Completely New

[QuitTreadingOnMe]

My radio knowledge goes as far as me being pretty good changing from one radio station to the next in my car... but I've even botched that up before.

I don't even dare ask questions yet, I don't know what to ask. I found this forum by looking for ham radio stuff first, and then remembering I had a friend 20 years ago that showed me what a police scanner was. That's all.

Is there a book or something I should start with so I can know what I'm even looking for?

If it helps anyone to help me, I guess I am interested in what ham radios are, what they do and what they are for, as well as what scanners are for. It's my "prepper" mentality that leads me in this directions, if that helps too, so any kind of tips or tricks or pushing in a direction that resonates with preppers would be great. Thanks, I appreciate any pointers someone can muster up on my extremely vague request for some assistance.

I saw people posting where they were from, so I'll just follow suit. Utah, Utah County, Provo.

 

[Rt169Radio]

Hello,welcome to Radio Reference.You came to the right place for all things radio and related.

You could start look at the RR wiki,it might be what your looking for to learn about scanners:

Main Page - The RadioReference Wiki

As for Amateur radio,also known as ham radio.Ham radio is a hobby that can also be used as a service to help the community.There are all kinds of ham radios,HT's (Handhelds) base radios (radios that usally stay in one spot due to their size) mobile radios (radios that can be moved around,like between vehicles/houses) Ham radios can transmit on a multiple of freqs and bands specificity for ham radio.

 

[N8IAA]

My radio knowledge goes as far as me being pretty good changing from one radio station to the next in my car... but I've even botched that up before.

I don't even dare ask questions yet, I don't know what to ask. I found this forum by looking for ham radio stuff first, and then remembering I had a friend 20 years ago that showed me what a police scanner was. That's all.

Is there a book or something I should start with so I can know what I'm even looking for?

If it helps anyone to help me, I guess I am interested in what ham radios are, what they do and what they are for, as well as what scanners are for. It's my "prepper" mentality that leads me in this directions, if that helps too, so any kind of tips or tricks or pushing in a direction that resonates with preppers would be great. Thanks, I appreciate any pointers someone can muster up on my extremely vague request for some assistance.

I saw people posting where they were from, so I'll just follow suit. Utah, Utah County, Provo.

I'm going to go out on a limb, and suggest that you post your question in the Utah state forum further down the forums page. Your county uses the statewide system that is a combo analog and digital. They have analog and digital TGID's. Any of the newer digital scanners will do analog just as well as digital.
As far as ham radio, the ideal setup would be a radio that incorporates hf/vhf/uhf frequencies.
HTH,
Larry

 

[AC2OY]

Welcome this is a great site and there are lots of people here that are willing to help....read as much here as possible on the particular subject matter you wish to grasp and it will help you a lot!!!