How long have you been scanning?

[Brales60]

I'm only 3 years in. I know I had a crystal unit way back maybe 60 years ago that my dad and I messed with. I know we got everything from Radio Shack, because I loved going in there. I did CB for a long time being a truck driver with some nice stuff like a Galaxy unit.

 

[kc2asb]

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.

The gift your folks gave you became a life-long hobby.

The trains (PATH) still run from Penn to Journal Square and then across the Hudson. You can still monitor them on the VHF rail band.

 

[GadgetGeek]

First scanner as a kid was a Radio Shack 4 channel VHF crystal controlled handheld around 1980. Shortly after I got my first digital scanner another Radio Shack 16 channel programmable handheld and it too was awesome. Great times.

 

[HOGMOA]

I was remembering my first scanning adventure. Actually I didn't have a scanner then, but I did have a multi-band receiver. It was a Wards Airline ten-band receiver.
It had various shortwave bands, AM and FM broadcast bands, and VHF Low, VHF Hi, and aircraft. Back in those days, that was all you really needed.
Most of the Nebraska public safety agencies used 39.90, 39.94, and 39.82 mHz; the state patrol used primarily 42.46 mHz. Of course, all of these agencies also used other frequencies that I don't remember. In order for the local police to talk to the state patrol, NSP had Plectron monitor receivers in the vehicles, and some of the dispatch offices for local authorities had a similar monitoring device, maybe even a crystal-controlled scanner of some type. The Plectron units were expensive, but they were made in Overton, NE. Now, most of the state and local agencies use a statewide P25 system, but not all.

In the 60's when my Dad was in Law Enforement. When I started, I put a Digiscan in my Patrol Car.

 

[dmg1969]

I'm 55 years old and I started scanning with a Realistic (Radio Shack brand) 8 channel crystal operated base scanner (Pro-54) probably around the mid-1980's. After that, I graduated to a Realistic Programmable 10 channel PRO-38 handheld scanner. I have the fondest memories of that one because I could take it with me. Those were the days that my county was on either VHF low band or UHF. State Police were on VHF-Hi.

 

[avery_k]

It all started for me in the late 70's/early 80's with my older brothers' Silvertone "green eye" 4-band shortwave. My younger brother and I had probably half a mile of copper wire strung around the folks' place. HCJB, Deutsche Welle, VOA, etc. Spent hours spinning the dial. Then in the 8th grade I got a Radio Shack Air/VHF Hi radio kit with the springs. Stumbled across the local police & fire dispatch. Then one day a school buddy brought over his Radio Shack 4-channel crystal scanner. Probably had PD, fire, ambulance and either ODOT or State Police. The scanning bug bit me. Got more Radio Shack scanners than I can remember, but I wound up with a PRO2045, PRO94B, PSR500 and BC125AT. The latter supplies my Broadcastify feed. And now I use a RSP1A for shortwave, among other things.

 

[kc2asb]

I'm 55 years old and I started scanning with a Realistic (Radio Shack brand) 8 channel crystal operated base scanner (Pro-54) probably around the mid-1980's. After that, I graduated to a Realistic Programmable 10 channel PRO-38 handheld scanner. I have the fondest memories of that one because I could take it with me. Those were the days that my county was on either VHF low band or UHF. State Police were on VHF-Hi.

Those two scanners bring great back memories of going through the RS catalogs page by page as a kid. Seems the Pro-54 was in their lineup for a number of years.

. Then in the 8th grade I got a Radio Shack Air/VHF Hi radio kit with the springs. Stumbled across the local police & fire dispatch.

Those Radio Shack (Archer brand?) radio kits and "50 in 1" labs were great. I had the AM broadcast band crystal radio kit. At the time, (10/11 years old) I was amazed by a radio that could pick up stations and did not require batteries.

 

[W4KRR]

Scanning since 1973, beginning with my first scanner, an Electra Bearcat III scanner. Prior to that, various tunable VHF radios that had "Public Service" bands.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Since Nixon was bowling in the White House.

 

[KT4HX]

Scanning, well I began sometime in the early 90s with a Bearcat BC210xlt. However, I started out with SWL using a Ross AM/FM/SW portable (shown below) that my mother gave me for Christmas I think around 1968. I had no idea what I was doing and was unfamiliar with shortwave. But I dove in and had a great time. I even have a commemorative QSL (somewhere in a box) from Radio Nederland's Bonaire relay station for their inaugural broadcast in 1969. I went through various iterations of receivers and in 1979 I got my ham license. That pushed my SWLing to the back burner and I quickly went from my Novice to General and began DXing with a passion. Then when I became a federal employee, I had the opportunity to work overseas and operate from various countries. Being the DX was a true blast!

