Scanners Today

[nyemt774]

I guess one of my biggest gripes with scanners manufactured today is how many channels are TOO much??? I see RS has scanners for sale on the site with 39,000 channels! 39,000??? Huh? 500 or even 1,000 is OVERKILL. Heck you can only listen to 1 channel at a time. I really think it has gotten rediculous to have a scanner that has that many channels. Just a little rant...What do others think?? How many states/counties would it take to fill the channels and could anyone monitor that many stations and enjoy it???

 

[K4IHS]

Better too many... then not enough!

 

[ranger821]

I agree Ralph. Back in the day, i.e. crystal controlled scanners, yes I am that old there was 5 channels. In my area, there is Local, County, state, Federal, Military, Civilian Air, maritime, ham and so on. I like to know what is going on around me.

 

[SkipSanders]

No one says you have to, or should, listen to that many at the same time.

But you nonetheless need a whole lot of potential 'channels', to have room to enter multiple trunking systems and conventional systems, letting you decide which one to listen to at a given time.

They may have 100,000 talkgroups POSSIBLE, but only 300 on a given, single trunking system site, in which case you might need to have 'trunking system X' entered several times, with one setup for fire talkgroups, one for police talkgroups, and one for miscellaneous talkgroups.

Ability to quickly switch on and off specific sets of channels/trunk systems/talk groups you are currently interested in listening to is the key.

 

[fourthhorseman]

i could not agree less,,

i live in a moto-digital city for PD-FD monitoring,,

for the PD alone i have over 300 objects,control channels,talkgroups,and alpha tagged radio IDs,
fire,same deal,,about 200 or so..

federal,at least 100-125 over 3 banks,

state PD,in PA and NJ,,surrounding towns,transit,transit law,,airport law,college law..
interops,,all that fed stuff,,multiple freqs of the same,just with diff tones-nacs..YIKES...

ive got almost 3 v-folders filled and growing..

dude,,with the systems growing,,there will never be a downside to huge memory,,only a down side
to poor memory management,..it takes a while to sort,organize and get all that stuff into a functional
and useable tool..

 

[N8GXZ]

I have a 996T , it is at 6% channel capacty I only programmed in what I need . At one point I was up to 29% capacity I was missing alot of traffic due to the time it took to scan all those channels . I have only what I need now and use the close call DND function to hear anything close by. Why do I use DND you may wonder ? in priority it cuts about a second off the channel I am listening to . 10 gazillion channels is great if ya dont mind missing calls .

 

[gmclam]

I guess one of my biggest gripes with scanners manufactured today is how many channels are TOO much???

Infinity would be too much. Any number less than that leaves the possibility that you don't have the memory to program something you need.

I see RS has scanners for sale on the site with 39,000 channels! 39,000??? Huh?

It is a marketing description. Because of how memory is utilized in these scanners, they can hold more "channels" than a bank-oriented scanner.

500 or even 1,000 is OVERKILL. Heck you can only listen to 1 channel at a time.

Maybe YOU can only listen to one channel at a time, I have LOTS of scanners all going at the same time. Rather than "scan" lots of channels with a single radio, I'll use several radios each dedicated to a channel. But then there are still 1 or 2 that are scanning.

There are so many reasons for all of this it is hard to write about in a reasonably short message. For example, there will be one incident in which dozens of different channels and/or frequencies are used. One that comes to mind is the recent Roseville Mall fire. Most channels were not talking, but when someone talked I certainly wanted to hear them immediately (not after the scanner finds the active channel).

I really think it has gotten rediculous to have a scanner that has that many channels. Just a little rant...What do others think?? How many states/counties would it take to fill the channels and could anyone monitor that many stations and enjoy it???

Have you ever been to California? We have 58 counties, each with different channels, and then dozens of statewide and federal agencies. A scanner with a mere 1000 channels can not be programmed in advance to monitor a set of counties that one will be in during a short trip.

 

[msradell]

There are several reasons for this proliferation of available channels.

The first is that public service agencies use an awful lot more channels than they used to. I have become more and more dependent on radio communications and every small group needs their own channel. To allow for this trunking has become normal in many areas. Between control channels and talkgroups this takes up more memory in your scanner. Also for example in the past a fire department may only have a dispatch channel but now they have dispatch, fairground, tactical, investigators, Farah police, channels.

The second reason scanners have more channels is because people travel more and like to listen wherever they are. You can program in areas you go to regularly but only activate those channels when you were there.

Another reason to have everything programmed into your scanner is for flexibility. Maybe you only regularly listen to the fire frequencies in your area. However if a major event occurs you may want to listen to the police or EMS units that are responding in support. More channels doesn't necessarily mean you have to listen to them, they're just available to you.

