How long have you been scanning?

[dmg1969]

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.


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.

Actually, you reminded me of something. PRIOR to having the crystal scanner, my Dad and I assemble one of those Radio Shack receiver kits. I don't remember if it was his idea or mine. I probably saw the box with the police and fire engines on it and wanted to listen. I still remember it. It had a blue plastic base and the springs that connect the various wires and a tuner dial. I remember picking up local cordless phones. LOL! I don't recall if I was able to actually pick up police or fire on it. Fond memories.

 

[w4amp]

45 years.

 

[kc8jwt]

I had a neighbor lady that bought a scanner for her dad and wanted me to program it for her. I had remembered my grandparents had a scanner and listening to it when I was younger, but when I programed the scanner for the neighbor, I wanted one too. I saved my money up and bought a RadioShack Pro 2024 when I was 12 or 13, I don't remeber how old I was, but I remember being in my teen years buing it with my mowing money. I had a few scanners since then and now I have a BCD536. I have it setup so I can listen to it from work if I hear sirens or the fire siren go off. I'm now 48, so I've liked radio stuff for a long, long time.

 

[EAFrizzle]

I've been scanning since '79-'80. First scanner was the Radio Shack 4-channel crystal HH. It was a big deal getting 10 PROGRAMMABLE channels in my next scanner. It wasn't long before I got a RS scanner that could pick up cellular, and I was off to the races after that.

I still use my PRO-2042 and PRO-2026 for MilAir and rail scanning. Still work fine after all these years. I was able to make a nice investment into some new equipment after selling the old house and have plenty of Uniden stuff now, but I still get nostalgic when I see an old  Realistic or Patrolman scanner.

 

[kc2asb]

Actually, you reminded me of something. PRIOR to having the crystal scanner, my Dad and I assemble one of those Radio Shack receiver kits. I don't remember if it was his idea or mine. I probably saw the box with the police and fire engines on it and wanted to listen. I still remember it. It had a blue plastic base and the springs that connect the various wires and a tuner dial. I remember picking up local cordless phones. LOL! I don't recall if I was able to actually pick up police or fire on it. Fond memories.

Nice! Radio Shack did use great graphics on the boxes for their radios and radio kits. Certainly enough to capture the imagination of kids like us. Very cool that you were able to hear cordless phones on it too!

When you mentioned the blue case, it reminded me that I also had the AM/SW radio kit in addition to the crystal radio. I never did get the AM/SW kit to work properly.

 

[414RadioTech]

In the late 1990s, I developed a fascination with scanners. My dad, who owned a 20-channel realistic base scanner, allowed me to use and keep it. This scanner enabled me to listen to Milwaukee, Wisconsin police and local agencies before they transitioned to 800 MHz trunked systems. It faithfully served me for years, though I occasionally had to replace the plug after it fell off a table and broke.

Around the year 2000, our county adopted a 800 MHz Motorola Type II analog trunked radio system. I didn’t realize this system could be monitored until I joined the Waukesha Police Department as an explorer (now known as Cadets) in 2002. I had saved up money from chores and my dad took me to the local RadioShack store. There, I purchased a RadioShack Pro-94 scanner. The store employee had provided us with a list of frequencies and talkgroups and mentioned a website called Radiorefence.com. I also used a local source of information, wisconsinradio.org, which still maintains its website.

After that, I bought a couple more RadioShack scanners, including the Pro-2052 and Pro-97. Eventually, I decided to switch to the Uniden brand and purchased the BCD396T scanner. In 2006, I became a reserve officer for the Waukesha Police Department and volunteered at numerous parades and events. I would sometimes bring my scanner with me so I could listen to other agencies while using the Motorola radio to communicate with other officers and dispatch. I’ve been a loyal Uniden customer ever since and now own several Uniden scanners, including the SDS100, BCD260DN, BCD160DN, and BC125AT.

 

[N5ZKK]

Forty-Eight years of radio here. I am so old that I remember when the police wanted people to listen to their radio broadcasts so that we could help out. Public service you know. Now the police have all of their stuff locked out from the public and are able to call up every bit of info about me including where I drive my truck and who I talk to on the telephone.

