some beginner advice please

[fwellers]

Hello,
I am brand new to the forum, and I hope that if my questions are too basic for this forum, I can at least be pointed to another more appropriate place to ask.
Please forgive my cluelessness.

I wish I could be a HAM operator someday, and maybe someday I will. I started researching it about a week ago and came to the conclusion that for me, I better start slower. There is not only much to learn, but much money to be spent on equipment.

So I decided that I would like to start off by satisfying my need to know, voyueristic tendencies with a scanner.

I live in Northern Virginia. Of course I'd like to monitor the police, the airports and other utilities. I'd also love to be able to monitor short wave stuff, but I don't think that's possible with the units I'm looking at.
I think I would need a digital scanner, one with Trunk Tracking ability ( for motorola )and digital decoding of the APCO-25 standard. So that means I think I need either the Bearcat 396/996 or the new PSR-500.

It also seems that I would need the ARC software to download the frequency charts and program the unit, as I don't think I would relish the idea of manually inputting all that info into these interfaces.

Now I'm left with what kinds of antennas to get that would provide me the most fun. I may be able to eventually put something outside ( something very innocuous ), or something in the attic, but right now, I'm trying to wade through the different options that would connect right to the bnc connector on the radio. Since I'm not well informed about the different bands, and what to expect, I'm not sure what to get.
Do I get more than one ? One for Aircraft, and one for long range ?

If I'm making any huge mistakes in my thinking or going about getting into this hobby, I would appreciate advice, and also, if I can be pointed in the correct direction to make some better informed choices before I plunk down my hard earned $$, I'd very much appreciate it.

Thanks for any advice, and thanks for the forum.

 

[hoser147]

Your in the right place and there are no dumb questions so ask away. I see ya have the Uniden and GRE in there what about RS pro 96? Lets git your scanner figured out and then we can move onto your antenna questions. What County are you in? What all do you want to monitor? That should get you off to a good start..............Hoser

 

[fwellers]

Thanks for the reply and the kind words Hoser.
The reason I neglected to include the RS Pro96 was that from what I can tell, it doesn't allow for trunking which I need to monitor the police, and it doesn't seem to allow for pc programming.
I've read that the sensitivity is better on the RS devices, and that's a big plus, but I am basically lazy, so the PC control programming is for me.

I live in Loudoun County, close to the edge of fairfax county.
What I want to scan is umm, everything I guess. Too greedy ? haha.
Off the top of my head, I want police and fire, since the Dulles air traffic flies over my house, I'd like that too. Also I want to scan weather. Can I scan the feds too ? ( Just kidding ). Not sure it's possible, but are there any long distance shortwaves that can be scanned with a device that can scan the others I mentioned ?

Thanks.

 

[DPD1]

Just some basic suggestions... Typically you'll want a separate radio for HF, even though there are scanners that technically go into HF... But a dedicated HF radio will do much better. You don't have to spend a lot of money there though. The Grundig G5 is a good little portable for about $150. You can at least see if you like HF with that. A simple long wire antenna will work there, which it comes with.

As far as antennas... In general, the closer an antenna is to being tuned to the freqs/band your interested in, the better it will perform. The farther you get away from the band it was designed for, the worse it will perform. So a good thing to do is take the band you're the most interested in, but is also the hardest to hear... then get an antenna that focuses on that band. The strong signals will typically come in on that anyway.

All that said... I don't think being a Ham should be that expensive. The basic test is not bad, and you could most likely get into local 2m repeaters with just a simple handheld. Unless you want to talk on HF, then yes, it's going to take more than that. You might want to experiment on CB SSB just to get a feel for trying low band simplex stuff.

Dave
http://www.dpdproductions.com
Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[ScanManQSL]

Floyd ,

Welcome to the Radioreference! We hope you enjoy your stay.

From your location you are able to receive Frederick County, Montgomery county Maryland, Loudoun, Fairfax, Washington DC and many others. I would recommend a digital scanner(pro-96) since this whole Washington DC metropolitan area is 90% digital.

 

[LEH]

Floyd,

First off, welcome aboard.

Second. It looks like you have already done a fair amount of homework. Your questions show that. You will have no problem getting answers.

So as Hoser said, let's look at your scanner needs. Do you want a base unit or a hand held unit? For the area you live in, digital will be a must. Most of Northern VA is digital and the VA SP are going that way with their STARS system.

For the large number of systems available in your area, I'd consider the Uniden or new GRE scanners. The radio shack digital (PRO 96 or 2096) only have ten banks, so you are limited to ten useable systems. The RS scanners (and the new GRE who made the RS digitals) have what are called Vfolders. These allow you store additional systems, they are just not accessible until you load it to the active memory (which clears the current active systems).

The Uniden radios utilize a dynamic memory allocation. The new GRE uses object oriented functionality.

For a handheld, I'd consider the Uniden 396. It is compact, good coverage and good available software to help program it. It also comes preloaded with a goodly number of larger systems and I believe Louden county is one of them as is Fairfax. So some of your work is already done.

