Fire / Police radio scanners.
I just got a scanner for Christmas. It's a radio shack model, seems really high quality. My dad thought it would be cool seeing as I'm going to be a fire fighter / paramedic. It's really cool so far, but I can't pick up too many things. Anyone use one of these that could tell me if there is a website or anything like that out there that provides frequencies? Thanks for all your help.
Comments
Aww, I think I just remembered one reason why I don't like phone so much.
dispatcher Anonymous cell phone caller reports seeing four middle eastern men putting large box on top of four door sedan.
cop Could you call that cell phone back and get ossama bin laden on the phone?
dispatcher They didn't leave the number.
cop I hate when that happens.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
I just got a scanner for Christmas. It's a radio shack model, seems really high quality. My dad thought it would be cool seeing as I'm going to be a fire fighter / paramedic. It's really cool so far, but I can't pick up too many things. Anyone use one of these that could tell me if there is a website or anything like that out there that provides frequencies? Thanks for all your help.
DMBand0026 is this the one you have?
Scanner at Radio Shack
If it is I have this same model. Radio Shack should be able to program it in your area via a earphone wire which will sync it with their database on a PC in the showroom floor. It will have all the labels keyed in for you and all the public radios in your area.
Fellows
The Police/Fire Dept. in my little city near L.A. have switched to a digital system that my older Radio Shack scanner can't pick up.
The Radio Shack scanners are just rebranded Uniden's BTW.
Even though I can't get the Police/Fire/Rescue frequencies in my city anymore, I still listen to other cities PD/FD, Ham (Amateur) Radio, a local radio stations in-house feed (engineer/On-Air talent conversations), NASA stuff, Airports, etc.
There are lots of things to grab out of the air (you wouldn't believe how many people still have 900Mhz cordless phones).
Originally posted by Cake
(you wouldn't believe how many people still have 900Mhz cordless phones).
Oh man..... I have a 900mhz cordless phone.
Originally posted by Akumulator
Oh man..... I have a 900mhz cordless phone.
Same here... due to the AirPort.
Originally posted by Kenneth
Same here... due to the AirPort.
Is the airport not 2.4 Ghz?
Fellows
IS there a way to manually program in your local data? I'd be interested in getting one of these things!
Originally posted by drewprops
There's an interference problem between 2.4Ghz phones and Airports....but I have my 2.4Ghz about seven feet from my 1st gen Airport and it works peachy keen!
IS there a way to manually program in your local data? I'd be interested in getting one of these things!
My bad for confusing the term "AirPort"
Yes you can program it manually.
Fellows
Originally posted by Akumulator
Oh man..... I have a 900mhz cordless phone.
At least get a cordless phone that has Spread Spectrum or some form of scrambling.
One time I set my scanner to scan randomly a set of frequencies so that I could record police chatter with a chumpy little voice activated recorder to use as background walla (TV Shows/Film sfx library) and it locked on a neighbors phone when she was ordering some stuff from a catalog.
Anyway, she gave her name, address phone number and credit card number over the phone - all easily recorded.
After I heard this, I walked down to her apartment with my scanner and gave her a demo of how unsecure her phone is.
She was alarmed and it never occured to her that eavesdropping was even possible.
Get rid of your non-encrypted cordless phones.
It's very easy for unscrupulous people to exploit them.
We found the channels from a local booklet that was published by the county many years ago with the frequencies from his old scanner which used the "crystals" to get channels and also simple google searches yielded frequencies in my area too.
Originally posted by Mac Man 020581
You can apparently pick up cell phone conversations somehow with these scanners too. My dad's scanner, which is a Uniden BearCat, has big lettering and harsh words in the manual telling people not to modify the device so it can pick up cell phone conversations.
...
Many people would take that as a challenge.
Originally posted by FellowshipChurch iBook
DMBand0026 is this the one you have?
[snip]
Thats the one. I was thinking about taking it in there, in the manual it said something about taking it in so that they could give me the local frequencies. Did you do that? It's been a lot of fun so far. I heard a kid get arrested last night for retail theft, my dad and I sat here laughing. I have been able to pick up a lot just by scanning the "Police and Fire" frequencies. Lot of fun. Fellows, do you know if this model picks up digital frequencies? I think my city uses digital, but I'm not sure yet.