Age and years scanning poll

As a scanner listener, how old are you:


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    228
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trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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I must confess to being 85 and been scanning for many moons. I notice from the poll that (as of today) the majority have been middle-aged and years of scanning. With that fact in mind, I wonder how many of these "older" ops have the same problem that I have with keeping up with modern technologies and terms? I am constantly Googling or RadioReferencing terms! Especially, these SDR terms befuddle me. Thanks for the opportunity to VENT. Regards to the Group.
Jerry AB5R
Hats off Jerry.(y)
 

cmdrwill

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
3,984
Location
So Cali
When I began listening to Police and Fire radio signals we did not have 'scanners'.

But I did have a "dual band" dual receiver Motorola mobile radio, VHF low 40 mhz and VHF high 156. And it had the things that lit up and glowed, and would burn your fingers... 1966.
 

INDY72

Monitoring since 1982, using radios since 1991.
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
14,636
Location
Indianapolis, IN
you are cordially invited to byte me!
So if we got a virus from that byte, would it be a KILL O byte... (Insert Gene Kruppa riff here)

But back on topic.. 47, scanning 37 of those years. Professionally involved a bit too. :)
 

gambill1

Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2005
Messages
162
Age 49 got my first scanner in the late 80's. Uniden bc70xlt. Just got a new battery pack for it and it still works. Our county VFD still dispatches on analog so I can still here that. Very good scanner.
 

AZMONITOR

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Premium Subscriber
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Aug 11, 2006
Messages
334
Location
AZ
I'm 66 years of age and started with a tuneable monitor radio receiver in 1969 and advanced to a crystal controlled VHF high band scanner in 1972. Now I have a room full of radios and computers of which 29 are scanners. Five scanners run almost 24/7 in the bedroom.
 

bigcam406

Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
1,182
Location
oshawa,ont,canada
I was introduced to the hobby by a friend in the early '80's who had an old Radio Shack scanner in his car with the flashing red lights and used crystals. Cant remember the model but back then we were heavily into the car scene and Friday and Saturday nights was the peak nights for street racing and cruising. It was like a scene out of American Graffiti most nights heading outside of town for some grudge racing. That scanner saved us numerous times and after that summer i was hooked. I always had one in my car back then until our local law enforcement went silent in 1999.
 

frankdrebbin

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2010
Messages
147
Location
SoILL
I'm 54. Can't really remember when I got into scanning. As a kid we had a base CB and one in the pickup. All the area farmers used it for communication and our local vol. fire dep't. used channel 2. The firehouse whistle would blow and you would hear everyone screaming "where's the fire at?!". Boy has that changed. My Dad would sit and listen to them. I got kinda hooked on what was going on around us, but Dad wasn't springing for no scanner. That was a luxury, he said. When I started making a few bucks I bought a Radio Shack 10 channel to hear the ICG railroad that came thru our area. My Grandfather had worked for the IC so I was naturally drawn to their comms. Then I upgraded to be able to hear public safety where I lived. I slacked off for a few years, and got into shortwave listening. Then I got the scan bug again, and pretty stealthily without my wife's knowledge, spent a gob of money on all new stuff to keep up with the transition to digital. Right now I'm sitting at home on call as a lineman, and I can hear when something goes down and I can figure out what I need before I leave the house. If they keep changing the radios I will probably just give it up. They are making it harder to hear anything anymore.
 

Hit_Factor

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2010
Messages
2,435
Location
Saint Joseph, MI
Back in the '80s, early 90s I was a Police Officer. We used scanners for interoperability between departments. My PD used VHF, the neighboring PD used UHF, and the State used HF. I would talk on my freq and get a response over the scanner from the other PD. It worked surprisingly well. All cruisers had 8 channel scanners with crystals, I don't recall the model.

Been monitoring for about 35 years.

73, K8HIT
Icom: IC-7300, IC-PW1, ID-5100A, ID-51A Plus 2, IC-R30, Hytera PD782G, Kenwood TH-D74, Uniden SDS100, DVMega, SDRplay RSPduo
 

steve9570

Member WSAG-457 -KB1-KZW- KCP-2441 CB
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
176
Location
Natick Ma
I also had that 4 channel Radio Shack hand held with the red leds. I worked for Half Shack part time as a kid spo I got a discount on all the new stuff coming in to the store. Also I lived in Newton Ma then and could go to You-Do-IT electronics store in Needham Ma to but my xtals. They had tons of CB/Ham and scanner stuff. Still do!!
Steve Natick Ma.
 

DJ11DLN

Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
2,068
Location
Mudhole, IN
Back in the '80s, early 90s I was a Police Officer. We used scanners for interoperability between departments. My PD used VHF, the neighboring PD used UHF, and the State used HF. I would talk on my freq and get a response over the scanner from the other PD. It worked surprisingly well. All cruisers had 8 channel scanners with crystals, I don't recall the model.

Been monitoring for about 35 years.

73, K8HIT
Icom: IC-7300, IC-PW1, ID-5100A, ID-51A Plus 2, IC-R30, Hytera PD782G, Kenwood TH-D74, Uniden SDS100, DVMega, SDRplay RSPduo
That was done here in the same time period, with a variation. State Troopers were on low band, everybody else was on VHF-Hi. But the Troopers had a 1- or 2-channel VHF-Hi radio in their cars with the interoperability channel (ILEEN) in it. But nobody's actual radios could scan at the time, so every car had a scanner. The Troopers usually didn't just monitor ILEEN because there was always chatter from somewhere on it (no PL tones back then either) and so they or we (SD) or the City cops learned of the need to light up ILEEN from scanner traffic.

And yes it actually worked quite well.
 

roadman1977

Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
98
I got into the hobby in 1988 at 11 years old. My first scanner was a Realistic PRO-2011. It only had 20 channels but that seemed adequate back then. The Realistic PRO-2006 was my "wish list" scanner back then. Now I have the Uniden SDS200. I still enjoy the scanning hobby.
 

Caesar

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
266
Location
Lexington, SC
I started in the late 80's under 10 years old listening to local hunters via CB and the local SD, my dad was a deputy. Had an old Regency desktop ~20 channel scanner. I'm still listening today even though there have been some years i stopped listening and some years i had several scanners going at once everywhere in the house. I am also a HAM of course. :) I'm 36 now.
 

kmi8dy

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2014
Messages
341
Location
ARIZONA and MICHIGAN
started by using a old floor model GE. multi frequency glass face plate with 12 diferant frequency bands. given to me by my grandfather when i turned 10 years of age. that would have been in 1958. my father during WW2 was a radio listener while in the army, stationed somewhere in the Mojave desert, they worked mostly at night, when ambient noise and light were at there least. they were listing to voice, cw, mostly cw coming from central europe. i guess the apple did not fall far from the tree. im 71 now.
 

Mike445

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
585
Location
Hope AR USA
I'm 45 and have been scanning since age 10. My neighbor lent me his scanner and I was hooked. My grandfather bought me a Bearcat base scanner at Service Merchandise in Pompano Beach FL. I had that scanner for years.
 
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