The GRE PSR-500 is brand new and making news for itself. It is a handheld too. Slightly larger than the 396 and some nice features.

As you do your homework, ask questions (and expect to see diverse and sometimes conflicting answers from the users) and weigh the responses.

 

[fwellers]

Thanks for the welcome !!
And thanks for the responses.
It sounds like I just need to get that BC396, and the software, make a subscription to radioreference so I can download the frequencies for my area right into the software and into the radio ( that's what can be done right ? ), and then after deciding what I like to listen to the most, get an appropriate antenna if I'm missing stations, or have weak reception.

So it looks like most of the guesswork is taken out of the equation since there appears to be so few scanners that are capable of recieving the coded, trunk switched digital signals in my area.

And then I'll just ask questions as more specific ones come up.
Now, to convince my budget to allow me ~$600 for this.

btw, Just tonight I was heading down RT7 and saw at least 7 cop cars ride past me with their lights flashing. I passed them all surrounding a local bank parking lot. I guess If I had this scanner with me, I could've heard what was going on, maybe even with the CloseCall feature !!

Thanks again folks.

 

[BaLa]

Thanks for the reply and the kind words Hoser.
The reason I neglected to include the RS Pro96 was that from what I can tell, it doesn't allow for trunking which I need to monitor the police, and it doesn't seem to allow for pc programming.
I've read that the sensitivity is better on the RS devices, and that's a big plus, but I am basically lazy, so the PC control programming is for me.

The Pro96 does do trunking.
and it DOES allow for PC Programming.

with that being said....
You should still choose between the 396 and the PSR500.

I haven't been keeping up too much in the PSR500 thread.
I do believe it currently has some bugs, but you should prolly jump over to the GRE forum and read the thread.



---
So I didn 't read your last post....


As far as Close Call...If they use a trunking system in your area, it will prolly be hit and miss.

 

[fwellers]

I didn't know

Thanks BaLa,
I guess I don't know how to correctly read the specs and comparisons.
It does make it a more interesting choice.
I assume for the motorola rebranding, I can get a download of the firmware to take care of that on the 96 ?

 

[fwellers]

Thanks Dave, I've been giving your suggestion some thought.
I think I should buy the Grundig G5. I don't have to make a huge deal with money about that one. Then I can attach an antenna to it that would be based on whichever band area I'm most interested in. ( I'm using this as a general guideline for bands: http://www.hamuniverse.com/hfbands.html )
This seems like an inexpensive way to get started and see if I really have an interest.

The scanner will not be coming as soon, since it cost so much more.

 

[rescue128]

Floyd, keep an eye on the for sale forum. Ive seen pro-96's for 275 sometimes.

 

[rockag41]

Here is my standard answer. Sorry for you guys that have read this before.

IMHO, the best scanner is the BC396T. It will handle analog as well as digital. It will handle a variety of trunked systems. It is portable. It can be used when the power goes out and you need info. It can still be set up as a base unit. It has dynamic memory. It can easily be programmed with ARC396 or ARC396Pro software.

The scanner will set you back about $500. The ARC396Pro software is about $80. I like the ARC396Pro bexause it has logging and recording capabilities. A decent RS mag mount antenna is another $30. I use my mag antenna on my car as well as at home and in my office. So, for about $600 you can have a good system that will pick up just about anything in your area.

In case you are wondering, this is the setup that I have and I love it. I don't know much about the new GRE radio, but I hear it can rival the 396T

Go forth and scan.

 

[gcgrotz]

Hi fwellers, welcome to RR. Don't get discouraged on the Ham thing, getting a Tech class ticket is fairly easy.

You need to get your newbie self over to the VA forum (maybe you have and I didn't notice). It is a great group over there and there are some good regular users in your area, they could probably hook you up with files for whatever radio you choose to get and make it much easier for you.

See ya.

 

[fwellers]

Floyd, keep an eye on the for sale forum. Ive seen pro-96's for 275 sometimes.

Oh Thanks Nate. Hadn't even gotten there yet. Tons to read on this forum, and all the wiki's.
Too bad I already have a full time job, as learning here can be a full time job on it's own.

 

[fwellers]

Thanks Rockag, Sounds like a good thing to me !!
I like the sound of that !
Maybe I'll sell a wristwatch and have enough money to buy the scanner setup and a small HF reciever.
Let the fun begin soon.

 

[fwellers]

Hi fwellers, welcome to RR. Don't get discouraged on the Ham thing, getting a Tech class ticket is fairly easy.

You need to get your newbie self over to the VA forum (maybe you have and I didn't notice). It is a great group over there and there are some good regular users in your area, they could probably hook you up with files for whatever radio you choose to get and make it much easier for you.

See ya.

Thanks. I'll get there. I'm not worried about the test, since I have some electronic an tech backround and generally test pretty well. But I think that will be a while off yet. Gonna do something I don't usually do, and get my feet wet for a while before jumping in. Did I just say that ? :roll: