SCANNER we can help you!

New Product – GPS Accessory Kit

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By Jonathan Higgins

Product Name: GPS Accessory Kit
Cost: $19.95
Available: Early October

Included in this Kit:

  • Null Modem
  • Gender Changer
  • Uniden Serial cable
    • With the new GPS Accessory Kit you can hook up the following scanners to SpectrumForce GPS Receiver:

  • Uniden BC346XT
  • Uniden BCD396XT
  • Uniden BCD396T
  • Uniden BR330T
  • Uniden HomePatrol-1

    • The photo bellow shows the GPS Accessory Kit hook up to the SpectrumForce GPS Receiver.

    Scanner Master Road Trip – Hopkinton, MA

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    By Greg Jolly
    Road Trip to Hopkinton, MA

    On Friday April 16th the Scanner Master crew, Rich, Jonathan and myself, traveled to the center of Hopkinton, MA and the start of the Boston Marathon. Our purpose for this visit was to install a very custom programming job into a Uniden BCD996XT that was located in the new State of Massachusetts 911 Telecommunications Mobile Command Center.

    The custom programming job, created by Scanner Master, will allow the operators of this communications vehicle to monitor the public safety agencies of any of the 351 cities and towns within Massachusetts along with a variety of statewide agencies.

    The telecommunications vehicle will allow for backup operation of existing 911centers and major event communications. We were able to witness the newest state of the art technology in communications while there, as the vehicle has just been placed into service.

    This programming job provided another successful partnership between Scanner Master Corp. and the public safety community, of which we are very proud.

    The Uniden BCD996XT inside the Massachusetts 911 Telecommunications Mobile Command Center

    Welcome to the Scanner Master Blog Site

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    Hello. We’re pleased to introduce the Scanner Master web blog service today at Scannermaster.com. The purpose of the blog is to provide a forum for Scanner Master staff and colleagues to provide interesting and informative scanner news and tips to our customers and friends. Over time these blogs will also serve as an information resource that our customers will be able to use to research such topics such as, “Ways to Improve Scanner Reception Indoors,” and other interesting articles. We’ll also let you know about new products that are soon to be released and events and trade shows that Scanner Master will be attending.

    We also invite you to submit your ideas for topics and your scanner questions that you would like answered. And of course at anytime we’d love to hear from you with your comments on our blog and our our site. Thank you very much.

    Richard Barnett
    May 2009