 

[tjstroh42]

I guess one of my biggest gripes with scanners manufactured today is how many channels are TOO much??? I see RS has scanners for sale on the site with 39,000 channels! 39,000??? Huh? 500 or even 1,000 is OVERKILL. Heck you can only listen to 1 channel at a time. I really think it has gotten rediculous to have a scanner that has that many channels. Just a little rant...What do others think?? How many states/counties would it take to fill the channels and could anyone monitor that many stations and enjoy it???

I can remember having only 1 crystal for my hometown, then i went with a BC-800XTL this held 40 channels, and i was pleased. then i had Alinco with 1200 channels. Now i see the HP-1 has 10,000.
You are correct, can only listen to one at a time. But it gives you something to play programmer, and to drive you a little more crazy!!!!

 

[BoxAlarm187]

As much as I travel, having those hundreds of channels is a godsend. Sure, the "average" scanner user might not have a need like others, but when it comes to some of us, the more channels the better!

 

[markbart]

Some of us have the opposite problem fewer channela becouse they only have an analog radio like me.

Mark

 

[commscanaus]

My first scanner had only 20 channels, so I kept a notebook with all my lesser listened to frequencies written down. Only the important stuff was in the 20 memories.
Go out and about and the notebook had to come too.

Then along came the P.C.- with text files of scanner frequencies and the dot matrix printouts that fell across the floor. If you were traveling to another city- more printouts were needed or more notes written.

These days it is so much easier with 5000 channels and V folders to load EVERYTHING into!
You can carry the radio channels for any given city or area in the palm of your hand, all organized as you see fit. Trunking, railroad, marine, aircraft etc...and no more note books, pens, printouts.
It has never been easier to profile the radio spectrum and store it all in the radio!

I often use the stored information in my 996T to assist in the programming of other radios.
"What was that CTCSS code again for XXX frequency?"

The scanner has now become the notebook!
Oh yes- no more trying to get that damn pen to write in the cold either.

Commscanaus.

 

[tjstroh42]

my best scanner to listen to is a BC-800XLT, clear as a bell, yes only 40 channels and i think it is analog??

 

[eaf1956]

25K channels

Darn, my 996XT only has 25K channels. Seriously though with GPS it is nice to have all the areas you travel into programmed so that the GPS can disable and enable systems as you move into and away from sites.

HP-1 is even better with a GPS since it has the entire US and Canada DB in the SD card.

 

[RodStrong]

Your point is very valid. What ever happened to the good ole days.

However, I have had to figure out different ways to program my digital trunking scanners because I ran out of memory some time ago. Yes, the 39k "channel" models. I wish they had 100k "channels".

 

[K2KOH]

I agree Ralph. Back in the day, i.e. crystal controlled scanners, yes I am that old there was 5 channels. In my area, there is Local, County, state, Federal, Military, Civilian Air, maritime, ham and so on. I like to know what is going on around me.

Ah yes...the days of my FanonCourier pocket scanner, along with a pocket full of crystals. But they had some damned good audio!

 

[CalebATC]

Better too many... then not enough!

Amen, Ralph! I have trouble keeping all my stuff into 10 banks! Organization is on my scanner though!

 

[WA1ATA]

I guess one of my biggest gripes with scanners manufactured today is how many channels are TOO much??? I see RS has scanners for sale on the site with 39,000 channels! 39,000??? Huh? 500 or even 1,000 is OVERKILL. Heck you can only listen to 1 channel at a time. I really think it has gotten rediculous to have a scanner that has that many channels.

How many websites can your computer access? Millions?

They should make computers that only have access to a few dozen websites. Millions are obviously OVERKILL. Heck you can only look at one website at a time.

----------------

On more serious note, there really is some similarity to having access to many websites on a computer and having programmed into a radio many thousands of channels. In both cases, good organization will allow you to pick and choose what you want to see or hear, when you desire to do so.

Charlie

 

[tjstroh42]

programing by hand, which is how i have been doing it, takes considerable time, i guess i will have to learn to use my computer to download stuff.
Now if i can only convince my son to teach me how to do it. Then i can get a computer with all that memory.and load up on frequencies.

 

[eaf1956]

Today vs yesterday

How many websites can your computer access? Millions?

They should make computers that only have access to a few dozen websites. Millions are obviously OVERKILL. Heck you can only look at one website at a time.

----------------

On more serious note, there really is some similarity to having access to many websites on a computer and having programmed into a radio many thousands of channels. In both cases, good organization will allow you to pick and choose what you want to see or hear, when you desire to do so.

Charlie

The same could be applied to TV. When I was little we had what 3 networks to watch ABC, CBS, and NBC....Now we have hundreds of channels. Hey, you can only watch one at a time....Hey I like LIFETIME and DISCOVERY and FOX and etc etc etc.