Canadian vs United States

wv_mountaineer · Dec 24, 2014

As we all know the FCC sets rules in the US. How different are the rules compared to Canada? If I take my scanner and go into Canada what will I not be able to listen to because my scanner is set up by Uniden, GRE or whoever for the US market and or the other way around. What if I lived in Canada and came into the states, what frequencies would the scanner have problems listening to in the lower 48? I am just curious and would like to know if and what the differences are between the two countries and what is allowed to be listened to and what isn't when you buy a scanner in each country. I guess this question relates to how each company sets up the scanner per rules made by the governing force.

phyberoptics · Dec 24, 2014

A scanner purchased in the US will work in Canada, and vice versa, you would just have to program the scanner for whatever you want to listen to.

The newer scanners with the RadioReference database on an SD card would make the task of selecting what you want to listen to easier.

In Canada, you can listen to anything, our government does not restrict. We could even listen to analog cellular back in the day while it was banned in the US.

VE3RADIO · Dec 24, 2014

phyberoptics said:
A scanner purchased in the US will work in Canada, and vice versa, you would just have to program the scanner for whatever you want to listen to.

The newer scanners with the RadioReference database on an SD card would make the task of selecting what you want to listen to easier.

In Canada, you can listen to anything, our government does not restrict. We could even listen to analog cellular back in the day while it was banned in the US.

Just do not repeat what you have heard.

wv_mountaineer · Dec 24, 2014

In Canada said:
This being said.... What do you know of right now in the states being transmitted that a scanner you bought in Canada will pick up in the states that a scanner bought in the states won"t? Wow, now that's a tongue twister?
My guess is nothing unless the frequency bands set up there are different than they are here. But I wouldn't think that would matter either since nobody down here would be operating on those frequencies anyways.

VE3RADIO · Dec 24, 2014

wv_mountaineer said:
This being said.... What do you know of right now in the states being transmitted that a scanner you bought in Canada will pick up in the states that a scanner bought in the states won"t? Wow, now that's a tongue twister?
My guess is nothing unless the frequency bands set up there are different than they are here. But I wouldn't think that would matter either since nobody down here would be operating on those frequencies anyways.

There is almost no difference between Canada and the USA, we share the largest border in the world, so our airwaves are pretty much setup the same. The only thing that is different is that low VHF generally has different spacing (5/15) that low VHF in the USA (12.5).

Your scanner will work, there is no difference, models are the same.. just we have more freedom that you guys do and if you sprain your finger scrolling through the airwaves you can go to the hospital for free lol.. this may be hard to admit for some in the USA.

Jay911 · Dec 24, 2014

There are indeed some minor differences. In Canada, the VHF "hi" band (136-174) is on 5 or 15 kHz steps while in the US you are using either 12.5 or 2.5 kHz steps. That is to say, frequency 154.845 is "valid" for me, but your scanner might try to "correct" you to 154.8375 or 154.8475.

That's about the only one band-plan wise that I can think of at this moment.

Radios for the Canadian market typically have the "blocks" that are required for the US market, simply because it doesn't make financial sense to manufacture radios with different architecture when the majority of the configuration will be the same. So you're not going to find a Canadian version of the 396XT with "cellular" unblocked for example.

I have travelled to many different locales in the US over the years with my "Canadian" scanners, including all over Texas, the spring baseball areas of Florida, and Las Vegas, Nashville, southern Nevada and northern CA/AZ, and through Montana/Idaho/Washington, and had no problems at all receiving anything that an "American" scanner would be able to pick up.

VE3RADIO · Dec 24, 2014

Jay911 said:
There are indeed some minor differences. In Canada, the VHF "hi" band (136-174) is on 5 or 15 kHz steps while in the US you are using either 12.5 or 2.5 kHz steps. That is to say, frequency 154.845 is "valid" for me, but your scanner might try to "correct" you to 154.8375 or 154.8475.

.

Yup that is what I meant.. the low end of VHF hi... AKA the Fleetnet channels in my locale.

kayn1n32008 · Dec 24, 2014

VE3RADIO said:
Yup that is what I meant.. the low end of VHF hi... AKA the Fleetnet channels in my locale.

It's the whole VHF-Hi band 138-174MHz that is 15/5KHz steps in Canada. With the ham(various steps) band and marine(25KHz steps) band being the only exception.

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Canadian vs United States

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