I am interested in listening to ham operators worldwide, local police, fire, aircraft, and marine. Is it best to get a separate receiver\scanner or use the computer by itself. I see that you can access different broadcasts online.
You will only be able to listen to local services if a feed is currently available, then only certain channels such as police dispatch only ( tactical channels are not permitted) where if you had a scanner you could hear it all.
I will be more interested in local traffic (police, fire, aircraft, etc.). World band receivers have a scanning function. Would that be useful to me if I wanted to "have it all?" Meaning local traffic and ham operators around the world.
Do they? None of my HF receivers have a scanning function that works very well - they certainly step through a series of frequencies but they don't stop on signal as a VHF scanner does.
Separate receivers for separate functions and you'll need separate antennas too.
Degen 7313, JRC NRD 515, WinRadio G33 and 303e, Kenwood R2000, Yaesu VR5000, UBCT 8 and lots more....