Handheld Scanner for Newb?

[yttocs]

Posted about using my Blackberry for a scanner,but upon reading up on this found it won't do all I'm looking for.So what handheld scanner would be a good "starter"? From what I've read I'm guessing a trunked 800 is something of the type I'm looking for,not sure. Want to be able to get my town and surrouding ones too on the scanner. Batavia,IL would be main town with Geneva,N.Aurora,Aurora,ST.Charles,plus county of Kane on the scanner. Set it up to have police on one and fire on another band/block. TY.

 

[mciupa]

Hi yttocs welcome to RadioReference

Looking at your county Kane County, Illinois (IL) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference, probably a PSR -300, Pro-107, Pro-162,Uniden BC 346XT are good choices for you.

 

[yttocs]

Thank you for reply. Would one/all of the listed scanners get all the frequencies? Car to car ect.... Dumb question, do you have to buy "rights" to listen to them? Or just program the frequencies in and you get them?

 

[captclint]

Thank you for reply. Would one/all of the listed scanners get all the frequencies? Car to car ect.... Dumb question, do you have to buy "rights" to listen to them? Or just program the frequencies in and you get them?

No, just program and listen. Any of the scanners listed would get everything listed (except for StarCom21 Statewide Illinois P25 which is digital and a lot more $ for a digital scanner), BUT you may not hear all of it. Car to Car is usually hard to hear unless you are within 5-7 miles, and the same goes for the cars talking to a base, unless they are repeated. You can tell if the mobiles are repeated by looking at the TYPE column. RM means repeater. In that case, a tower located at a high spot receives the mobile transmissions and repeats it from that high location on the frequency listed in the very 1st column.

 

[scannerboy245]

or how about a used scanner i have a bc245 for sale its an older trunk tracker wire119@juno.com

 

[yttocs]

Thanks for the answers. New question, I could just hook up a hand held to a house anntena/moble anntena and increase the range. From what I've read up on it seems price and other features are the same for all Digital( moble/home/ portable) Are scanners all going to go digital? Or with it be many years before all go that way?

Pro 106 freq.25-54, 108-174, 216-512, 763-960, 1240-1300
BCD396XT freq. 25-512, 764-956, 1240-1300
GRE PSR 500 freq. 25-54, 108-174, 216-512, 763-960, 1240-1300

Does the slight differences in the frequencies that each have or dont have that big a deal? 2 don't cover 55 thru 107and 175 thur216 but the one that does, doesn't cover763,and 957 thru 960.

Sorry for being "LAME" here with my lack of knowledge. But the more I read up on this the more questions I have.

 

[N8IAA]

Thanks for the answers. New question, I could just hook up a hand held to a house anntena/moble anntena and increase the range. From what I've read up on it seems price and other features are the same for all Digital( moble/home/ portable) Are scanners all going to go digital? Or with it be many years before all go that way?

Pro 106 freq.25-54, 108-174, 216-512, 763-960, 1240-1300
BCD396XT freq. 25-512, 764-956, 1240-1300
GRE PSR 500 freq. 25-54, 108-174, 216-512, 763-960, 1240-1300

Does the slight differences in the frequencies that each have or dont have that big a deal? 2 don't cover 55 thru 107and 175 thur216 but the one that does, doesn't cover763,and 957 thru 960.

Sorry for being "LAME" here with my lack of knowledge. But the more I read up on this the more questions I have.

The PSR500 and Pro-106 are the same basic scanner made by GRE. A little different cosmetically, but the same. The Uniden, 396XT adds the wireless mike, and FM broadcast band to their high end scanners. The 500/106 use object oriented memory and the 396 uses dynamic memory allocation. The 500/106 have a little over 1800 objects that can be programmed into 20 scanlists, with a 21st that is labeled Favorites. The 396 has 9000 memories that can be used in a variety of ways. This radio is excellent if you have a lot of systems that use a lot of TGID's. I am over simplifying to show you basic differences in the two types of scanners and what was missing in the 500/106.

HTH,
Larry