Police Scanners

[Subjugation]

Anyone have a scanner that covers the police freqs? I was wondering how much they cost, and how interesting the chatter is.

I am not even sure if they're legal to use, but I am still curious to find out what is really going on in the hood that doesn't get covered in the paper.

[Troll King]

I don't know if it'd be interesting to other people but newspapers often put their lowest interns in the radio room to track potential stories over the police scanners. It's supposedly one of the most menial tasks available.

[0rb]

If you get one, make sure its a trunking scanner. Police and emergency crews have switched to trunking scanners, making the older ones obsolete for the purpose of listening to them.

I myself don't have one, would like one though.

I borrowed one about 5 years ago, when no one used trunking, and it was great! Listened to a few police chases, ambulances arriving to stabbings, and the best thing ever...what people were ordering in the drive thru

oh, I also heard my own phone on a freq once. That was cool.

[Adrenaline Rush]

Look at spending around $150-200 on a scanner that can get you what you need. I personally own an IC-R20, but I rarely get out to use it. Mine costs around $500, but it has everything I need and it was free

I have done a lot of scanning and it takes a lot of patience to get something worth while. I wouldn't recommend forking out a lot of money unless you see yourself using it often, or just really love being able to listen in on people

[Riesen]

My friend's dad used to have one and everytime I would go over to her house, I would get the shit scared out of me. They didn't live in the best neighborhood, so most of the scanner "chatter" was about some convict running loose on the streets or gang warfare going on.

[Dim]

I don't get it, why would you want one?

[Clump]

what do you mean? the device that tells you what the police are saying and where the crime was occured? u can ge tthat in radioshack

[Sarien]

In some states and cities they are illegal, so you'll want to check on that. Especially if you're looking to get a portable unit, because in some places there are laws for portable units versus home units that are different, as well.

[Adrenaline Rush]

In order to be considered legal, make sure your scanner is regulated by the FCC. It will have an FCC code either on the hardware/documentation.

Any scanner that is "unblocked" for US cellular (822-850.9mhz + 867-895.9mhz) is illegal unless for government use.

Old coordless phones transmit around either the low vhf 40-50mhz or uhf 900-910mhz. Don't get caught listening to them since it is considered illegal as well. Good luck finding someone who still uses those older phones since most have moved up to 2.4ghz with encryption.

I'm not an enthusiast...so I don't know too much about the civilian laws regarding this topic, but signals collection was my job in the military so I know a tad bit.

Edit: Also, im not sure if this applied only to military, but we were not allowed to -record- ANY personal conversations ever with US citizens. So don't get caught with tape in hand.

Further edit: I just found a useful site after reading up on sariens post:
http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/scanlaws/scanner5.html
That should cover a good amount of scanner use laws per state.

[Sarien]

Yeah, when I was working at the paper, here in KY, we weren't allowed to have a portable scanner in the car unless we had our press pass, or something showing we were working for the paper.

[ZeUs!!]

I don't get it, why would you want one?

Subjugation runs a brothel

[genocidal]

In America we call them crackhouses with kick.

[D1st0rt]

I'm pretty sure if you really wanted to fight it, constitutionally they can't block you from owning a radio receiever which is basically what it is