Wow Sharon, nice gift. In addition to what the others have said, besides needing to know if you need a conventional, trunking, or digital scanner, you need to consider other things too.
First off, will the gift recipient want to take the scanner “on the go” with him, or will it sit on a desk all the time. If you want to take it places, go with a handheld scanner. They operate on batteries and can plug into power too. They have a smaller speaker than a desktop (desktop will sound better and generally have larger buttons, dials, and display screen but have to be plugged in).
Ease of use might be an issue too. I don’t have a digital scanner but from what I’ve read, they may be more difficult for a novice to program than a conventional scanner. Software that you load onto a computer and use to program a scanner is available for most, and makes this task much easier.
Finally, there are several places you can buy a scanner. Radio shack links were already provided to you above and I’ve had several of their radios and still use them. Scan Master is another good site and you can find them advertising on this website.
Please, if you don’t understand, just let us know and we will help you.
Merry Christmas
