Good afternoon Demaeex, Happy New Year and welcome to the formu,
I travel quite a lot arround the province and I always bring at least one scanner with me. I'm from northern Ontario and I go to Ottawa at least once a year to attend an Ottawa Senators game.
Ottawa emergency services use two systems : EMS and OPP use the provincial system called Bell FleetNet (
Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2 Trunking System, Southeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies). EMS are in analog mode and OPP are in digital mode (requires a special type of scanner : a trunktracker IV) on the system. Police and fire are on the city's EDACS (
Ottawa Public Safety Trunking System, Ottawa, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies). EMS switch to this system when the Bell Fleetnet is down for some reason. However, police can't be monitored with just a scanner - you need to do some modifications to the electrical curcuits inside the scanner and then have a special program on your computer to decode the transmissions.
As for a good scanner, I always prefer handheld scanners since I travel a lot. If you want one in your home that is stationnary you can buy a base or mobile scanner. If you don't want to listen to the OPP, then a trunktracker III scanner will do it. If you are interested in listening to the OPP then a trunktracker IV will be required.
There's a few manifacture of scanners. The most popular are Uniden and GRE. Personnaly, I prefer Uniden and I own the BC246T and the BCD396T. A good trunktracker III scanner for the Ottawa region is the Uniden BC246T (about 200$-250$) or its newer version, the Uniden BC346XT. As for a trunktracker IV, the Uniden BCD396T (550$-600$) will do the trick or its newer version the BCD396XT.
Two great places to order from are:
- Radio World in Toronto (
@ Radioworld Toronto : Amateur Radio, Ham Radio, GPS, Garmin GPS, Garmin Motorcycle GPS, Garmin Car GPS, Garmin Truck GPS, Minelab Metal Detector, Garrett Metal Detector, Marine Chartplotter, Fishfinder, Ice Flashers, Ice Fishing, Power-Pole Shallow )
- Durham Radio in Durham (
Police Scanners by Uniden Bearcat, AOR, Icom, Alinco trunking - Canada)
Also, check Ebay, Radioreference.com classified and kijiji for some great deals. Also, I read that TorontoKris, a member in the Toronto region, has some good deals on scanner (you can send him a private message). I think he is able to program the scanner before shipping the unit to you. I was able to purchase a digital scanner for half price on EBay. Doesn't hurt to check!
Hope this helps and don't hesitate.