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Do you scan?


Scanners  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you currently own a scanner?

    • Yes
      10
    • No
      9
  2. 2. If you do own a scanner, how often do you use it?

    • I don't own a scanner
      9
    • I use it very occasionally
      5
    • I use it often
      2
    • I use it daily
      3


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  • Administrator


Who among us also scans? I have not had a personal scanner for years. I used a pro scanner for work for several decades, but my last 'civilian' scanner dates back to the nineties. I have been looking at the Uniden SDS 100 but have not yet committed. I know that @W4DOI was looking at the SDS 200 (the base version of the 100; or is the 100 the mobile version of the 200 🥴?

Curious how many others actively scan?

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  • Administrator


6 hours ago, KB7THL said:

I do, pretty much just fire/EMS scanning.  I still have a BCD325P2 on my desk and an SDS100 for on the go, at work, or travelling. 

I am so drawn to the SDS100. I guess the question I have is how many of these fire/EMS/etc. transmissions are now encrypted and not accessible? I think I have this, possibly mistaken, impression that organizations are making it, perhaps justifiably, harder to listen in. How wrong am I? How often do you come across transmissions that are encrypted? Regardless, I think I will, in short order, succumb to any hesitation and hit the buy button. I see that they are now mostly back in stock. For a while, at a time when I was ready to buy, they were impossible to find in stock, I guess courtesy of the post-covid chip shortage and the supply chain backlog.

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I have not found a lot of fire/EMS to be encrypted.  Law enforcement systems seem to almost all be encrypted.  A common misperception is digital, trunked, alternate modes, etc. are encrypted, when they are not.  The last time I was somewhere that I couldn't receive fire/EMS, it turned out to be a NXDN system, which I had not bought with my SDS100, so I added it and all was well.  RadoReference is an outstanding source of system information and I have found it to be very accurate and kept up to date.

I have also found that the benefits of the SDS100 (or 200) in a simulcast system are clear.  In several places in Washington County, MD, my BCD325P2 will not properly receive fire/EMS, but the SDS100 at the same place and time receives clearly.  It's an expensive toy, but does what it is intended to do!

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18 hours ago, KB7THL said:

I have not found a lot of fire/EMS to be encrypted.  Law enforcement systems seem to almost all be encrypted.  A common misperception is digital, trunked, alternate modes, etc. are encrypted, when they are not.  The last time I was somewhere that I couldn't receive fire/EMS, it turned out to be a NXDN system, which I had not bought with my SDS100, so I added it and all was well.  RadoReference is an outstanding source of system information and I have found it to be very accurate and kept up to date.

I have also found that the benefits of the SDS100 (or 200) in a simulcast system are clear.  In several places in Washington County, MD, my BCD325P2 will not properly receive fire/EMS, but the SDS100 at the same place and time receives clearly.  It's an expensive toy, but does what it is intended to do!

I think you bumped/messed up my purchase priority list 🤩

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  • 1 month later...


Around my county, many recomend the Uniden Home Patrol. We do have some great Scaner owners that do send audio to Broadcastify.

As with many places around the country, the Police/Fire/Rescue/EMS are going to startdi gital encryption.

I may be wrong, I thought that I read where one of the best scaner engineers passed away recently, and there may be some question of what Uniden will be able to do in the future?

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On 9/25/2022 at 2:54 PM, KP4CI said:

I may be wrong, I thought that I read where one of the best scaner engineers passed away recently, and there may be some question of what Uniden will be able to do in the future?

Interesting rumor. Would be interesting to look into this. I can imagine, having seen it, the impact of loss of know how in a process.

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If memory serves me, it was a little note (I believe in The Spectrum Monitor an it has to be 2021 or 2022. Can't remember what edition,) about Paul Opitz. He became SK December 2019 and was product manager for Uniden Scanners. From what I remember, he was ahead of his time and extremely knowledgeable in scanners

.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...


Scanners used here are the HomePatrol 1, BC895XLT, Radio Shack Pro 433 and 2051. The Radio Shacks are intended for out in the field if we need to monitor other Ham frequencies and or Ham frequencies we do not have a radio in a band as in 900Mhz or 1.25M.

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