first scanner

[72stingray]

looking to get my first scanner. wnt to listen to police, fire and EMT calls. what should i look for in picking one out. it seems i should go digital. any advice? i live in bradenton florida 34208

 

[loumaag]

looking to get my first scanner. wnt to listen to police, fire and EMT calls. what should i look for in picking one out. it seems i should go digital. any advice? i live in bradenton florida 34208

Well it appears that you will need a trunking scanner at a minimum. Take a look at the TRS that appears to have your local public safety stuff on it:
http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=267

You should ask in the FL Forum to see what other local users are using there.

 

[72stingray]

trunking?

what do i need to receive trunking calls? digital or ???

 

[72stingray]

trunking double--triple???

my guess triple would be better but whats is the difference if i may ask?

 

[1268]

My mom lives in Venice, my advice is to look at the PRO-96 OR 396T, While Manatee is not digital yet I believe it's going that way and Sarasota already is, I have picked up a good bit of traffic analog but the best bang for your buck is one of the above.

 

[n4voxgill]

As stated you will need a trunk tracking scanner that does EDACS to cover the Manatee County system that Brandenton is also on. The scanner will also pick up Pinellas to north.

The FCC has ordered that frequencies in the 800 MHz range be realigned. So most will be changing. Today no one knows which scanners will be able to work with the new frequencies. So it may be best to hold up on an expensive scanner until you know which ones will continue to work in the future. The FCC has also started issuing licenses in 700 MHz that will cause a problem with some scanners.

More bad news, the state radio system is unable to be scanned by any scanner. Hillsborough County usesd a Provoice system that also can't be scanned for law enforcement. The last time I was there I could pick up fire.

If it was me I would look for something like a used Pro95 that gives you easy programmng with the free WIN95 program, lets you put in alpha tags and works on existing Manatee and Pinellas system.

After the changes to frequencies are made and 700 systems are on line then would be a good time to make the big pruchase of a digital scanner.