AR3000 Pro43 Pro2006 SDS100 SDS200 with a bunch of radios running Tubes thru SMD components.

 

[jr63049]

Honestly,

I've been listening to scanners my entire life (45 years). My dad had an amazing radio shack at one time with probably about a dozen different radios/scanners. This was back in the day when everything was simple and on a VHF/UHF simple frequency system. PD and EMS eventually went to a trunking system. So he upgraded a couple of his boxes to keep up. It has always been a part of my life to hear what was happening around the St Louis region. I eventually got my own scanners. Nothing remotely close to his set up. Of course now everything is going the way of digital radio systems and encrypted frequencies. So it is sadly becoming a dying hobby. I'm hanging on tho with my G5 pager and my new SDS200 scanner.

 

[trap5858]

Since the early 70's. First listening on a multi-band panasonic portable. I recall going to Radio Shack- a local hangout for our type and seeing a scanner for the first time- I didn't really know what it did but seeing the flashing lights going by was impressive. My first actual scanner was a 4 channel Fannon-Courier hand held hi/lo vhf/uhf crystal controlled then there was wait for the crystal to be delivered if the local Radio Shack didn't have it in stock. Those were the days- scanning was limited but simple.

 

[39554]

My first was a multiband receiver but never heard much in it. Carried a GE MVP vhf portable then Bendix King before 800 hit.
My first scanner purchase was a bc148xlt and I miss that unit.
I have a WS1095 and a few BCt15X and a couple bc355 series, rest is Motorola cp200 / pr400, xts3500 & 5000 and xpr3300,3500,6300,6350 & 6550. Several are used for work.
Have a few motorola and plectron monitors still and Minitor I through 6.
minitor II SV, IV SV, V SV and a couple Keynote set up on 162.475 1050.0 for weather alerting.
Lots of old motorola and kenwood equipment collecting dust.
Anyone remember the old motorola mh10? Even have a couple of those massive beasts.
Our autistic toddler has his own bpr40 vhf programmed to rx only and he listens to fire and weather.

 

[garys]

1972 or so. I started with one of those Patrolman tuneable VHF radios, which technically wasn't as scanner, but replaced that within a year or so.

 

[brushfire21]

Love reading everyone's fond memories and was thinking about this the other day out of the blue. Wish I could remember the manufacturer of my first SW radio, but was way to many years ago. Don't even recall how I came about to own it but it ran on a few Alkaline batteries as I recall, tuned from AM band to 30mhz and it got me started in radio in the early-mid 1980's as a young boy. My dad helped me build a crystal radio as well sometime during that period and I caught the "bug"!

As far "scanning" and everything north of 30mhz it came in the late 80's. My 7th/8th grade elementary teacher, who was also a volunteer FF, had a crystal controlled scanner on his desk that he would have running in his room and I caught the scanning bug from him. Shortly after that I was gifted a Radio Shack 10 channel synthesized PRO-38 handheld scanner Christmas of 1988. I then got a Yaesu FT-727 HT and a Tech License in 1992 and its been fun ever since! Way to many radios to remember between then and now.

The hardest part back then was finding what frequency's to program in and going to radio shack for my free battery and getting the latest "Police Call" to find more things to enter into the scanner. This seemed to be the hardest part of the scanning community I felt. Today it's the programming that creates the biggest hurdle, next to Encryption!

 

[VK3RX]

I started about 50 years ago in the mid 1970's with a SBE Opti-scan

A peculiar beast, it used programmable plastic cards for the frequency set. You looked up the desired frequency in the fairly extensive manual, which would tell you which "holes" in the card to cover and uncover. At the time it was one of the few programmable scanners that covered our 66-88MHz range, which was used by various services including local police.

The next scanner was a Bearcat BC-210, which while a quantum leap in technology, the first version released here didn't cover 66-88MHz but instead the U.S. VHF low, high & UHF. However when I moved interstate for work I found the police there used high band VHF & UHF