How can I pick up the walkie talkies at my school?

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skyler440

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I have a baofeng uv-82 radio and can go from 400 to 520 megahertz in the UHF band. I can scan, but its pretty slow, probably 2 steps a second and I can change the frequency step. I can program up to 127 channels, and scan between those at the same rate, about 2 per second.

I have 45 minute sections each day, where I can listen and try to pick it up.

Is there a standard walkie talkie for schools? I don't think they have a "special" license because its just a Denver Public Schools.
 

rapidcharger

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The easiest way to get the frequency is to go to the FCC ULS online database and do a license search for your school. If the school name doesn't return any results, try searching by the school's zip code and go through the list. Once you find the license, click on the frequencies tab and it will show you any frequencies they are licensed for.

Generally speaking though, to answer your question, just about all business band activity takes place from 457 to 470, and to refine it even further, I'd focus primarily on 460-465.
 

jaspence

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School HT's

Some school with smaller buildings also use family radios or MURS for things like playground duty or just to save money. Some schools that use a repeater for several locations may go with a rental service and not be listed separately n the database, and a few have even become part of their local or state law enforcement systems to have the interoperability in emergency situations.
 

rapidcharger

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It's not necessary to put that info out in the forum. Just look it up on the publicly available online FCC database. It's free.
Besides, school administrators may not want or think anyone is listening to them. You'll want to keep it that way or they can cheaply and easily switch to something you can't monitor.
 

wbswetnam

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Besides, school administrators may not want or think anyone is listening to them. You'll want to keep it that way or they can cheaply and easily switch to something you can't monitor.

I'll second that advice. Keep it to yourself that you're listening in, otherwise you can be sure that within a month they'll switch to something more secure.

I can understand your interest, though. I used to live across the street from a high school in Florida, and I found the UHF frequencies for the school administrators' walkie-talkies. It was fun to listen to them... for example, "There's a fight in the hallway outside the east entrance!" LOL
 

skyler440

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I am having troubles, theres more then 50 frequencies on the database, and my channel scan function is just too slow
 

AZScanner

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I would caution against programming in the frequency, even if you do happen to find out what it is. Having a scanner on you and listening in is bad enough, but if you plug that frequency into a programmable transceiver that is capable of transmitting on that frequency, you are seriously asking for trouble. It won't matter if you actually DO transmit or not - just having the capability to do so will probably result in the school principal confiscating the radio and putting in a phone call to Mom and Dad. You don't want or need that kind of attention (spoken from years of experience being my high school's resident troublemaker - it got to the point where I was blamed/questioned for stuff I DIDN'T DO and no one believed me :lol:)

Also in this day and age of heightened security due to violence at schools, you REALLY don't want to make them wonder why you have a radio capable of transmitting on their frequency.They may think you're trying to plan something and there goes your high school career. Seriously, it's not worth doing.

-AZ
 

bravo14

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I used to live across the street from a high school in Florida, and I found the UHF frequencies for the school administrators' walkie-talkies. It was fun to listen to them... for example, "There's a fight in the hallway outside the east entrance!" LOL

I use to live across the street from the high school back home. It was confusing cause there were 3 main users on that one channel. The high school, school buses, and Lifeguard channel. Now all schools are about completed on the vhf where the repeaters are about a 3-4 mile radius.
 

mikewazowski

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Skyler, please don't start separate threads for what is basically the same question.

Thanks.
 

robertmac

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And some of the replies point to why a "scanner" is better to scan with, especially if you are not going to "transmit" on others frequencies. The cheap Chinese radios are not "scanners" thus make very poor scanners.
 

wtp

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in addition

some schools like to confiscate items that you don't need.
so i hope that you could live without the radio.
 

skyler440

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some schools like to confiscate items that you don't need.
so i hope that you could live without the radio.

I use the radio at school for Amateur band usage, and they don't seem to care about that, most of the authority is just curious and think its pretty cool. I go to an art school, theres always somebody with something unusual.
 
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