question on shacks

[browning]

how come everybody has a ton of different radios? what are each one? shouldn't you only need a few like a shortwave, scanner, ham and CB? why so many like over 7?

 

[shaft]

Not to be rude, but lurk more and you will find the answers to your questions.

 

[Viper43]

Not to be rude, but lurk more and you will find the answers to your questions.

If anyone is being rude it's you shaft for not answering his question and bashing him for asking it, thats not the way it's supposed to be around here.

Anyway to answer the original posters question, having a lot of different radios, even that cover the same frequencies is so you can set them up differently for different types of use. One may have a scanner for each of the police or fire departments in their area. I could set up 10 just to monitor the Indiana State Police 800 system here, plus 7 -10 more for other police and another 10 for fire. It depends on how serious you are, and if you make a living through your hobby that helps more, such as media people.

V

 

[tbnmaster]

There was no rudeness or bashing...

For an answer to the question, it's just like Viper43 said. I personally have 2 mobile radios in the car; one for VHF and one for VHF/UHF/wideband receive, a dual band plus wideband receive in the house and a trunking scanner dedicated for the Clark County Fire Department. Then there are my three handhelds; one VHF only, one UHF only and one dual band plus wideband receive. It's like an addiction... I have a lot and I still want more.

 

[hoser147]

I Believe there is another thread somewhere on this, For the most part Viper is right on it depends on how much you are into the hobby. When something is really goin on you can lock one scanner onto it and remain scannin for other traffic. Lots of times there are several things going on and you can follow them with multiple scanners. I use one for searching for different radio traffic and have one that for the most part scans just a couple of channels of my local PD FD and when they have traffic it picks up in volume more than say the next town over. and there are other reasons and thing s to monitor. Good Scannin Hoser

 

[browning]

thanks. i'm a fresh noobie when it comes to anything other than FM/mediumwave/shortwave.

 

[W9NES]

I will have to go on record as backing up Viper 43 as I have "Many radios" in two operational positions. I have one upstairs and one downstairs in my two story home.With me being involved with the "Newsmedia" I listen to a lot of radios and frequencies in the Indianapolis,Indiana coverage area including the counties outside of the Indianapolis/Marion County Indiana area...

 

[nightwatch]

another reason is they have dif IF's (10.7 ver 10.8)and so on so if your getting a birdie on one you'll not get it on another.

 

[Dubbin]

He who dies with the most toys wins. I think thats the biggest share of having so many radios

 

[Turbo68]

I use half of my Radios at least to monitor the Airbands and the others are set up for Ambulance/Marine/Security/Trains/HF and some i just have them on one frequency.

Regards Lino:ALINCO-DJX2000/AOR-3000A/AOR-8200MK3/AOR-8200MK3/ICOM-R5/ICOM-R20/ICOM-PCR1000/ICOM-R2500/ICOM-R9000/ICOM-R9500/RADIO SHACK-PRO96/REALISTIC-PRO2035/UNIDEN-245/UNIDEN-396/UNIDEN-780/UNIDEN-996/YAESU-VX7R/YAESU-VR500/YAESU-VR5000.

 

[n5usr]

When it comes to ham gear, there's nothing like being on as many bands / frequencies as possible at once!

While I like the new "DC-to-daylight" ham rigs for their completeness, it is VERY common I want to be on a local chat freq while scanning/talking on HF. And then there's times where we'll bounce between FM and SSB on 2 meters, which for many means switching their one radio. I can be on both at once.

During severe weather, I'll have each radio tuned to a different spotter group or agency. From my central OK location, I can hear spotter groups over pretty much all of south and western OK - so plenty of warning! (That's right - I'm either "not a wuss" or "just plain crazy" - take your pick. I don't disconnect the antennas when the storms roll in!)

Throw general scanning into the mix, and if something pops up for the local PD or FD I'll dial one of the ham rigs over to monitor that continuously while the scanner keeps going. My only frustration now is that I only have one trunk-tracker, so will probably add (at least) another soon so I can stop and monitor on the state DPS TRS. I'd also like to have trunk-tracking in my car, so perhaps yet another. A handheld would be easiest, but I've become partial to mobiles...

Altogether, I have 1 HF , 1 "DC-to-daylight", 5 VHF/UHF mobiles, 3 VHF/UHF HTs, 1 mobile scanner and 1 handheld scanner. And looking to add more!

 

[flyingscotsman]

I agree with viper, and everyone else have their own reasons, I personally only have nine radio's wich by far is not enough for the amount of listening I do...

also I am moving to an area which is only digital, and only have one digital reciever, so a BCD996T (x3) is on my wish list for starters..I monitor local skywarn, weather alert codes are programed in my 2052 and local train trafic on anouther unit, local sheriff/fire on another and so fourth..

