How long have you been scanning?

[mark40]

Is G&G Communications in NY still around? They repaired Plectrons and could re-chrystal them as well.

Late 90s purchased a pair of low-band Plectrons from Gerry for dedicated monitoring. I had them hooked up to a ground plane on the roof and boy did they work fantastic.

His web site is still up, last updated in 2023. Hope he is still around, not many like him out there.

Home Page

 

[chief21]

Since the early 60's. I guess you could say that I was "scanning" before "scanners" were actually invented. I recall that I started out as a teen with a huge shortwave receiver (don't remember the brand), then got into CB (Lafayette HE20c), and "scanning" with a manual tune VHF rig (Regency Monitoradio) to monitor the local small town PD and FD. Fast forward to the present - over sixty years and so many different radios!

 

[TrooperBruceMichaels]

Long time - 1973!

 

[cherubim]

Since 1987 after a friend at high school showed me his scanner - I was hooked. Bought a UBC200XLT the next year and had a blast. So much analog traffic to listen to back then.

 

[kodachrome]

1978-ish, Radio Shack Patrolman-5 receiver bought (on my recommendation) by my brother. I think I used it more than he did.

Borrowed Bearcat 210s (thanks cousin!) until I could afford my own used 250 in '83 or so.

Like others have said here, there is a certain fondness and nostalgia to monitoring back in those simpler days. Ten channels was enough, and if it wasn't, you didn't mind poking the BC-210 keys to re-program on a moment's notice. Now, I hate programming radios, even when it's easier with the computer.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

Since 1980. BC210.

 

[mark40]

Since 1980. BC210.

So Milton, now we know why you're crabby.

Just kidding, owned one myself as did many of us older gents here.

 

[ladn]

I would sometimes listen to LAPD at the top end of the AM broadcast band as a kid inn the 1950's.
I had a tunable "Partolman" AM/FM VHF Lo/Hi radio in the early '70's. My first true scanner was a Regency TMR 8 H/L in the early 70's, followed by a BC-101 synthesized scanner when it first came out. As a newspaper photographer, I used a variety of scanners in my job.

Last scanners purchased were a BC-325P2 and BC-125AT.

 

[aprswatcher]

Since I was a teenager! I used to frequent the local Radio Shack store checking out the electronics. I knew the local owners well and was always asking questions and doing the "hands on" learning. After buying CB radios and checking out an 8 channel crystal controlled scanner with the local PD, FD, Sheriff and State Patrol that they had on display. I ended up buying a 4 channel crystal controlled hand held scanner. I only needed 4 channels for all the activity I wanted to listen to. Well that started a long hobby and I currently have way too many scanners! I still have that old 4 channel scanner!
Now in my mid 60's.
73, Rex

 

[W8WCA]

Very Late 80's for me - When I got a BC-200 XLT

Scanning came a lot later than Shortwave for me!

(Was into shortwave at age 10 in 1963)

 

[Alain]

My interest in radio/scanning started in the mid-80's when I was a kid, discovering my father's 1970's Arrow AM/FM/VHF radio could pick up the aircraft going to nearby Newark Airport. A Realistic SW-60 multiband radio soon followed, and a couple of years later, I received a 10 channel Uniden BC-140XLT programmable scanner. I had a lot more fun in the hobby in those early years with simple radios than I do now.

Hey...you from Newark? Me to! West Side, 16th Avenue and 17th Street, near West Side Park...

I started scanning in the late 1960's with the radio you see in my avitar. I listened to the Newark riots in July of '67 on that rig. That is something I'll never forget...

 

[kg4ehv]

Bought my first scanner (BC-210) in 1978 and been buying ever since.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

So Milton, now we know why you're crabby.

Just kidding, owned one myself as did many of us older gents here.

That was a good unit it it's time. Even though it only had 10 channels and no air band. Lockout and delay would automatically disappear when you turned it off. But with all of that, it sure gave a 16 year old boy a lot of enjoyment and an interest that at age 60 I still love with my 436HP.

