best scanner for philly

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captaincab

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hi there ok this is more of an opinion poll then a post. what is everyones suggestion for a scanner to monitor the philly pa system i am outside the city limits in delaware county pa i would prefer not to have to put up an external antenna we use a few different ones at work but the office and all is in philly i am looking for imput from users who monitor from home espically from the suburbs like me.
 

rrbum

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Can you get a signal? I'm in Media and with this new system nothing is making out this far. All the older systems always were loud and clear here. They say that the new system is designed to not radiate far from city limits. If you do go with an external I'd pick up the radio shack UHF yagi and mount it 90 degrees from intended position.
 

soberbyker

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I'm in the Upper Darby/Lansdowne area and pick up the city fairly well, I do get a small amount of garble from time to time. Beside my closeness to the city limits I have run a magnetic mobile antenna to a window sill facing the city which I think helps a good deal.

I'm using a RS Pro-197, which for now is fine, if/when the city switches to phase 2 TDMA I'll have no luck of course.
 

PACNWDude

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Police comms in Philly.

During my last trip to the area last week. The main thing I noticed was that not all of the police officers had radios. One with a radio was always paired up with one that did not. That radio was a Motorola XTS2500/5000 with only a partial keypad.
Comms were encrypted and digital, and mostly VHF. Some 800 MHz was noted and I did not see any UHF in use.
I should have looked up this site before going, but was too busy at the time. This is just what I noted near the Liberty Bell, City Pub area.
 

phillydjdan

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If it wasnt 800, they werent city cops. You must be referring to the national park service and other federal agencies.
 

Septa3371CSX1

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From where I live in Upper Darby (Drexel Gardens section) I can barely pick up the City TRS. I have been able to get it in certain spots in my apartment but most times no real luck. I blame a nearby cell phone tower for that as I also have trouble receiving other 800 systems in the area (I can barely receive Montco's TRS). Where I used to live in Lansdowne I was able to clearly pick up the City TRS with some garble as SoberByker noted. I could also pick up Montco's TRS (East System only) much clearer along with NJSP and the State of Delaware.

I've noticed improved reception as of late on the City TRS with my Pro 106. Communications are much clearer and less garbled. As far as range goes it doesn't go too far out of the city - I'd say no more than 5-6 miles outside but all depends on where you are. The signal does seem to travel better towards the east than it does the west from what I have observed.
 

policefreak

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Yes. I use the new BCD436HP and monitor Philly from Mount Laurel, NJ on a regular basis. Seems to be the best radio to pick up Philly that I have tried so far. Mount Laurel is about 9 miles East of city limits. I have heard Philly clearly before all the way in Berlin, NJ in the shadow of the Njsp tower. Thats about 15 miles East of city limits and no other radio can pick signal out of the NJSP interference.
 

captaincab

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monitoring delco pa with gre psr300 pro2053 and b
most likely park police or park rangers not philly pd


During my last trip to the area last week. The main thing I noticed was that not all of the police officers had radios. One with a radio was always paired up with one that did not. That radio was a Motorola XTS2500/5000 with only a partial keypad.
Comms were encrypted and digital, and mostly VHF. Some 800 MHz was noted and I did not see any UHF in use.
I should have looked up this site before going, but was too busy at the time. This is just what I noted near the Liberty Bell, City Pub area.
 

policefreak

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http://www.scannermaster.com/mobile/product.aspx?ProductCode=01%2D541821
Heres an idea. Made specially for indoor use. :)
 

PACNWDude

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Park Police

Ah, yes, I was in the tourist areas.....so it probably was the park police. The line to the Liberty Bell was pretty long. One of my co-workers mentioned that the "police" eating some cheese-steak sandwiches nearby did not have radios. They also seemed to be keeping an eye on me with my Harris Unity. We were at Redding Station at that point.

I was only casually looking at comm gear as we had just left the City Tavern. With my radio in scan mode, it did pick up some 800MHz signals. I just had a look at it today. Sometimes I put a digital recorder on the earpiece output of the microphone and playback what it receives after the fact.
 

policefreak

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Yes I have one of these. It used to pull in Philly and Montgomery County from Berlin, NJ. Pretty awesome.
 
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