You Know You are Old Scanner Listener When.....

Status
Not open for further replies.

twobytwo

Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2000
Messages
352
Knew what Channel YJ was.
Eat at drive ins to listen to employees headsets.
When you went out of town you carried "POLICE CALL" book to know what other cities freq was.
Would listen to pages on the tv show "EMERGENCY' to see how many units were needed said KMG365 in youre sleep.
A trunked system was a herd of elephants.
An 8 channel scanner was all that was needed to listen to every agency in your city.
To change freqs you had to buy a crystal.
Scrambled was a cooked egg.
Looked at police car antennas to see what band they are on.
Could listen to cell phones.
Went to Radio Shack to listen to police scanners before you bought one.
Put a scanner and Cb antennas on your vehicle because you thought it was cool.
 

letarotor

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,050
Location
Arlington, TX
Knew what Channel YJ was.
Eat at drive ins to listen to employees headsets.
When you went out of town you carried "POLICE CALL" book to know what other cities freq was.
Would listen to pages on the tv show "EMERGENCY' to see how many units were needed said KMG365 in youre sleep.
A trunked system was a herd of elephants.
An 8 channel scanner was all that was needed to listen to every agency in your city.
To change freqs you had to buy a crystal.
Scrambled was a cooked egg.
Looked at police car antennas to see what band they are on.
Could listen to cell phones.
Went to Radio Shack to listen to police scanners before you bought one.
Put a scanner and Cb antennas on your vehicle because you thought it was cool.
Heck, it used to tick me off a little when I would go back to RadioShack and somebody had messed up my programming on the display scanners. So I would program them again :)

You might add this one to your list. When you had to actually know the frequency you were listening to :)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)
 

ARS-NET

@4R5_N3T on Twitter
Feed Provider
Joined
Jan 15, 2018
Messages
26
Location
Newark, NY
I still am able to enjoy my Bearcat IV, mainly as the interop channels and statewides, but it still purs. My favorite feat was the wiring harness/adapter mess I put together to get a scanner to come through my car speakers. Now I just host an on online feed, use the Scanner Radio App and Bluetooth connectivity and boom, done! So much easier... what a time to be alive eh?
 

weathermedic

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
125
Location
NYC
Remembering the "fishing tackle box" full of crystals the Radio Shack guy behind the counter pulled out when you asked him what crystals they had in stock for your scanner.

Listening to my neighbors cordless phone conversations on VHF low band

Waiting for the new monthly Popular Communications magazine to come in the mail
 

hardsuit

Member
Joined
May 23, 2017
Messages
389
Location
Vrigo Super Cluster, Milky Way Galaxy, Sagatarious
Channel YJ was the Company Station in Nassau.
Ate in Mall food courts to use my OPTO Scout and ICOM R10 Reaction Tune.
Carried my Police Call book & Latest issue of MONITORING TIMES everywhere.
Watched ADAM 12 and Emergency for the Emergency Calls.
Trunked systems were EASY to Listen to, Broadcast in the Clear with no Encryption.
A AOR 1000 could hear Everything from DC - Daylight, even Cellphones and Cordless Phones.
Could listen to Broadcast TV Audio with my Scanner on the BUS.
Scrambled was just TONE Inversion and could be hacked.
used my OPTO Scout & ICOM R10 Reaction Tune at Police Stations.
went to Radio Shack to check the Latest Scanners and buy GREAT Scanner accessory's .
Wore my AOR 1000 in a Shoulder Harness and a Lapel Mic because it looked cool.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
5,604
What an enjoyable thread to read. I'm 65 and started when I was about 12. It really was a lot more fun then. I can relate to every single thing said here.

I started with the tunable radios and you could only listen to one thing at a time. The Electra Bearcat 101 programmable scanner in 1974 cost $399.99 I had my first professional job by then and bought one and put it in the car. It was a c only so I had the big metal converter on the floor behind my driver seat and just reached back and flipped that toggle switch. 16 channels, can you imagine? What else could you want?

I loved that my local state highway patrol was on 45 megahertz simplex. I of course knew the patrol sectors. If a unit came in strong you knew they were right behind you or right up ahead but if the car came in scratchy from a distance you put the pedal to the metal. LOL.
 

letarotor

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,050
Location
Arlington, TX
You remember when Monitoring Times looked like a black and white folded newspaper. I still have a few old issues...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)
 

letarotor

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,050
Location
Arlington, TX
What an enjoyable thread to read. I'm 65 and started when I was about 12. It really was a lot more fun then. I can relate to every single thing said here.

I started with the tunable radios and you could only listen to one thing at a time. The Electra Bearcat 101 programmable scanner in 1974 cost $399.99 I had my first professional job by then and bought one and put it in the car. It was a c only so I had the big metal converter on the floor behind my driver seat and just reached back and flipped that toggle switch. 16 channels, can you imagine? What else could you want?

I loved that my local state highway patrol was on 45 megahertz simplex. I of course knew the patrol sectors. If a unit came in strong you knew they were right behind you or right up ahead but if the car came in scratchy from a distance you put the pedal to the metal. LOL.
I was 12 when I started also, and actually about 6 or 7 years old when I was first used one of the tunable types of multiband radios, and now I'm 52.

There were still a lot of low band VHF users throughout Texas and even up here in Fort Worth where I live not too terribly long ago. The sheriff's department was still using 37 MHz when I moved up here in 1992. I use to enjoy listening to the skip from up in the northeastern part of the country. The volunteer fire department I was with used the same 33.8 MHz frequency as a lot of Pennsylvania fire departments back in the 1980s.

Those were definitely the good ol days :) I don't think any new scanner listeners anywhere near most midsize cities or bigger have probably heard of skip? Unless they know somebody with that name, you just don't hear about it anymore and you don't get that with 800 MHz. And it sure doesn't travel as far if you do get any of the 800 MHz skip or ducting. I had to take a real quick picture of one of my oldies from the yesteryear...

Glad I took this picture because I didn't realize the DVDs on top of my piano we're starting to push the dusty scanner off. Even though I have no practical use for it anymore it does still work :)
49e00f1b25b2a4835d9d008bb29ab423.jpg


Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)
 

CM1

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
213
Location
Central, NJ
I guess you can add me the list then, with...

- The "mesmerizing effect" of the LED's scanning across the front of my scanner
- Seeing the release/getting the first non-crystal, keyboard programmable scanner
- Being able to enjoy a hobby for years with basic scanners that topped out at 512 Mhz, that used terms "channels" and "banks"
 

letarotor

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,050
Location
Arlington, TX
I guess you can add me the list then, with...

- The "mesmerizing effect" of the LED's scanning across the front of my scanner
- Seeing the release/getting the first non-crystal, keyboard programmable scanner
- Being able to enjoy a hobby for years with basic scanners that topped out at 512 Mhz, that used terms "channels" and "banks"
I hate to keep commenting over and over but I can relate to all of this. I remember getting my first programmable Regency M100 and I didn't even have a manual or any instructions. It didn't take me long to figure it out and learn how to open it up band wise to search outside of the 512 MHz range. But there just wasn't anything up there haha :)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Sent using Google Voice to Text. Please excuse any errors I could not see or catch.

Brian (COMMSCAN)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top