Does anyone else here listen to radio scanners?
I began listening to the civil airband back in the 1970’s. And I am still enjoying it. Many users have gone over either to digital or RoIP. (Radio over the Internet Protocol.) But there is still plenty to listen to.
Wouldn’t know where to start, Gee. Is it where you can hear police broadcasts? Or is it like the old CB Radio? Do you need special equipment?
No you dont ST, if you have any interest it can be found on the internet…I will speak to a person around the world with my ham license and you might hear me if you have downloaded a receiver programme for Hams…say on 20 metres which is a good band mainly…you would need to know the frequency number though to have any chance…
Thank you, Dianne.
Not sure what the civil airband is but my car UHF radio scans the 80 channels but frankly unless I am bored it is not something I use.
I listen to Channel 40 for info/warnings from truckies when I am driving however if I am travelling with others we tend to use one of the high channels to chat among ourselves.
However that might not be what you are talking about.
Radio Scanners are stand alone radio receivers that can be programmed with many hundreds of frequencies & scan them at a very high rate. Normally several hundred channels per minute.
In the US some frequency segments are not available, but here in Europe the whole of the spectrum is available. Typical coverage of a radio scanner might be 25Mhz through to 1300 Mhz (1.3 GHz.) Although greater coverage is available. And things available to listen to, includes. Civil & Military Airband, Marine Band, Radio Amateurs, Several different Private Mobile Radio allocations & Licence free radio among many other things.
I hear things like the radios fitted to fire Service breathing apparatus.Air Ambulance. But Fire, Ambulance & Police went to encrypted digital years ago, so are not available to radio scanners. We can listen to digital, but encrypted digital is not in general available. Shop security, Farm radio systems. Some Hospital radio systems. Some Taxi firms, vehicle recovery services & a host of other traffic such as satellites & the ISS. Some satellites are pirated by Russians. Some for the exclusive use of radio amateurs. Some are encrypted, some are in the open.
Using a scanner is like fishing. You need to know where to listen & when. As most radio traffic is completed within a very short period of time. So if you listen to too much spectrum, or too many channels. Even at several hundred channels per minute. You could still miss radio traffic if you are trying to listen to too many channels.
Forgive me if this comes across as rude, because it isn’t meant that way, but honestly I can’t see the point in this. It would absolutely bore the pants off me listening to inane chatter from farm radios, taxi firms and vehicle recovery services. Genuine question here: please tell me what you get out of it, why it’s enjoyable. I just don’t understand 
CB radios were the “thing” to have in the past, loads of kids had them, maybe encouraged by the film “Convoy” and the fun of having a CB name. What has happened to them all now? got older married and wifie thrown them out is my bet
I have one in my car and sometimes use it a lot, it has moved from the original 27 Mhz to UHF and increased to 80 channels but it can very useful. there are a couple of channels worth monitoring, for example ch 40 is the highway channel so that you know if a road train, accident or a cop car is ahead. There are also channels that Caravanners use, duplex and emergency channels too.
Often in remote areas you will see a sign which says something like, “Roadhouse 16 km ahead. Order now on Ch17. Food ready when you arrive”. Nothing like having a burger with everything waiting for you when you pull up.
On our recent trip to Camerons Corner my kids and I used it to keep in touch and warn of oncoming traffic
A lot of the radio traffic is inane & boring. I for example do not, in general, listen to Taxi drivers or radio amateurs on repeaters, as they make 2 year olds sound like geniuses. But some is far from inane & boring. For example, years ago, we could hear mobile phones & the radio traffic of the Police, Fire & Ambulances. I even heard the shout go out for the Police to attend a supposed farm shooting in Emneth. They did not believe it was true at the time. But it was the Tony Martin incident.
Some idiot even tried to sell a mobile phone call between Philip & Penny Brabourne that he had recoded. Google Dukegate.
At one time all text messages went via a separate system & it was possible to use a computer program to watch them all scroll past.
I heard who I believe to be Animal Rights protesters in action. I have heard the International Space Station & the old Mir Russian Space station many times. I have heard Russian civilians pirating old military satellites. I listened to the NASA experiment Suitsat. Where NASA threw an old Russian space suit out of the ISS with an radio amateur handheld radio inside it. To see if it could be heard.
I have heard aircraft & ships declare emergencies & Lifeboats in action.
The biggest attraction, is not in what you hear. But in identifying where the traffic is from. Sometimes it’s obvious. But sometimes it can take a fair amount of time & effort to identify the source. Ofcom has a database of licences, but that is not always helpful.
I also love listening to air & shipping traffic whilst using real time tracking software to watch the ships/aircraft.
CB is two way radio. Scanning is the act of listening to all sorts of radio traffic. But CB is far from a thing of the past & a few years ago the UK activated EU law which legalises the use of Single Side Band & increased the power slightly for SSB. So international conversations are now much easier & not limited to atmospheric lifts.
ik suppose that is the difference between the UK and Australia, land mass. Being stuck in the outback is a bit different from being stuck on the M25 over here
Thanks for the explanation. I can see you find it interesting, and I guess for some it can become addictive. But not for me, I’m afraid.
I’ve got an old Uniden Bearcat scanner Gee, I also used to hear the police and even mobile phones (just one side of the conversation) but now I just get the pilots flying overhead, farm vehicles, and a skip company, very good for finding out where the local traffic jams or delays are. Mostly amateurs too discussing the state of the world or some mobile geezer parked in a layby. Something to listen to while I’m working in the workshop, I find music too distracting.
Mil Air can be interesting if your scanner covers it. As can the repeaters on 10 meters (29MHz.) During the summer.
Personally I stopped listening to the amateur radio repeaters on VHF & UHF years ago as they are generally people who talk for the sake of talking. So good if you are having issues getting to sleep, but not in general something I am interested in.
