Scanners and longer trips...

[LookOut4TheYeti]

I just recently started reading about scanners, and have a few questions about them.

1. I drive from East of Cleveland to Toledo Ohio for school and back when i visit home. This trip is just under 150 Miles. 70 miles are on the ohio turnpike, where they almost always use laser, or ka. How well would a scanner work to listen to the police on this long of a trip? Would I have to keep retuning to new frequencies to keep up with where im driving??

2. What good would putting a cb in my car do? We have 2 of them at my house, and i've always thought of using one, but i wasnt sure how well that would help me in the battle against finding the cops using laser.

Thanks

[edweird]

2. Truckers will tell each other over the CB anytime they see a police car. If you monitor, you can hear these reports and slow down if need be when you are in the area of a reported sighting. You will also have to put up with a bunch of nonsense on the radio, and to a certain degree if you are in a car, you will not get the same amount of cooperation if you try to talk to the truckers, that another trucker would get. You will have to learn an insider's lingo to understand a lot of what is said, because most of the truckers, or the folks who imitate their style of communication on the CB so that they will fit in, do not converse in plain language.

1. A scanner would probably pick up the police OK, the question is how much of what you hear could be tied to a specific location. If there's not a specific channel or talkgroup used for aerial and other specific enforcement, then listening to the normal communications is hit or miss. Some states have vehicle repeaters which work when an officer is outside the car, and have a limited range. This is also hit and miss because if they are in the car, you wouldn't get this signal. Some freqs might be common across a jouney, but most would change.

The newest Uniden scanners (996 and 15) have a GPS input that you can use to toggle systems on and off as you travel. You program all of the stuff in ahead of time with LAT LON coordinates, and it figures out when you cross a radius boundry. Cool stuff.

Ed

[LookOut4TheYeti]

Thanks for the very informative post Ed. Well considering what you've said, I will most likely put one of the CB radios in my car next time I go home and give it a try. I already know a lot of the lingo and talk to truckers all the time. We usually take our camper on vacation with us and put the cb in the van so we can hear how traffic is and talk to them when passing and whatnot, we just never really worried about police because we dont speed when we're towing. So yea i'll give it a shot and see, if not then maybe i'll save up and get a scanner or see if my uncle would let me borrow his for a try.

[crazyVOLVOrob]

For winter break I am driving my friends car out to colorado. I already have my scanner programmed for each state we will go through. In addition to my scanner I'll be bringing my V1, and CB

[Ranger379]

for trips with mine, i just hit the SCAN button, it scans everything, i always pick up some stupid stuff, even 2-way radios lol, the one time sitting in the mall parking lot i picked up "stockman to the front service desk please" other than that, i always have my CB on 19 have picked up a few warning before.... a scanner only lets u know if the cop already pulled some one over tho....ill be getting a radar detector for that reason lol...

[bauzer71487]

for trips with mine, i just hit the SCAN button, it scans everything, i always pick up some stupid stuff, even 2-way radios lol, the one time sitting in the mall parking lot i picked up "stockman to the front service desk please" other than that, i always have my CB on 19 have picked up a few warning before.... a scanner only lets u know if the cop already pulled some one over tho....ill be getting a radar detector for that reason lol...

Seems a bit overkill - it scans so many frequencies you can miss the important ones. I have like 12 channels programmed on mine and I still miss some of the action that goes in and out from central dispatch because the EMS are talking back and forth. Sometimes you gotta use the priority feature and limit the freq's