DX-394
Pro-2036
Pro-92
Pro-2052
BC 246T
BCD 396T
Alinco DJ-596T
Icom IC-2200H
BCT-8

 

[kirka127]

And then there are people like Dwayne who are just handed brand new scanners for free. LOL

 

[SLWilson]

Over time....

how come everybody has a ton of different radios? what are each one? shouldn't you only need a few like a shortwave, scanner, ham and CB? why so many like over 7?

A lot of what you see is radios that scanner buffs have bought over time. Generally as I buy a new scanner, I trade off or sell an older one.

Some folks don't do that....

Then again, in Amateur radio, a few years back, you bought a radio for a specific "band". An example would be a separate radio for 2 meter and one for UHF.

Now, that isn't as necessary with multi-band radios available.

But, if you'd bought different ones years back and they still work fine, why buy NEW?

And, sort of the same with scanners.

I have a couple of Unidens that I listen to low band and high band on. They have "better" RX on those bands.

And, when they came out with "Trunked" radio, I upgraded to a Pro2096. But, I didn't get rid of my other scanners. AND, I found out that the Pro2096 is pretty much DEAF on VHF Hi & Lo bands !!!! It works fine on UHF and the trunked systems.

This may not totally answer your question, but, I think t is pretty close. Once you get hooked on the hobby, you just accumulate radios over time. Then, you stack them up, take a few pictures and post them here!!!!

Steve/KB8FAR

 

[nexus]

I feel SLWilson hit a very good point there...

A lot of scanning hobbyists are COLLECTORS. A person buys a scanner, and after a while something NEW, BIGGER AND BETTER comes along, and they buy that one too. Some people will sell off their old gear, others (most i believe) just keep their old gear, and then you become a collector.

I have a low drive for buying scanners, but if you saw my collection you would think otherwise. I have the Uniden BC760XLT, BC350, BC785D, BC145XL, BC246T, BCD396T, Radio Shack PRO-51, and PRO-95, Yupiteru MVT-7100, and then it goes into all of my transceiving equipement both commercial and ham. Some times I think to myself I'll sell or get rid of some of my scanners because I don't even have them hooked up to power, but I don't do that, I just keep them while buying newer ones.

 

[keithmj]

Why

how come everybody has a ton of different radios? what are each one? shouldn't you only need a few like a shortwave, scanner, ham and CB? why so many like over 7?

It is said.."Those with the most toys win" or is it just a love of radios? I usually have more than one going so I can catch more of what is going on in radio land or I am listening to more than one talkgroup...Cheers..Keithmj

 

[tonsoffun]

Hey guys,
I have numerous scanners to do the job for example:
1- Local police and fire
2-Dedicated for 1 large 800 mhz trunking system
3-Dedicated to another large 800 mhz trunking ststem
4-Next is for Business band trunking systems(Actually pretty fun to listen too)
5-1 digital dedicated for a VHF p25 trunking system
6-Air Band
7-Is for running trunker programs and a spare trunking scanner if I need it monitor something else.
So as you can see that is 7 scanners operating and the ears are trained to tune in to something important. I hope that can anwser some of your question Browning.
Take care

 

[Viper43]

To add to the above, besides being in newsmedia now, I used to be a volunteer fireman and EMT as well as a paid scgool police officer and full time dispatcher (all at the same time) so being used to having radios going constantly is normal, for me at the dispatch center it was 1 phone with 10 lines 9 radio channels to monitor plus another 30 on the department scanner, and while all thats going going on I was watching TV too! Nothing like dispatching a fire call and five wrecks at once by yourself , no call taker, just one lone dispatcher. You get accustomed to tuning things out and picking up the "big" stuff.
Now, at the moment I have two handheld scanners, 7 base/mobiles a mobile 2m/70cm and a HT 2m/70cm radios and it's rare they are not all running. One scanner is on the main 800 systems here, one on the VHF and UHF non-trunked another with an OS535 board is also doing VHF/UHF scanning as well as searching for new active frequencies. One is set to monitor specific businesses that tend to have a lot of incidents, another covers air, one Feds, one local police and fire and one is just running Unitrunker. Oh, and then there is the R71a for HF monitoring as well. Basically even if I wasn't doing the media thing I'd still have all these scanners and so forth running just because I enjoy it.

Viper43

 

[SLWilson]

Funny you should mention...

