Looking for a hand held scanner w/ trunk tracking

[Hit Redline]

Hey Guys,

So confusing and hoping you guys can help me in selecting a scanner. I have used a Uniden Bearcat scanner that had trunk tracking alert. It would beep and flash when it picked up a trunk tracking signal, which to my understanding is what the California hwy Patrol uses. This alert would only go off if it detected a this type of signal with in a 2-3 mile radius. You could also just select the state you were in and it would scan the pre-programmed police channels.

I am looking for a hand held unit this time with that same type of features. What would you guys recommend? Thanks

[Stealth Stalker]

You're looking for a "Bear Tracker", not a "Trunk Tracker". Those are to very different things. And there is no handheld Bear Tracker. Never was. Never will be. It's pretty much a useless feature anyhow. Scanners are not really useful as a countermeasure except in very limited areas, mostly very small towns.

[Motor On]

You're looking for a "Bear Tracker", not a "Trunk Tracker". Those are to very different things. And there is no handheld Bear Tracker. Never was. Never will be. It's pretty much a useless feature anyhow. Scanners are not really useful as a countermeasure except in very limited areas, mostly very small towns.

Well actually to a certain extent this does work with the CHP. Because the CHP is so large fleet wise, they are still on very old HF radios and have many places with spotty to nil for coverage. So the cruisers do have the repeaters in them, however these repeaters are only active when the officer steps out of the car on a TS. So it's really not going to help as a countermeasure. But if he's got someone stopped around the corner in the twisty hills on HWY1 you might get the warning to back off before you swing around and rear end the cruiser.

BearTracker is discontuned feature basically, as now it's not useful for 95% of the radios out there. But there is a feature called "CloseCall" that alerts to radio transmission within a certain distance (basically just a really strong signal) but that'll alert to everything from a drive through to a FRS to an airplane to a HF to a digital trunked system.

[Hit Redline]

Thanks for info guys. What hand held do you recommend for just listening then. I would prefer something were I can just select the state and the codes are pre-stored.

[Stealth Stalker]

There are no simple handhelds that are pre-programmed. We need to know a lot more information before we could even begin to help you choose what is right for you. You should start by reading the Scanner FAQ at the top of this sub-forum. But really, as already stated, if all you're looking for is a police countermeasure, you're wasting your time.

[srtga]

I've thought about getting a scanner just to have another toy but there are just too many frequencies. I'd like to monitor GSP but I understand they use repeaters so you can't hear both sides unless you monitor a bunch of frequencies. Plus I hear there is a delay.

Maybe one day I'll get into it...

[Stealth Stalker]

Actually, GSP is not complicated at all. One frequency will give you 90 percent of all GSP comms. Five or six more will cover all of their communications, except that which occurs on Nextel.

State Patrol Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Notice that their "extender" frequencies are in a different range from their regular frequencies. The 765.43750 frequency will not work in most scanners, so that requires one of the more expensive, high end scanners.

They do use repeaters, but that is not a problem. Only if they use trunking repeaters does it complicate things. They do not.

It's not hard. It's just not useful.

[srtga]

I guess you'd have to know a lot about how their dispatch works and what their procedures are...

Back when I was a medic it was:

Radio dispatch when you left on a call (sometimes you'd be asked about eta or something)

Let dispatch know when you arrived on scene

Radio hospital for orders or whatnot. (another channel)

let dispatch know you were enroute to hospital.

Radio hospital enroute (another channel)

Radio when you arrived at hospital

Radio when you were back in service.

Now if we were cops, hardly any of that info would be useful to a speeder!

[fire65]

Scanners are great for places like mine. SW Ok, flat and not into digital or encryption. OHP will always say, I am 10-60 with whoever and give the location. I can not imagine a scanner working for a newbie in Calif. just to much info.

[Lucky225]

Scanners are great for places like mine. SW Ok, flat and not into digital or encryption. OHP will always say, I am 10-60 with whoever and give the location. I can not imagine a scanner working for a newbie in Calif. just to much info.

What are you talking about. LA is all analog, some of which isn't even trunked. San Bernarghetto is analog Motorola and Riverside county is analog EDACS. It's a great place for a pro-97.