Scanner education?

[Acecool]

Ok, so I am looking to buy a scanner for my area: Charleston County, South Carolina (SC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - but I wanted to know if there are scanners that pickup more than 1 frequency at the same time...

Not sure about them and I am trying to educate myself.

Thanks,
Josh

[Stealth Stalker]

Ok, so I am looking to buy a scanner for my area: Charleston County, South Carolina (SC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference - but I wanted to know if there are scanners that pickup more than 1 frequency at the same time...

There are none. That's why some of us have eight to twelve scanners in our cars.

And honestly, if you are new to scanning, you're going to have enough trouble learning to understand one at a time, much less two or more.

And there are only a couple of scanners that are even any good to you in Charleston. They are going digital, so you must use an APCO-25 digital capable scanner. That means you are looking at $500 dollars or more per scanner. You have to have a pretty hardcore interest in scanning, or be making money from it, to justify that kind of outlay.

[Acecool]

Wow, thanks for the info... Well, when they go digital, will these pick up more than 1 at a time or something?

I dont mind spending a little extra for better :-)

Will the digital scanners also pick up analog?



EDIT: I see on 1 scanner video on youtube it has a SCAN RATE... Can you set x channels to scan and when it picks up audio then to play?

[Stealth Stalker]

Wow, thanks for the info... Well, when they go digital, will these pick up more than 1 at a time or something?

It looks like much of them have already gone digital. And no, digital just means that the voice is not clear unless decoded by a digital scanner. It adds no features to the scanner.

Will the digital scanners also pick up analog?

Yes. You don't lose anything with a digital capable scanner. It just adds the ability to decode digital transmissions, but only if they are encoded by a very specific, APCO-25 system. There are digital systems that still cannot be decoded by any scanner.

I see on 1 scanner video on youtube it has a SCAN RATE... Can you set x channels to scan and when it picks up audio then to play?

I don't really understand what you are asking. But all scanners scan (thus the name) through a list of channels/frequencies/groups that you choose, stopping on the first one it finds with active transmission. But if more than one are active, you will miss all but the first one it stops on. And you will often times miss the first part of transmissions as the scanner sorts through the scan list to reach the active channel.

[Acecool]

Cool, so if I understand right, if I program the 10 or 15 channels Charleston has, and looking at the scan rate on the one I saw on youtube (20 or 100 per second) - I shouldnt miss much of anything??

Am I following properly or?

[Stealth Stalker]

Correct. You shouldn't. So long as all of those channels are on the same system, the scanner should scan through them in a second or less. However, there is also the Charleston County system, and other local systems to listen to. If you are listening to multiple systems, even if only a few channels, it slows down the scan rate considerably. But again, if you are listening to only one system, things go pretty quickly.

Remember though, if someone is talking on one channel, you will hear that channel, but will not hear anything on the other fourteen channels until they stop talking on that one channel. So yes, you will always miss stuff. There is no way around it. It's just like being in a building with fifteen offices. You can only hear the person in the office you are in at the time. To hear the others, you have to go to fourteen other offices, one at a time.

What are you wanting to listen to, and for what purpose?

[Acecool]

Just curious how our system works... My burglar alarm went off and the police called me at work 30 to 45 minutes after it happened letting me know they were there...

I am pretty sure that any traffic accident gets reported through their system because they have to dispatch a unit, and its nice to be able to plan ahead and avoid that area.

[Stealth Stalker]

You'd have to know exactly what channel dispatches incidents for the area of the city you are in. Otherwise, your scanner will be busy scanning one of fifteen other channels when that accident gets dispatched. And that is assuming that incidents aren't dispatched by computer there, meaning they never say anything on the radio at all about it. And you are going to have to listen to constant chatter about stuff you don't understand or care about in order to have the slight chance of hearing an accident you want to avoid. It's really not worth it. Scanning is an interesting hobby. It's a way of life for news reporters. It's cool for those who are just interested in the cops or fire or whatever. But as a useful tool for finding and avoiding accidents and speed traps, they simply aren't worth the money or time for most people. There is a SERIOUS learning curve from the very beginning. Most people who buy the new digital scanners get pissed off after a week or two of still not being able to figure out how to even program it. Once you get past that, you have to learn what channels to listen to to hear the things you want to hear. Then you have to learn the lingo so you know what they are talking about. And then again, ninety nine percent of what you hear will be of absolutely no interest to you, so you just turn the thing off before you even hear what you were looking for. It's not like a radar detector, where you just turn it on and let it work for you. It requires intensive interaction between you and the machine, and frankly, few people have the patience for it.

Think of a scanner as a radar detector that is constantly falsing, almost every minute of the day. That's what it's like to use a scanner as a tool to find just a few specific incidents of interest to you.

[Acecool]

Fine by me :-)

I am still interested, and I do have patience for a lot of things..

I have put a new engine in my car, converted it to 5 speed transmission where the car was originally automatic.. I am a Computer Science major, so anything electronic gauges my interest.. I was also in the military, etc etc...

[Ovencleaner]

I very much enjoy listening to my scanner, and don't mind the "false alerts"

In Houston, it is very useful for avoiding the decoy car speed traps that are so common these days. It also is a good source of entertainment, and when a wrecker is called for, sometimes I have a chance to change routes. Minor and Major accidents are commonly called out over radio, as well as muggings/robbery/homicide so I can be aware of what is happening in my area.

It may take you a while to figure out which frequencies are used for what in your area, even after input from radio reference. Just be patient, and you will eventually figure out what/where they are talking about.

I was very frustrated at first, but now I don't even listen to music in my car, just the scanner, and enjoy it very much. It is a useful tool and source of entertainment. I often scan more than police/fire, I find HAM interesting to listen too, as well as planes and ships.