Time To Upgrade?

[AmonStone]

I have a Radio Shack Pro-26 scanner that I bought a few years back. It works great and I've enjoyed having it. I read some stuff online about all the new features that scanners have these days. I especially like the fact that you can hook it up to a computer to program it, and that the readouts now show the name of the frequencies, town police car 1, for example.
Am I missing out on anything? Should I upgrade to a newer, digital scanner?

[Astrak]

It all depends on your location and what your scanning needs are. If your area is digital then, yeah obviously you would need a digital scanner. If you think you're up to learning all the bells and whistles of the newest model digital scanners than go for it. If you don't care about top of the line, with a lot of features and the ability to listen to digital communications and just need alpha tagging then there are cheaper options than a $500.00 digital scanner.

[rvictor]

The question of whether to spend the extra money for digital depends to a large extent on where you are and what you want to listen to. I'd suggest that you review the database for your area and see if there's any digital at the present time that you want to hear. You might also want to check in the forum for your state to find out whether anyone knows of plans for particular agencies to switch to digital.

Dick

[AmonStone]

Thanks for the posts guys! Well, I live in Massachusetts, if that helps at all. Like I wrote in my original post, I don't seem to be missing anything. I've been listening to alot of the same channels (police,fire,etc) for a long time. I'll have to look into whether or not any of the local areas plan on switching to digital.
This may sound like a stupid question, but if someone broadcasts in digital, I have to have a digital scanner to receive the signal? The reason why I ask, is like I wrote above, I don't seem to have lost many channels that I've been listening to for awhile. Things like airlines, utilities, stuff like that. Who broadcasts in digital these days? I'd think that the airlines would have upgraded to digital, yet I can still receive them.
Sorry for any dumb questions. I've had a scanner for years now, but Im honestly not that up on them. I plugged it in, programmed it from Police Call, and just let it go.

[gmclam]

This is one of those hobbies in which there is always a newer, faster, better scanner coming out. If you are able to hear the agencies & channels that you want to with what you have, I'd suggest holding out. Keep yourself informed of changes that WILL be taking place, so you'll have the correct scanner when someone you monitor makes the change.

When our scanners were 50 frequencies or less, I did not have a problem memorizing who all the frequencies belong to (largely still don't even with 1000 frequencies). But when scanners started to hold 500 or 1000 frequencies and additionally lots of talkgroups as part of a trunked system, it became pretty tough to absolutely remember the agency and channel number of each and every one.

So when you do decide to upgrade I'd go for lots of memory/channels, alpha tagging, something which has many choices for software support, has 'field upgradable' firmware, trunk tracking and probably digital. The only reason I do not suggest digital 100% is because of the cost. If an analog scanner gets what you want to hear, it's less than half the price.

My suggestion is to read the Wiki section here and pick scanners that will fit your needs. Then wait for one of those models to go on sale and go for it!