cant recieve fast food, etc.... frequencys on my BCD996??

coachmenguy · #1 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 10:33 PM

not that i care to hear what people have to eat but i live less than a mile from Mc.d's burger king and some others and cant pick them up at all????? am i doing something wrong?? i found a list online of all drive thru frequencys and i've ran through all bands on my scanner.. nothing! The only local busness stuff i get is just a store or two looking for a price check. I have a lot of busnesses around me Mall, Lowes, walmart, everything a busy area would have and things are pretty quiet, just wondering if i missed something along the way????? i can get emergency services all the time when there not encrypted!

Jay911 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 10:48 PM

You have to be pretty close... I think a mile is stretching it a bit.

wannabescannist · #3 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 10:51 PM

Do some fast food joints do something special with their comms? I once went up to a drive-thru, Pro-97 in hand using the SignalStalker and the scanner didn't stop on my transmissions or the cashier's.

KG4LJF · #4 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:00 PM

I've tried Signal Stalking many as well, McDonalds, Arby's, Long John Silvers, and can't grab anything.

I DID however snatch Wendy's frequency. It was 460 something, UHF.

I was sitting in a parking spot not 40 ft. from the order box and could grab anything, then I moved over next to the window, and couldn't stalk anything there either..

Maybe they're up in the ghz range?

coachmenguy · #5 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:11 PM

wow, i guess im not the only one, Mcd's being the closest one at like a quarter mile, i cant get anything and thats with my base antenna 20ft in the air. like KG4LJF said: mabye they are up in the ghz range??????

Jay911 · #6 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:16 PM

Some might be spread spectrum like newer cordless phones... others are wired instead of using radios.

jparks29 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:29 PM

MOST systems nowadays are going to be using 900Mhz frequencies, WFM

you'll still find a lot of systems using VHF ->talk to customer , VHFLB ->customer talk to order taker , full duplex.

you pretty much have to be in the parking lot to pick them up, they're usually about 50mw or so....

b7spectra · #8 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:49 PM

A very popular frequency is 35.02. Plug that one in and see if you pick something up!

coachmenguy · #9 (**permalink**) 06-10-2007, 11:52 PM

i guess i'll have to find me a mobile antenna and hit the road!! sometimes i wish i would have bought a handheld, oh well

wannabescannist · #10 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jparks29

MOST systems nowadays are going to be using 900Mhz frequencies, WFM

WFM? Why so much bandwidth?

TrekBoy85 · #11 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 12:05 AM

Yeah, all the McDonalds in Fort Collins Colorado are 900Mhz WFM, and you pretty much have to be in their parking lots to really hear anything. I Live only about a half mile away from one and can't pick up diddly from the house. However, I can pick up taco bell almost a mile away on 457.5125 MHz, and I know some Arby's use that freq as well.

The trouble with fast food freqs is that they're different no matter where you go.

w8jjr · #12 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 12:28 AM

People your only talking a few hundred miliwatts at the most here. I have picked them up with freq's programmed in and being right on top of them. But never in the close call mode.
Their outputs are resticted.

As always mileage may vary

midnightcaller · #13 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 12:50 AM

I have used closed call to get he freqs for KFC and bugerking and Wendys but I was either in the place or next to it with close call

Tweekerbob · #14 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 02:41 AM

WHY?!?!?!?!?

Do you REALLY care what people are ordering? Take at look at them...you'l be able to tell in advance. Plus if they're going "THRU" the drive through...doesn't that already say something? Too fricken lazy to leave the sanctity of their autos during favorable weather? Are their legs inoperable? Heck, they even have the crippled spaces. But no, we just HAFTA go through the DRIVE-THRU (if just might be faster...)

I hafta say, I was a "Drive-Thru" worker for some time. If this even remotely amuses you...get a job there...trust me..it is just that much more funny. Otherwise...GET A LIFE!!!
You are completely killing me with your absolutely pathethic quest to hear the most mundane radio trafic God ever invented!

Oh and P.S. just about everyone is using 900 WFM these days. "Come back now big chicken over."

Declared_Hostile · #15 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tweekerbob

WHY?!?!?!?!?

Do you REALLY care what people are ordering?

