Id like to listen to local police fire and rescue activity, what is the best type of scanner to buy?

Answer 1

The type of scanner to listen to those services depends on what system your local police and fire are using. These types can be broken down into 3 basic categories: standard, trunking and digital.

Standard would be your average analog single channel service that pretty much any scanner can pick up. They used to sell scanners that could only cover up to 512MHz or so, but now most include the 800MHz public safety bands too. These scanners would be the cheapest scanners you could buy.

A trunking system is one that uses multiple voice channels and a digital control channel. These can be heard with standard basic scanners, but you will often lose parts of a conversation because the system jumped to another frequency. Sometimes the digital control channel will jump too so you can't just keep it locked out of the list and your standard scanner would just sit on it and make a loud noise. A trunking scanner locks into this digital control channel and follows where they go. It can also decode what service is using it (as multiple services typically share a single trunking system) listing the number on the display.

Digital is the newest and by far the most expensive of the three. Many large cities use some form of digital radios these days and not all digital scanners will receive them. Some are scrambled, some are just plain incompatible. You can buy an APCO-25 scanner for $500+ but if your local police use Motorola ASTRO it still won't pick them up.

If you go to your local Radio Shack as someone else had suggested, they'll be able to tell you what your local police use and sell you the appropriate scanner, programmed via computer with all the local channels.

Answer 2

I bought my scanner at Radio Shack is it is very easy to program and its very priced low. Some exceptions for unlawful purpose: located in a car (unless law enforcement) and/or by state law. Most (USA) states is not a problem.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049661&cp=&pg=2&origkw=scanner&kw=scanner&parentPage=search

Mike

Answer 3

I believe that is illegal, not sure though. You can buy one at any electronics store.