1st scanner i ever had...

[jwetzel]

i must have been about 10 or so when I started listening to scanners. my dad got one (from his aunt, I believe). it was a minicom sx-100. i was fascinated and hooked...listend all the time for about 10-12 years, but time in the military and marriage "Squleched" my listening for a while (about 10 yrs!). rarely listened during that time, and just recently getting back into it. got a RS Pro-96 for christmas and am loving it again....funny coincidence, too. I was cleanining out the garage last weekend and in the course of going through some very old papers in a box I came across, I found the "operation manual" for my very first scanner, the minicom sx-100.

thought this would be the best place to share my "return to scanning" story and my recollections of when I first started.... anyone else have any stories to share?

btw, if anybody needs the owners manual for the minicom sx-100, I have one! just wish I knew where that scanner disappeared too!

 

[mlevin]

Cool story! Welcome back to a great hobby.

 

[tglendye]

I was 12, and my parents got me a used Bearcat Electra III for Christmas. I was a normal kid: sports, bb guns, etc., w/ the exception of the scanner. I've been hooked ever since.

 

[rckydenver]

Well my first scanner was the Bearcat IV scanner that I bought I was 16 or 17 yrs old and sorta remember that commerical for scanners on TV mid 70's, during that time I was working for a department store auto center, will the department store got some of those Bearcat IV scanners in and had to take advantage of my discount (10% i believe) I think i paid $60. for it. So i went into the military too, and let my sister use it being that her husband (my brother-inlaw) works for Denver Police. They still have the scanner except for the power cord is missing, I was looking for it a few years back but never pursued it, due to the trucking system nowdays....Anyway that my story on first scanner......Tom

 

[jwetzel]

i estimate I started listening to scanners around 1980 or so.... i have 3 kids now and we've got the scanner audio playing through the cassette deck of the truck! it has replaced CDs and radio (for now!). when I pull in to get gas people think I'm some type of undercover g-man with the calls they hear! then I tell them i'm just listening to a scanner and they're fascinated....I'm sure RS has sold a few more because of this...I think I should get some commission or something!

 

[rfburns]

The first scanner I had really wasn't a scanner. It was a Radio Shack tuneable monitor with tubes that also had two crystal positions. That was in 1963. The tuneable part drifted really bad. I went to Germany for a year and when I got back the first Bearcat had just come out.

Then I bought a GE Voice Commander from Gregory Electronics with just the receiver strip. It came crystalled on the Air Force Security Police frequency so I left it that way for awhile. One day the Security Chief came into my room and saw the radio. He confiscated it and accused me of stealing the radio from his unit. He had to apologize and give it back a few hours later. After that I recrystalled it for the local police.

The next two radios I got were lowband GE Twin Coffin receivers. I modified the control head and cable to run both rcvrs off of the one head. I was in Florida at the time and had to put up with their no scanner law. I put in a secret kill switch to shut them off when the police were near. One night while parked at a drive-in restaurant a cop snuck up and stuck his head in the window just as one of his buddies transmitted. He said see I always knew you had one of our radios. Fortunately I was a Lt. on the fire dept and knew the officer and he never said another word about it.

After that I had Regency TMR 8's and about 40 more since then.

 

[jwetzel]

how many states have no-scanner laws? i think thats ridiculous. same thing with the no-radar detector laws.....sounds like you're pretty savvy with the radios, tweaking them and all. i never got that far into it, just kept it at programming channels and banks!

 

[wesm1957]

HI everyone. I am new to the forum, but not to scanners and monitoring. I started monitoring when I was about 10. I do have to say the lady that lived across the street from me at the time got me interested in this hobby. She had had back surgery and wasn't able to do much and her family got here a radio to monitor police calls. I am not even sure there were scanners back then. Well my parents got me an AM/FM/POLICE band radio. I started listening to the Akron Police Dept, at that time they were on VHF high band, and used UHF also. I remember hearing cruisers asking the dispatch to put them on ch 4 (which was UHF) and I could hear the car to car traffic. When they were done they ask to be put back on ch 1. My next radio, (a real scanner this time) was a Fannon Courier 4 ch hand held scanner. I even found a mobile adapter for it. I think I may still have that somewhere, it powered the scanner, charged the batteries and had an amp for the sound. Well 4 channels just wasn't enough, and I got a 16 channel scanner from Sears. I am not even sure where that one is anymore. Then I really moved up and got a Bearcat programable scanner, I don't even remember the model now. I wore that one out and then got a BC100 hand held. I thought this will be great, 100 channels!!! and before long I had them all filled. My next scanner purchase kind of made my wife (at the time) mad. It was a 60 channel Radio Shack hand held that covered 800 mhz. I sold the bearcat, and was sorry I did. Then I got a Pro94. I still have that one and it is on 24/7. I used it in the summer during bad weather for the weather alert function. That will wake me up if there is a warning (I can sleep through a bad thunderstorm). I also have a Pro95 that is only off while I am at work. I use that one as a mobile also (with my permit from the Michigan State Police). I just picked up a Pro 2052 today (couldn't resist the price). When I get my income taxes back this year I plan on getting the Uniden 296. Most of my monitoring in the 80's and 90's while I lived on Akron, OH., was while I was in REACT. I not only monitored the scanners, but also the emergency channel on the CB. Today I listen to my scanners more than I watch TV. They have constant traffic here in Grand Rapids, MI. I even have a Bearcat 101 scanner here. I read where it was the 1st programmable scanner on the market, and yes it still works!! and looks like new. I have already found a lot of good useful information here and know I will find more.

