Over the past few years there have been many inexpensive two-way radios on the market that have been very popular. For under $50 one can get a Wouxen, Baofeng or other brand two-way radio that can operate on many of the common police, fire and EMS channels. While as capable as they are cheap they are not viable as a mission-critical device and are not particularly useful as a scanner. These are commonly called “CCR’s” (Cheap Chinese Radios).

There are several reasons these are not ideally suited as a scanner replacement. The frequency range of these is often limited to certain VHF and UHF ranges. While they may have some of the same features as scanners, like field programmability, limited scanning and others they do not behave like scanners in many ways. Most scanners cover more frequency ranges, have more channels, more flexible scanning and often other features not found in CCR’s.

While these CCR’s are fine for family communications and amateur use, they are not appropriate for mission critical or serious comms. Without trunking, digital modes and other features they are not usually a good replacement for scanners unless you have very limited monitoring needs.