How To Enhance Your Scanning Experience

This i guess is a very general question.Im about a week old in this scanning hobby and i quite like it.I wonder though where should i take it to the next step?Im still learning to program the scanner(i have a 396) and still probably havent listened to that whole sea of talk out there.however at times it gets kinda a lil repitative listening the same ol frequencies that i have so far so i wonder where to next?
What do u all do listeing to ur scanner?how do u guys make it more and more interesting?do u try to play some mental games or something like that?Hear something and go right to where the action is(i beleive its being a 'stringer' if im not wrong?)?Ye so wat do u all do?Is ur scanner ur lil baby?lollzzz

Well there's all sorts of different things you can do.... One thing is to hook up your scanner to your sound card on your computer and do things like ACARS or run trunking programs. You can also experiment with all sorts of antennas and try to listen to different areas of the radio spectrum.. One thing that I'm sort of getting interested in now is satellites.. You can actually listen to satellites in space if you have a good enough antenna...

I do this thing now where I program my scanner with a whole bunch of MilAir frequencies and scan them, then I hook my scanner up to my computer and run a scanner recording program. I configure the recorder to only record when a sound is made from the scanner... I leave this on all day while I'm out or at work, then when I get back I see what my computer has "captured"... You can run this setup to monitor all sorts of hit or miss type freqs. I think i might try it during the next shuttle launch and have it programmed with all sorts of NASA frequencies. It's a good way to keep a constant ear out for activity..

I've got a 396 too, and here's some of the things I do:

Get an earpiece and go to all your favorite places. Set the 396 to the Close Call feature with auto store and just walk around and do what you normally do. Or take it in the car when driving across town or leave it in your office when working. Later, include those frequencies in your general scanning repitoire.

I live in a big sports city and at the beginning of every season for each of the teams I'll just walk around the stadiums with Close Call on. The beginning of the season is best because everybody is calling each other on the handhelds more often and the volume decreases as the season goes on. If you're lucky enough to have a team reach the playoffs the transmissions increase tenfold. But this is a great way to find hidden or new and unpublished frequencies.

Some other tricks:

Google any combination of phrases that will list frequencies like "your city your county FCC frequency channel mhz" to get extra frequencies.

Download a FCC frequency spectrum list and then just pick a range of something that looks like it might be interesting and let the scanner run for a couple of days. There won't be a lot of traffic in some bands, but there are a few software apps that'll record transmissions and what frequency they used. Just run it for a couple of days & nights and see if there was anything you want to add to the scan banks.

Some of the apps like ARC396 also make downloading loads of frequencies a breeze, and the RR database is probably one of the most, if not the most, complete lists available. You may just want to load up the scanner with all the freqs for your area from there and see if that helps.

Happy scanning!!!!!!!!!!!

Listening to scanners can often be similiar to watching baseball. Inning after inning it is the same old thing, 3 up, 3 outs, next team up. But if you watch (listen) long enough something exciting will happen. At least if you're in an area with any level of population at all. So a lot of this is just the same old thing day in and day out.

OTOH, you just might not be tuned to the frequency where all the action is. What I've done is make a map of every frequency my scanners can receive, and list the closest agency (or agencies) assigned to that frequency. As I hear them, I check them off and move on to the next one. It's a HUGE list to say the least. And in the process I've heard stuff from 100 miles away because either that's the closest agency on a specific frequency or it is shared by both someone local and someone distant.

I've taken days where I've concentrated on one type of agency or frequency group. For example, I might spend a week with UniTrunker running listening to a specific TRS. Or I might listen to only Amateur or Aviation frequencies for several days. As I hear traffic, I lock the channel out, mark it on my list and move on. Or perhaps I hear something but don't know who I heard. Then I'll make that frequency a priority to listen and try and figure out. Sometimes I can find the answer here at RR, sometimes from other listeners in my area and sometimesI hear a clue transmitted which answers the question.

It can be as passive or as active of a hobby as you want it to be.

My suggestion: don't treat your scanner as a TV set worthy of your focused attention - treat it as a constant information and entertainment source, able to be turned on or off while you do something _else_. Studies have shown that many people listen _better_ when they're doing something else, so you're actually going to enjoy the radio more if you listen to it while you're tinkering or otherwise occupied.

I mountain bike, off-road, work on little transistor projects, play video games, hang out with the lady friend - whatever I'm doing, I just do it with my scanner.

Cool Ideas

Thanks for the advice and feedback.So maybe it not that bad as it seems! Keep those juices flowing guys!

jonny290 said:

My suggestion: don't treat your scanner as a TV set worthy of your focused attention - treat it as a constant information and entertainment source, able to be turned on or off while you do something _else_. Studies have shown that many people listen _better_ when they're doing something else, so you're actually going to enjoy the radio more if you listen to it while you're tinkering or otherwise occupied.

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I agree. If you're just sitting there staring at the scanner display, it will be boring. I've usually got 2 or 3 scanners going at once, and it is still boring unless there is a significant incident going on.

I spend time reading & replying to articles here at RR, or working on that frequency list while listening. You can incorporate scanning into your activity, or it can be something "in the background".