Winnipeg area

I was looking in the database and see a number of frequencies listed for places like the mint, uofm and the hospitals. I'm new to this and was wondering if it is possible to listen to these channels with the right equipment? If so does any one have recommendations for economical equipment?

Economical would be subjective, the hobby is not necessarily cheap, you could start with used, bare in mind that many services are switching to digital, it used to be that was analog, but the places you have mentioned including the mint are digital & encrypted so no chance there, others are digital DMR or NXDN two most common types , I would suggest the Whistler brand they do both formats,there is lots to listen to and a steep learning curve for a noob, but ask anyone who scans and will say it is a great passive hobby,
You will have to look on-line as closet retailer to you would be Toronto, other wise WWW is your friend, I ile ebay and also Craigslist as many people prefer selling local,you can look at the wiki here and see if the aforementioned brand would suite you , fortunately or unfortunately everything Q&A wise is online, as you can no longer go to a Radio Shack like I did back in the day..Happy scanning & good luck.

Thanks for your reply it is very helpful. Another question how can you tell if you would be able to listen to a certain listing in the database or if there encrypted? Is it the mode column that tells you the scannable ones?

Is the range usually accurate on the listings, and as long as I'm in the radius I should be able to pick it up correct? Would there be any difference to buying a radio and using it to listen or a scanner? That way I could use the radio for other uses.

typically it will say D for digital E if it is Encrypted, start with a scanner because there are most commonly NXDN or MOTOTRBO in digital competing products the one aforementioned scanner will allow access to both, a two way radio will not do both systems that I am aware of, a scanner is way more enjoyable opens your world up to more possibilities, leave the two way to its intended task until you have better grasp on the hobby.
I live in Vancouver but routinely hear stuff from Vancouver Island (Victoria etc) & Washington state to my south due to my strategic placement of monitoring antenna, if you start with handheld you diminish your reception area, it all depends on a variety of factors , repeater or simplex transmission location of antennae etc, very indepth.

So assuming anything listed on this fleetnet page isn't DE for encrypted I should be able to pick it up with the suggested scanners?

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=537

Yes Correct, still stuff to listen to. If this is your first ever scanner, than the Whistler has it all for now , just read the forum here and see the frustration people have had in trying to activate paid for software keyes and awaiting the mythical NXDN decoding (which tends to be favored by business type comm's in Canada) with exceptions throughout the US .

Just saw this thread. A little late, but don’t bother trying to listen to the mint, as they are encrypted.

Universities and colleges are still in the clear on DMR.

Winnipeg Transit is still in the clear on analog.

Manitoba Hydro, is using a Tait VHF DMR Tier 3 trunking system, and everything is in the clear. Basically no information is posted about the system, as nobody has time to drive around to all the sites, waiting for activity to pop up.

Winnipeg is a three frequency site (1 TS for CC, 5 voice TSs). There’s a fair amount of activity on it during business hours from many regions.

The best scanner you could possibly buy is two $30 SDR dongles from Amazon, and use DSD Plus Fast Lane software. It’ll do everything you need it to do in the Winnipeg area. It tracks all of the digital trunking formats in use in this area and is extremely stable. It includes logging of each talkgroup, so you can tag, then lock out, the group once it is identified.

Don’t waste your time buying a junk tracker scanner.