How has a scanner benefited you.

[Ensnared]

It is quite simple. On occasion, I will drive with various things in the vehicle that law enforcement might not favor.

I enjoy breaking the law. I try to drive only 10 miles over the posted speed limit, but not always.

I have the following inside the vehicle: Cobra 29; Passport Max 360; Uniden 436 HP, and SDS 100.

 

[ratboy]

One of the things I heard quite often over the years were calls to where someone I knew had died or committed suicide. It was always very strange. One of my friend's dad died from colon cancer, and I heard the "Code 18" call a few minutes before they called me to let me know he had passed. A friend tried to commit suicide, a "Code 20A", but didn't take enough pills to do it. That was almost 40 years ago, and he would have missed an awful lot of good things if he had succeeded.

 

[MUTNAV]

One of the things I heard quite often over the years were calls to where someone I knew had died or committed suicide. It was always very strange. One of my friend's dad died from colon cancer, and I heard the "Code 18" call a few minutes before they called me to let me know he had passed. A friend tried to commit suicide, a "Code 20A", but didn't take enough pills to do it. That was almost 40 years ago, and he would have missed an awful lot of good things if he had succeeded.

Thanks

 

[KA4ABG]

Before the Virginia State Police went to full encryption I was able to hear about a couple of police pursuits and avoid them.

 

[spongella]

Every time our local fire whistle goes off I turn on my scanner. Keeps me informed as to what's happening. Luckily there's still lots of analog xmissions at this QTH. I'm a nosey person by nature and a scanner is perfect hihi.

 

[nashscan]

After reading N9JIG's "Scanner Tails" and recently and in the past, the debate on streaming and encryption, do they go hand in hand? type posts.

I thought I would start one about what has your scanner done for you! Hopefully positive...
Granted, mine won't be as storied as N9JIG's as I sit by a window and sometimes a fluffy cloud goes floating by or a squirrel gets me distracted.

My story, short and sweet. It was about 1990 and I carried a Radio Shack handheld with me everywhere.
One dark evening while driving home after dinner with my girlfriend, my sister and her future hubby. I heard a broadcast from our county of a wrong way driver on our hilly hi-way. This stretch of pavement is well known for this. Either drunk or out of towner or both, because you cant see the northbound lanes coming from the west. So they turn left onto the south bound and off they go. I told my future bro in law to pull over to the shoulder before cresting a hill. Sure enough, here comes head lights in the left hand lane. Luckily, we heard it and others behind us seen it!

Unfortunately, it still happens to this day.

Not only that, but I used to call my parents to let them know of impending bad weather when it approached, or I would get the call. Either head to the basement or its mile away and you can relax for now.

There been plenty more of course after all these years, but that wrong way driver has always stood out for sure!

Oooo... squirrel

Got me interested in my lifetime career choice: dispatching. 16+ years later, I still enjoy what I do.

 

[GlobalNorth]

I don't usually listen to utilities, but when the power goes out, I get the SDS100 out and can often find out if a DUI hit a distribution transformer, a contractor hit a power line, or there's a transformer fire. They usually discuss the estimated time to complete the repair.

 

[Zaratsu]

I don’t think it has benefited me really. But I like to be informed, and feel that I have a better sense of crime and other issues in an area with an experienced ear to the scanner since so much never makes the news. Since police comms have mostly gone encrypted or difficult to track, I now mostly benefit from being more informed about the impact of local severe weather (trees down, flooded roads, large fires requiring most of the region’s limited resources). That helps me understand how long to expect to either have to stay put, or stay on generator power, etc.

I really used to enjoy hearing about police chases, manhunts, etc. Some of those helped explain helicopter search lights in my backyard. Those were exciting. But I didn’t really “benefit” from them. I used to play dumb to the neighbors too unless it was a situation where you want to turn off the lights and deadbolt the doors. Then it was a white lie suggestion “hey my buddy has a buddy who is a cop’s brother, might want to turn your flood lights on, an arsonist is lighting stuff on fire all over our area tonight” I didn’t ever want to come off as “scanner guy”.


Now I’ll flip on 5-0 radio on my iPhone if I’m stuck in accident related traffic, or I see a massive code 3 response on the road. But as long time scanner enthusiasts know….if you don’t hear the initial call, you probably won’t know what is going on unless you are an experienced listener and also have some basic knowledge of the inner workings of police/fire services. But the scanners only come out these days if there is a massive storm or other event occurring. And by then, my programming is so out of date that I won’t pick up anything useful anyways.

 

[MississippiPI]

After reading N9JIG's "Scanner Tails" and recently and in the past, the debate on streaming and encryption, do they go hand in hand? type posts.

I thought I would start one about what has your scanner done for you! Hopefully positive...
Granted, mine won't be as storied as N9JIG's as I sit by a window and sometimes a fluffy cloud goes floating by or a squirrel gets me distracted.

My story, short and sweet. It was about 1990 and I carried a Radio Shack handheld with me everywhere.
One dark evening while driving home after dinner with my girlfriend, my sister and her future hubby. I heard a broadcast from our county of a wrong way driver on our hilly hi-way. This stretch of pavement is well known for this. Either drunk or out of towner or both, because you cant see the northbound lanes coming from the west. So they turn left onto the south bound and off they go. I told my future bro in law to pull over to the shoulder before cresting a hill. Sure enough, here comes head lights in the left hand lane. Luckily, we heard it and others behind us seen it!

Unfortunately, it still happens to this day.

Not only that, but I used to call my parents to let them know of impending bad weather when it approached, or I would get the call. Either head to the basement or its mile away and you can relax for now.

There been plenty more of course after all these years, but that wrong way driver has always stood out for sure!

Oooo... squirrel

Alot of ways

 

[Trilliumaire]

I’ve only just started using a scanner a few weeks ago, but in this short time, I was able to track a school shooting a few days ago in our small mountain town … without the scanner (SDS100) I would only be able to rely on feeds, which are pretty good, but scanner picks up more stuff than the feeds, or news reports, or folks posting on social media.