 

[merlin]

Didn't call it scanning when I started. That was before Radio Shack (then Allied) produces scanners. Monitoring I guess or SWLing.
Police was FM analog on low band, some big agencies were going to VHF.
Multi band portable radios were the big sellers. Sound was good even if off frequency a bit.
I was building Heathkit back then, they had a nice 6 meter receiver that could tune low band.
Then about '75, enter the Bearcat iii VHF and UHF, tuned with crystals you had to buy for given frequency. Decent though, about $4 a channel.
Couple years later here comes Radio shack, Don't recall the model, but you programmed it with binary switches. 3 band, 16 channels, really sensitive.
Since then, I have had receivers, some scanners, mostly HF stuff, but enough to fill a 2000 sq/ft wharehouse. Antennas, towers/poles, miles of coax. Transmitters and Military stuff not listed.
Now, mostly boxes and boxes of old public safety radios, some good, some parts, and time for spring cleaning.

 

[kc2asb]

Hey...you from Newark? Me to! West Side, 16th Avenue and 17th Street, near West Side Park...

I started scanning in the late 1960's with the radio you see in my avitar. I listened to the Newark riots in July of '67 on that rig. That is something I'll never forget...

Close! To the east across the bay/river - Jersey City area. Still live there.. The Newark riots were before my time, but I have read and heard a lot about them. No one who lived through it could possibly forget.

 

[mark40]

That was a good unit it it's time. Even though it only had 10 channels and no air band. Lockout and delay would automatically disappear when you turned it off. But with all of that, it sure gave a 16 year old boy a lot of enjoyment and an interest that at age 60 I still love with my 436HP.

Agreed, enjoyed the one I had. And 10 was plenty for me at that time.

 

[W8WCA]

Very Late 80's for me - When I got a BC-200 XLT

Scanning came a lot later than Shortwave for me!

(Was into shortwave at age 10 in 1963)

I guess I should add - I did listen to Civil Air on a PATROLMAN SW-60 - so early 80's!

 

[Alain]

Close! To the east across the bay/river - Jersey City area. Still live there.. The Newark riots were before my time, but I have read and heard a lot about them. No one who lived through it could possibly forget.

I had just graduated from high school. This tunable radio was a graduation gift. During the riots, sad to say, but there were some transmissions where officers were attacking each other over the radio.

"Walt" was a dispatcher for NPD back then. He would always end every dispatch with, "aaaaaaaa, ok", when the patrol unit responded. I heard Walt during the 4rd day of the riots get into a verbal altercation with a patrol unit.
Walt closed the "conversation" with, "Well pal, you know where I am if you want to back it up..."

BTW, my mom went to work, as did my dad. Two hours later they were home with me. NPD had closed some roads that were impassable due to the fires and burning vehicles in the streets...

 

[kc2asb]

I had just graduated from high school. This tunable radio was a graduation gift. During the riots, sad to say, but there were some transmissions where officers were attacking each other over the radio.

"Walt" was a dispatcher for NPD back then. He would always end every dispatch with, "aaaaaaaa, ok", when the patrol unit responded. I heard Walt during the 4rd day of the riots get into a verbal altercation with a patrol unit.
Walt closed the "conversation" with, "Well pal, you know where I am if you want to back it up..."

BTW, my mom went to work, as did my dad. Two hours later they were home with me. NPD had closed some roads that were impassable due to the fires and burning vehicles in the streets...

Scary times, indeed! That tunable radio gave you a front row seat to it all, people at their worst and their best. Walt must have been a lot of fun to listen to.

Newark PD has usually been in my scan lists since I first got into the hobby. Now, they are moving to a digital, encrypted system.

 

[Alain]

Scary times, indeed! That tunable radio gave you a front row seat to it all, people at their worst and their best. Walt must have been a lot of fun to listen to.

Newark PD has usually been in my scan lists since I first got into the hobby. Now, they are moving to a digital, encrypted system.

Somewhere else in the RR forums I have posted about the radio. It was made by Kuhn Radio Electronics, in Cincinnati. I saw an ad in the back of a Pop Electronics magazine back in early 1967. My folks bought the radio for me, as I said. The specs on the radio are available in one of my earlier posts.


My best friend and I used to love to go to Penn Station and watch the trains. Still love trains! The old "Hudson Tubes" used to run out of Penn Station and had a stop at Journal Square back in the early 1960's.