Not especially but the employee-to-employee conversations can be pretty interesting. Everything from the "special treatment" of customer orders, the arguments and fights between employees, the verbal abuse of customers behind their backs, the various little soap opera dramas that go along with some jobs that are especially prevalent in food service industry for some weird reason even at the bottom levels.

It can be quite entertaining.

Then there is just the pure radio geek answer. It is a radio signal and it is there. The same reason we try to monitor rain gage or river level gage telemetry. It's a transmitter that is transmitting in our area thus it needs to be intercepted.

People find all sorts of different things in our field entertaining. Some people eat and sleep railroads and rail scanning. Other than scanning the bands occasionally just to see what is there I find train traffic boring. I happen to eat and sleep military air. Others find that aspect of the field painfully dull and esoteric.

Finding the unusual and uncommon things to monitor makes things interesting. After all, you need something to occupy your time while you're waiting to hear another plate being run or another call being to the same address for yet another domestic. Why not find the local drive thru or an unknown low power factory paging system.

Tweekerbob · #16 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 04:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Declared_Hostile

Not especially but the employee-to-employee conversations can be pretty interesting. Everything from the "special treatment" of customer orders, the arguments and fights between employees, the verbal abuse of customers behind their backs, the various little soap opera dramas that go along with some jobs that are especially prevalent in food service industry for some weird reason even at the bottom levels.

It can be quite entertaining.

In my particular establishment, this is pretty darn rare. I for sure can't speak of others. If we had something to say, and believe me we did; this was off mic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Declared_Hostile

People find all sorts of different things in our field entertaining. Some people eat and sleep railroads and rail scanning. Other than scanning the bands occasionally just to see what is there I find train traffic boring. I happen to eat and sleep military air. Others find that aspect of the field painfully dull and esoteric.

I am one who is akinly aware of the several facets of scanning available to all. However, I must maintain the "scanning" of fast food frequencies is reserved for the few deviants who lack the social skills to even comprehend, much less appreciate the finer details of the aforementioned skills brought forth in this thread as it relates to scanning of freqs in and around Fast Food.

I for one, unfortuneately can claim MilAir vey boring, due to the lack of activity in my area...NorCal. My Fault?? No.

Quote:

Finding the unusual and uncommon things to monitor makes things interesting. After all, you need something to occupy your time while you're waiting to hear another plate being run or another call being to the same address for yet another domestic. Why not find the local drive thru or an unknown low power factory paging system.

Why not the local pager system...way more powerful!!

NeFire242 · #17 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Declared_Hostile

The same reason we try to monitor rain gage or river level gage telemetry. It's a transmitter that is transmitting in our area thus it needs to be intercepted.

Ha, thought I was the only one that looked these things over.

loumaag · #18 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tweekerbob

...I must maintain the "scanning" of fast food frequencies is reserved for the few deviants who ...

Bob,
Really, someone who listens to fast food is no more of a "deviant" then one who finds the practice irksome. Everyone who prowls this site presumably scans something; it might be that someone was just curious about it and couldn't understand why they couldn't find the frequencies. Part of the enjoyment of this hobby for me is learning new things, one of the things I have learned is tolerance for others (even if they attack me), perhaps you could learn that lesson also.

Patrick_ · #19 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 10:57 AM

I've got a McDonald's about 1/4 mile up the road, and I can receive it on 457.5125MHz in my attic (about 25 feet high). This is with my stock antenna, but it's quite a weak signal...

KG4LJF · #20 (**permalink**) 06-11-2007, 11:07 AM

Personally, I could really care less about what they're saying. Why you attacking us for wanting to scan and hear them? You said you used to work in food service.. Are you paranoid about being listened to while at work?

I think it's funny to order a burger, and then turn my scanner up and see what's being said about me.

This happened once, and I plainly told the little manager woman in the first window, that it's not good to talk about people who can hear you.. She turned red, and told the guy in the next window to throw me an extra burger in the sack. They were both red, knowing I heard them talking about myself, and the others in line.

I like to monitor it just because I can. Because it's a challenge. If you think fast food monitoring is dumb, maybe I think what you monitor is dumb. What do you listen to? Baby monitors? Cordless phones?

We all like to scan different things. MilAir, Marine, Trains, there's more to scanning than just Public Service. If I see a radio key up, I've GOT to know what frequency it's on and what' s being said. Fast food, or EMS... A radio wave is a radio wave. If it's monitorable, I'm gonna be tuned to it.