 

[jmp883]

How I Got Into Scanning...

Got into scanning in 1981 when I received a 4-channel Regency crystal scanner for my 17th birthday. Can't remember if it was something I wanted or something that my parents thought I'd enjoy. Needless to say it was something I did enjoy. A second radio was quickly added with the purchase of a Radio Shack 4-channel crystal handheld. It would be several years before I could afford to buy another radio, but I did come into possession of a old Bearcat programmable handheld for free. It worked great as long as it was kept plugged in. As soon as it was unplugged, the memories wiped themselves clean. I don't remember the model name, only that it had 6 ni-cad batteries-3 up each side of the radio!

I took a few years off from the hobby while in the Air Force, but when I came home and joined my volunteer fire department I got back into scanning in a big way. It seemed that I was buying a new scanner almost monthly. Since becoming a dispatcher 13 years ago now, it's only gotten worse.

My current stable of equipment:

2 BC780's
2 BC895's
1 BC890
1 Regency 20 channel programmable
1 Sony Wavehawk Handheld
1 Airband Handheld receiver-purchased from Sporty's Pilot Shop catalog
2 Radio Shack Pro-2026's
2 70's vintage Radio Shack crystal scanners
1 70's vintage Bearcat crystal scanner

and of course I still have the one that started it all-my Regency 4-channel crystal.

Scary thing is that they all work and they all look brand new! I need to get a life!!

Joe P :shock:
Emergency Services Dispatcher
Volunteer Firefighter
Scanner Buff

 

[T90A]

I don't remember the model number of the first scanner I had but it was a gray hand held radio shack.

From what I remember is was the best hand held radio shack made at the time.
That was about 22 years ago.

I can still remember scanning the bands with it.
I had no idea what I was searching for, but I was scanning everything.

Then one day the scanner locked onto a freq. and it took me a second before I realized that it was my sister on our cordless phone I was hearing. :shock:

At the time I could not believe it.
I could pick up phones with my new toy!

After that I scanned all freq all the time to see what I could find.

 

[Colin9690]

I'm fairly new to the hobby, so my first was a PRO-93. I loved it when I first bought it and I still do. It gets lots of action still too (about 7-9 hours a day). Bought it in November of 2001, just a month after Radioshack introduced it.

 

[Dogears]

First Scanner

Good story on the SX 100. I got into scanning after I became a Ham in 1990. First scanner was a RS 8 chnl crystal control desktop. Crystals cost up to 4 bucks new at the time. Never has been a cheap hobby, but I own several scanners now, including the Pro 96 and the Pro 2096. I use the RR site to keep up to date on trunking, APCO 25, etc. Great site.
Dogears

 

[nova1010]

first scanner

Hi all ,my first scanner was a Realistic Pro-38 29-512mhz I think,it had a whole 10 channels (no search button or manual) lol Id be there for hours punching in numbers,142.005, 142.010, 142.015....and so on,but I was hooked ,even better when I finally got a scanner frequency book and a better scanner.(pro2021)Now I own a pro60,BC785d and a yupiteru-mvt7300eu and still love scanning the airwaves

 

[mgosdin]

Started with a 4 channel Montgomery Ward Model 846 hand held crystal scanner, got it for my 16th birthday in 1974. ( Dad worked for MW so we got an employee discount. )

Bought a Sears ( Regency OEM? ) 10 channel programmable in 1982. What a mess to program, would confirm programming by flashing channel leds to match the frequency. Worst keypad I've ever seen, you really needed the channel frequency confirmation flash!

Then came a Radio Shack Pro-25 Channel crystal hand held in 1986 so I could continue to use the crystals from the MW scanner. I've still got both of these scanners tucked away, I stopped actively scanning in 1987.

Bought a Radio Shack Pro-70 on clearance in 1998 intending to restart the hobby, but it ended up on the shelf until 2003. I just bought a Pro-2051 a week ago and it has opened up a whole world of things to listen to. Now I've got to get a better mast for the outside antenna!

