I want to get back to the topic of the price of new scanners that was referenced many posts back. People seem to think that scanners used to cost less in the past than the digital trunked models do today and I would say, yes and no. We are somewhat used to electronic products going down in price once a particular technology is introduced and the examples of current products are numerous. GPS units and DVD recorders are good examples. Scanners don't seem to follow the trend as much as the new digitals are costing $500 or more. Compared to other radio products this is fairly steep as they are not built as well as commercial grade handhelds and mobiles. Those commercial grade products don't have the same flexibility as a scanner does but the hardware (cases, antenna connectors, keypads, and display screens) is more bomb proof than scanners. I don't know of any scanner that can pass the mil-spec vibration tests. So in that sense scanners are pretty expensive. $500 is a lot of money and for most of us is not just lying around waiting to be used while burning a hole in our pockets.
On the "no" side are my observations of buying somewhere close to 20 scanners over the last 37 years. My first scanner was a Regency 8 channel crystal tuned radio and it cost about $100 - $110. Each crystal cost about $3 - $5 dollars. This scanner only covered VHF-Hi and if I wanted to listen to the CHP or LASO I would have to buy another scanner for $100 plus $25 - $40 in crystals, depending on whether the frequency was popular and in stock or had to be special ordered. I was making somewhere between $1.50 and $1.75 an hour in a part time job while going to college when I took the plunge on that Regency. It was more expensive to me at the time than the $500 models we have now given what I made then and how much other products, services, and property cost at the time. I have a receipt for my first programmable scanner, a Bearcat 210 I purchased in 1979 for $240. The Radio Shack PRO-30, my first programmable handheld, cost $315 in 1984. Some years later, in 1999, I have a receipt for a PRO-92, a scanner with trunking capability and an alpha numeric display showing a cost of $340. Now a scanner with those features is about $150 - $200 if I remember correctly and it has been just 8 years. My first quality HF receiver, a Yaesu FRG-7700 was over $500 with shipping in 1980 and many of my co-workers thought I was crazy to pay that much for a radio then. Given the comparisons of those prices to the price of other goods and services at the time, the $500 scanner of today costs about what the latest scanner did, or maybe even less, back in those "good old days."
Technology was changing quickly then as well. When I bought the Regency in 1970, it was quickly outdated by the VHF both high and low model that came out less than a year later. When you purchased that one there was already demand for a UHF model as there were rumors that the LAPD and some federal agencies had already moved up to that band and we could not listen to them.
Being in rural areas and smaller urban areas makes things less expensive and the scanner you buy lasts quite a bit longer. For law enforcement traffic my 1970 Regency works reasonably well in the area I live in and will work quite well until local agencies have to utilize narrow band. Its main problem is that decent receiver performance is limited to about 4-5 MHz and listening to the USFS/NPS/BLM and Fish and Game and CDF at the same time, without re-peaking the radio, is not possible. You have always been forced to have the latest and greatest when using a scanner in large urban areas.
In ham radio there is a joke that "ham" actually means "has adequate money." But is it a really expensive hobby? Yes, it can be if you build a really neat console, have linear amplifiers, antenna tuners, with multiple beams, rotors, and a couple of one hundred+ foot towers. However, compare that with the cost of buying a boat and towing vehicle to go water skiing or the price of a downhill skiing daily lift ticket. In the latter case count up the price of lodging, lessons, clothes, transportation, skis, boots, meals, and child care if you have kids that don't ski. If you have kids that ski then the bucks really start adding up! Take a look at the cost of bass fishing or duck hunting. How about the price of going to a sporting event? Ham radio and scanners are cheap in comparison in my opinion.
Given these comparisons I don't think $500 for a scanner with the most current capabilities is really that expensive. This has always been a hobby where being able to listen to everything is a challenge both financially and technically. You have to "pay to play!"
........Good Luck Hoser
