Help with Newbie

[Cole_Holocker]

Hi Guys,
I'm new to all this and am looking to purchase a scanner for the holidays. Below are some of the things i am looking for. Any help would be appreciated.

Looking to Scan Carroll County Fire/Rescue, Carroll County Sherriffs dept, Maryland State Police, Howard County Police/Fire/Rescue, and any airport frequencies when near enough. Maryland Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Dont know if you can do this, but would like to be able to discriminate what i hear to specific talk groups and channels on a trunked system.

Like to be able to scan a single talk group, or all frequencies i want, depending on what i want.

Color backlight would be nice to hear what im listening to, but not entirely neccesary

Ability to scan common frequencies when traveling to pick up radio traffic

Also hear citizen 2-way radio brodcasts

Computer programmable

Easy to use

Inexpensive, Under $500

Portable

as i said, im new to this, so if there is anything else you think i may need, let me know

 

[mciupa]

Hello Cole_Holocker,welcome to RadioReference

Have you read up on Uniden's HomePatrol-1 ?

At just under $500, this may be what you are looking for.

 

[scanchs]

Welcome to RadioReference!

Hi Cole_Holocker,

I'd like to second mciupa's suggestion regarding the Uniden HomePatrol-1. I recently picked one up myself, and it is an excellent scanner. It is especially good for a noob, because you can take it out of the box and be scanning in a matter of minutes instead of hours (or days for some folks). I highly recommend it!

ScanCHS

 

[Cole_Holocker]

Questions

Thanks for the feedback. I like the homepatrol1. Does it allow you to input your own frequencies, though. Also, Is it possible on any scanner to just switch channels in a trunked system, so listen to only TG5 on Carroll County Trunked?