How many, what kind, and why?

[bnoland]

I am generally new to the scanner world. I knew of them for a long time but never really had one other than a cheap uniden back when I was 16-17 and never did figure out how to set it up. I now have a 996XT on the way that I will be mounting in my Tahoe and will take it into the computer room for tuning and some occasonal listening inside I am sure. My intent is to be able to hear and know what is going on in my area and when I travel with my family so I know if I need to aviod areas or pick a diffrent route because of hazards or delays on the intented route for some reason.

My question, more of a curiosity really I guess, is how many, what kind (mobile, handheld, staion) do you have, why did you choose that one and what do you use it for? I am just amazed at some of your set ups, especially some of your shacks. I don't know much about it at this point so I am just dumb founded as to how you would utilize so much equipment.

 

[N0WEF]

Seeing you haven't got a response yet, I'll submit an answer.

I have like 8 scanners (7 HH's and 1 Base), but use three regularly when not traveling out of state.
One for the two cities I'm most interested in.
One for the rest of the county I care about the most.
And one for the other three counties I can hear from my home.

When traveling, I bring 2-3 for entertainment while spending endless hours in hotels (2x's PSR-800 1x's 396XT) The 396 is used more for searching, while the 800's are for scanning, and allow me to spend minimal time programming.

 

[dispatcher812]

I have a Uniden 796D in my truck that I can't for the life of me program digital. I also have a BC 305A ( i think) that I have in the garage and most recently tried to do an online Railroad stream, and I have a Radio Shack Pro 97 that I use while out railfaning. Right now the Pro 97 is being used in my truck while a co-worker tries to program the 796D>

 

[SCPD]

I have a Bearcat BCT15 as a base for hometown and mutual aid, and a Bearcat BC246T for when i'm driving around with the areas that i travel through.

 

[z96cobra]

I've got 4 portables and 4 bases. I've got my pro-197 & a BC350C running 24x7 because I'm nosey & a volunteer FF. I carry 3 of my HHs with me wherever I go. I've also got a Minitor IV running on my headboard so that I get woke up for fire runs. The other scanners aren't used very often.

Be careful with your mobile scanner setup, they are illegal in some states.

 

[bnoland]

I've got 4 portables and 4 bases. I've got my pro-197 & a BC350C running 24x7 because I'm nosey & a volunteer FF. I carry 3 of my HHs with me wherever I go. I've also got a Minitor IV running on my headboard so that I get woke up for fire runs. The other scanners aren't used very often.

Be careful with your mobile scanner setup, they are illegal in some states.

I didn't even think about that. I am a Leo right now but will be leaving around June due to work caused health issue (my department is trying not to cover it, but that is a diffrent and very long rant I won't get into) so I will have to know where it is legal to have soon. It looks like evenin states that it is illegal you can have a HAM license which will make it legal for you to have. Also looks like in most states it is only illegal while using it in the commission of a crime, which they would have to prove and I won't be using it for anyway. I will still be careful in states that there are laws against it, especially till I get my HAM. Thanks!

 

[BeerNutz]

Why so much equipment? You can program most modern scanners with thousands of frequencies with multiple scanlists/banks. By programming all of the frequencies and trunking systems from my area into one radio, I miss a lot. So, each one of my radios is a scanlist/bank. Also, a ton of stuff in my area has not went trunked or digital so even my old scanners get a good workout.

 

[sfd119]

Why so much equipment? You can program most modern scanners with thousands of frequencies with multiple scanlists/banks. By programming all of the frequencies and trunking systems from my area into one radio, I miss a lot. So, each one of my radios is a scanlist/bank. Also, a ton of stuff in my area has not went trunked or digital so even my old scanners get a good workout.

What if you have two busy counties? I have a radio and two scanners in my truck and I live in a semirural area and I think that covers myself well...I can't imagine living in a bigger city.

 

[K9DAK]

I have a PRO-106 that's on almost 24/7 monitoring my town's PD and FD. When it's really quiet, like on Sunday mornings, and I want more chatter then I'll turn on the county scanlist.

When there's bad weather (snowstorm or severe t-storms, or worse), I'll set my PRO-92 on the county as well, and one of my two ham HTs (FT-530 and TH-F6A) or ham base (FT-847) on the local Skywarn repeater.

One evening when there was a house fire a few blocks away I had both scanners and both HT's going; scanning local PD and county on the two scanners, both responding FDs on one HT and NIFERN and the fireground channel on the other HT.

Only thing I'm missing is a PRO-197 in the car to cover the PDs/FDs on my hour trip to/from work that my FT-8000 won't cover (no trunking or digital).

The PRO-136 sits on the nightstand as an NOAA weather radio / alarm clock.

My old HTX-202 sits in its box on a shelf for future use as a packet/WXAPRS rig.

 

[bnoland]

I got my BCD996XT a couple of hours ago. I have two systems programmed (Shelby County Sheriff and Memphis PD) so far. I programmed MPD first and then SCSO. I put MPD as group 1 and SCSO as group 2 but now I cant figure out how to switch between group! I am having fun with it though .. hopefully it wont take me to long to figure out.

 

[canav844]

1 996T got it for mobile use, it's found more use in the home the past 2 years, it did not install well into my car. It runs pretty much 24.7 without making me change batteries, and it also coupled with ARC996Pro so it is also for seeking out new things, and letting me go back and reference the log, and play back recordings with that alpha tag.

1Pro-106 Digital handheld, if I want to listen to it while I'm out and about, state is on a P25 trunked system that I've got pretty well programmed into the scanner for the whole third of the state around me.
1 Pro-164, used to be pressed into service for PD and FD, it's a go to FD if I've got the others tied up monitoring PD (leave the 996 scanning and pull up the most active group on the 106 with a busy scene), it's also decent on the airband and good for seeking out new analog frequencies, like businesses or what the local ham traffic is and that the PL and DPL tones/codes are, much faster than my ham radios will find it.
1 Pro-95, It's largely dormant now, when it is running it pretty much keeps to the airband.

I've also got 3 Ham HTs that make excellent recievers for stuff in the VHF and UHF business and public stafety bands, and some of them also do quite well with airband, and one even pulls in some HF with the right antennas. One also pulls in the DSTAR that the scanners won't get.

There's also 1 mobile Ham radio and one base ham radio

So that's
1 base scanner - 1 digital
2 Handheld Scanners - 1 digital 1 analog
3 HAM HTs 1 Digital 2 Analog
1 Ham Base- 1 Analog
1 Ham mobile - 1 Analog

3 Digital Radios, 5 analog radios

 

[fasteddy64]

BC-780 on my desk.
BC-785 by my easy chair
Pro-2045 at work
Pro-97 in my back pack.

I like to monitor in different places so I have more than one scanner.

My main interest is military air and all of these scanners do well there.