To add to the above, besides being in newsmedia now, I used to be a volunteer fireman and EMT as well as a paid scgool police officer and full time dispatcher (all at the same time) so being used to having radios going constantly is normal, for me at the dispatch center it was 1 phone with 10 lines 9 radio channels to monitor plus another 30 on the department scanner, and while all thats going going on I was watching TV too! Nothing like dispatching a fire call and five wrecks at once by yourself , no call taker, just one lone dispatcher. You get accustomed to tuning things out and picking up the "big" stuff.
Basically even if I wasn't doing the media thing I'd still have all these scanners and so forth running just because I enjoy it.

Viper43

I know what you mean in just that one sentence.....

I dispatched midnights for almost 17 years straight. Then went to days and evenings for two years before switching agencies and going into management.

When on nights, I'd leave the scanner on during the daytime while I was asleep. The "routine" traffic never fazed me. But, let them dispatch out that big fire or police call and I was wide awake listening!

It's amazing what you CAN tune out when you are in the situation you described....

Our department only had five phone lines and four radio channels. We dispatched for fire and police....ONE lone dispatcher.

Got hard to even get a bathroom break sometimes !!!!

Check out the old Motorola Console (a 1972 model) and the old GE Master II. Both were low banders....

Steve/Gallia

 

[SCPD]

When I started with the U.S. Forest Service I used to drive a patrol engine. The FS required fire people to be on a tour with a one hour lunch even though most of us would have preferred a half hour, allowing us to go home earlier. But an hour lunch kept us available longer without additional funding so they made us do it. I used to find a secluded spot to have lunch where my rig could not be seen by the public. I would eat lunch in 10-15 minutes, then lay my head back on the seat and sleep for 45 minutes. Routine traffic did not wake me up, but if my unit number or smoke sighted traffic came over the radio I would be awake in a second, mike in hand, and speaking completely coherently. I never overslept either, the truck was started up between 50-58 minutes after I started lunch without fail.

On public contacts either on foot or while in a vehicle you become used to speaking and listening to the person you are contacting while simultaneously listening to a radio turned down a bit low. If you can't do this you either can't talk to the public very well or you miss a lot of important traffic on the radio. As a supervisor I not only keyed in on my own unit designator, but those of the people on the ranger district I worked on, and even more closely those I supervised. Almost anyone can do this, it just takes time. "Necessity is the mother of invention."

With scanners now, my wife cannot understand how I can work in my home office with three of them and two ham rigs going all at once. Sometimes she will ask me for clarification on some of the traffic and if it's lower priority stuff I will say "I don't know, I wasn't listening." Her usual reply is "then why do you have all of them on?" When I try to explain I only listen to the big stuff she shakes her head.

The secret of course is that we train our minds to only listen for certain words, phrases, as well as the tone and rhythm of voices. Everything else just passes through the filters without stopping. It is just one form of multi-tasking. Parents with small children can tune out the sounds of everyone else's child in a room while just focusing in on their own, and can tell by smell if it is their baby whose diapers need changing. They tune out certain speech and sounds their children make at home but go running for others. The mind is amazing!

Browning, another thing that happens when you are in the hobby long enough is that you buy radios as significant new features are added to them. Quite often you don't get rid of the old ones and find good uses for them. I have a PRO-2006 that does not have trunking capability, CTCSS tone squelching, or alphanumerics. I now use it to listen to one system where those features are not needed. I have a PRO-2052 that I use to monitor certain talkgroups on the trunked system of the local major ski area. It does not have alphanumeric capability either. I use it to listen to about four talkgroups that have the most important traffic on them (weather, snow, and road conditions). With only four I've easily memorized the talkgroup number and associate it with a channel on the 42 channel setup that ski area has. If I am listening to their entire system I find it impossible to recall the use of each talkgroup by number so I use the BC-780 with alphanumerics in that case. I have a two meter ham radio as well as an HF to 440 MHz base station. If I'm working another band, I like to have the two-meter-only rig on to listen for local traffic or another repeater. I've only gotten rid of radios that don't work and can't be fixed. All the other radios I've obtained over the last 40 years in this hobby I still have. Many of them are located right next to the desk in my home office/radio shack. Sometimes when I'm mobile I want to have more than one handheld on search when I'm figuring out a radio system or trying to find what frequencies are in use, especially when looking for business frequencies being used without an FCC license.

At some point, depending on the circumstances, you begin to shut off radios so you can focus entirely one one incident, or the communications of one portion of an incident as you find that every word is important and you can't miss even one. Otherwise you begin to lose track of what is going on. This changes at different stages of an incident, which finds you turning up or on some radios, then turning down or off other radios several times during the course of the incident. Then the phone rings or your wife tells you there is a funny noise in the washing machine and you miss the most important words in spite of all your dial turning efforts!

The bottom line is that anyone that stays in a hobby long enough appears to be pretty weird to newcomers and people not familiar with a hobby. How many times have you heard "man, he/she is really into it and it's pretty weird!"