While I am no longer active as a ham I keep my license renewed. I do truly miss the glory days of SWLing with myriad African broadcast stations on 60 meters. I delved into scanning on and off over the past decades, using various models of Radio Shack, GRE and Uniden scanners. Now I just have my SDS200, and while I am not a hard core scanner and don't listen daily, I like having it at hand. Radio is just something that is deeply ingrained within me, as is amateur astronomy, which is my primary hobby focus nowadays.

 

[Colin9690]

Since I was 12 years old.
My dad bought me a PRO-93, and that year's edition of Radioshack's Police Call. And the story kinda just goes on from there.

 

[bearcatrp]

Started in 1985 with the bearcat 210.

 

[kc2asb]

Since I was 12 years old.
My dad bought me a PRO-93, and that year's edition of Radioshack's Police Call. And the story kinda just goes on from there.

While the RR database is far superior to any book, I miss the Betty Bearcat, Police Call, Scanner Master and other frequency guides. Just liked flipping through the pages and finding whatever was needed.

 

[jazzboypro]

I started around 1977 at the time I had a pair of Coleco CB 40. I had an uncle (now SK) who was a police officer in Montreal and was also a ham. He gave a handheld RadioShack scanner it was a PRO-XX (don’t remember the exact model) it had 200 memories and was capable of cell frequencies. These were the days when just about everything was in the clear.

Seems to me that in those days we had fairly cheap/limited featured radios but a lot of stuff to listen to and now we have high end gear with much less to listen to. Sometimes I wonder why I spent so much money since COVID in ham/scanner gear.

 

[INDY72]

I was introduced to scanning in the summer of 1982 at ten years of age. My grandfather had an old crystal controlled scanner, 10 crystals, 3 settings per crystal. Nifty red leds with the hold, scan, lock out settings on front. Had 2 42 mhz crystals for Mississippi Highway Patrol, 3 45 mhz crystals for statewide lo, and Adams County SO, 3 155 mhz for Natchez PD, and statewide hi. 1 154 mhz for NFD, 1 39 mhz for Vidalia PD... He accumulated additional VHF hi crystals for EMS and the hospital, Game Warden etc... By age 16 I bought my first an Uniden BC350, and he tried to buy it from me as it could do so much more, lol. Never looked back. Now I own an SDS100, BCD436HP, TRX-1, 2 PRO-96's, an BCD396XT. Add to that an Motorola XPR3500, Samcom SD510 (nice 200 ch VHF), and Baofeng DM32 (Baofeng's first decent radio with barely any SE, and good functions!), and am getting an Unication G5 soon. Yeah, am hooked for life.

 

[Eng74]

In the mid 1970’s my Aunt and Uncle who lived three doors down from us had a scanner in the kitchen. Whenever we were there I would sit and listen. Always wanted my own but never got one until I got my first jobs and got a Radio Shack Pro-38 10 channel in 1990. Then got on with the fire department and was hooked even more. No longer with the department but still love to listen to it.

 

[minasha]

I've been scanning before there were scanners! My first radio was a Sonar tunable VHF receiver in 1965.

 

[ratboy]

I started around '64 or so with the "Little Tiger" converter that rubber banded to an AM radio and received 158.79MHZ?. We had an old ham across the street and he retuned the second one I bought to get Toledo fire. Not much inside one:

After that, I assembled over a dozen Regency/Allied/RS/Lafayette/Midland/Lloyd's tunable receivers. My first actual scanner was a Bearcat III, added when Toledo moved to UHF on 460Mhz. That thing was on for almost 25 years straight.

I had a couple of hand held crystal radios, they were pretty bad, so most of my listening was at home or in the car with a cigarette lighter cord. Then in 1979, some guy needed to get from Vegas home to Los Angeles, and he sold his 2 week old Bearcar 210 scanner to a porter at the hotel I worked at for $20. He let me have it for $40.

Not long after that, the MGM hotel fire happened, and I had every single radio I owned up and running to listen to what was happening. I had all those tunable radios plugged into the power strips I got super cheap at Olsen Electronics(they were like $0.79 each or something like that), and they were stacked up on my dresser and desk. My girlfriend came over and we listened to it until it was all over and the bodies were taken to the morgue. To this day, the most exciting thing I ever heard live while it was happening.

 

[GILLIG40]

Since 1977. My sister in law gave me an Electra Bearcat III. Once I had it I never turned it off. I started driving TARTA bus in 1989. Went to the Lafayette store that was located in downtown Toledo. They had the crystal for the two TARTA dispatch channels. Being a rookie at driving bus I was able to learn a lot of how TARTA worked by listening to those dispatchers. That picture brings back a lot of good memories

 

[markclark]

61 years, I started with a Hallicrafters SX-107 which covered 30-50 MC. That was in Los Angeles County. CHP and L.A.County Sheriff, and all of Orange County with numerous municipal agencies were on low band then. I got my first scanner, a Regency TMR8-HL and was rock bound until the early 1980's. Now I have Motorola and Kenwood low band radios for CHP and Whistler scanners for everything else.