Mark
Who missed the snap, crackle & pop of a scanner...

 

[KT4HX]

Started SWL'ing in 1969, then on to ham radio in 1979. My first scanner came along in 1990, a Uniden BC210XLT. I was fascinated with it for a while, but over time the hobby just kind of slipped away. Actually all of them did, as I just went dormant in radio for some time. Then sometime in 2001 I bought a BC895XLT and kinda got the bug again. I was able to pick up neighboring counties and Fredericksburg (Va) police/fire, but only limited activity in Spotsylvania county. I eventually discovered RR under its old name of TrunkedRadio.com. By doing that I came to realize that my county was using an EDACS system, and what little activity I was hearing was just simulcast on the old VHF freqs. So then in May of 02, I got a BC780XLT, and was amazed at what I had been missing! From then on the hobby has stuck with me. I am regularly changing radios, but the current lineup is the BC780XLT, BC796D, Pro-2096, Pro-96, Pro-2045, Pro-2006, Pro-83. I also have a Drake R8A, Hammarlund HQ-145 and Sony ICF-2001 for shortwave. My interest in ham radio and shortwave have not really picked back up much over the years, but scanning has stayed strong and is my hobby of choice now. I have the Pro-2096 in my truck, and carry the Pro-96 in the van. I also take at least one scanner with me when I travel overseas (semi-regularly). Of course the ICF-2001 goes with me too so I can keep up with the news! So as you can see, I have kind of a checkered past with radios, but I think scanning is here to stay!

 

[Otto]

Re: How I Got Into Scanning...

, but I did come into possession of a old Bearcat programmable handheld for free. It worked great as long as it was kept plugged in. As soon as it was unplugged, the memories wiped themselves clean. I don't remember the model name, only that it had 6 ni-cad batteries-3 up each side of the radio!

Ha! that sounds like the old "Bearcat 100" radio's ....


I had a short in mine that made it smoke really bad one day. Never could figure out why... What was great about the Bearcat 100, was the full screen it had. most other scanners at the time had limited dispays, and this was also "programable!!!" beat the crap out of looking up frequencies and digging around the crystal bin at the local RS..

Got pissed and saved up some money and bought a PRO33... Not much better... Then I got a Bearcat XLT 100 Hahaha.. It worked good for quite a while...

Got out of "listening" for some time, and I moved to a new state, and realised that everything here was Motorola smartnet. Well, I guess I gotta get a Trunktracker....

So, I picked up a BC246T... Wow... It has come a long way, from the crystals to this!!

Nostagia.

 

[RTG7192]

my first scanner was the radio shack pro-25 scanner. my parents bought for me when i was was 15 yrs old i think,lol. at that age i was so into scanning i would keep it with me 24/7. i still have it but dose not work just cant part with it,lol. now i motorola radios to monitor pd/fd/ems in my area. :lol:

 

[michael_m_rubino]

I started as a kid with one of those Realistic/Radioshack jobs with the AM/FM/Lo-Hi-UHF. What a pain in the a@@; because my favorite agencies were on all different bands (State PD 42.34; Metro PD 39.58; local PD 482.487; FD 154.34 and BM RR was 160.32/161.16/161.52). Then I began taking my parents 16 ch. BC100 hand held. I had an Eastern MA frequency list from the A-W Electronics store with a code list. No internet to look up the FCC files or meet other scanner nuts. In '87 I began using the Police Call Book. I was like Napoleon Dynamite with the cool leather case. Then a neighbor lost interest and gave me his 10 ch. Regency 1070; then another neighbor gave me his BCIII. Then one of my favorite PDs went 800Mhz conventional in '88 and then they went trunked. I was so bummed. In college there was a sweet sale at Service Merchandise so I got a BC150 Sportcat; I gave the Regency away for a BCIV. I then bought a BC235. The 235 won't hold a charge anymore . I bought the BC780XLT in 2000. I love alpha tagging and the cc mode trunking. It's the best I ever used and I will use it for my scanning until rebanding; then I will get a 246t.

 

[BaLa]

My friend let me borrow his old RS Scanner for a while..

When I started doing some local storm chases I bought a Pro 95 last year, b/c I figured it would help with that.
I got into 'it' a lot more then I originally thought.



I started pretty late compared to most of you guys.

 

[fireside]

My first was a tube manual tune VHF-HI. Can't remember the make. I had marks on the glass front where the two things i could hear were located. I had the radio in my bedroom which was in the basement. Only being 13 or 14 at the time and not knowing anything ,i found a old car antenna and put it up on the roof using the sewer vent pipe and a hose clamp. The best part is that i used telephone wire that i striped back to bare wire and wrapped it around the base of the antenna,then down the side of the house and thru my window. Did'nt improve a thing. Then dad came home from work,down it all came. Those we're the days.