I was evacuated; a scanner is mandatory

[pjpatti06]

Last night I was evacuated from my home in Newcastle, California. I had no information during the event. I was forced to find a Cal-Fire engine and ask questions. I was in the dark as Cal-Fire, the CHP and Placer County Sheriffs raced around. I was in the dark as this ground and air battle waged, not knowing when I could return home and what the fire status was.

I need a scanner recommendation for this type of need.

 

[AZScanner]

Last night I was evacuated from my home in Newcastle, California. I had no information during the event. I was forced to find a Cal-Fire engine and ask questions. I was in the dark as Cal-Fire, the CHP and Placer County Sheriffs raced around. I was in the dark as this ground and air battle waged, not knowing when I could return home and what the fire status was.

I need a scanner recommendation for this type of need.

I'd recommend just about anything that has Close Call or Signal Stalker in it - something you don't need to program in order to hear what's going on around you. That way, no matter what frequency they're using (within reason of course) you will be able to just turn it on and listen.

For my next scanner purchase, this feature is MANDATORY - it's the one thing none of my other scanners have.
-AZ

 

[DPD1]

People in that area would know more than me, but by looking at the Placer page...

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=213

It appears that you may be in luck, as they don't seem to be using any digital or anything yet, unless I missed something. In that respect, you could get a less expensive model. I prefer Uniden myself... A basic model like the 246T would probably work. Or you could invest in one of the digital capable models that are about twice that, incase stuff changes to digital in the future.

Be warned, it will take some patience figuring everything out before you can start getting any real info from radio communications. The more you understand about how it works, the more you can get out of it.


Dave
www.DPDProductions.com
Antennas & Accessories for the RF Professional & Radio Hobbyist

 

[crayon]

I need a scanner recommendation for this type of need.

Welcome to the group!

It would seem as though you need more than a scanner, as quaint as this may sound, you should really consider putting together a personal disaster plan:

http://www.ready.gov/america/index.html

That website should get you started and we all can help you more once you get your scanner.

 

[Sac916]

Last night I was evacuated from my home in Newcastle, California. I had no information during the event. I was forced to find a Cal-Fire engine and ask questions. I was in the dark as Cal-Fire, the CHP and Placer County Sheriffs raced around. I was in the dark as this ground and air battle waged, not knowing when I could return home and what the fire status was.

I need a scanner recommendation for this type of need.

I suggest the BC-246T or the BC-396T if you are willing/able to spend the extra money.
They both will work well for the Sacramento valley. There are many Sacramento area residents on this forum and very willing to help. I strongly recommend http://www.scannermaster.com

CalFire has an incident webpage - http://www.fire.ca.gov/index.php
Also, http://www.scansacramento.com/ is another startup service using the Twitter service.
Often times CHP Traffic Information page will have road conditions as they relate to incidents such as large fires with evac. http://cad.chp.ca.gov/

-Ant-

 

[NWtoSFO]

I was with my wife in Placerville when we heard the initial call come in. I heard it loud and clear on my Pro-97. A lot of people were evacuated in a short amout of time, so I don't think those doing the evacuating had much time to chat about what was happening. That fire was only a couple of hundred yards wide, but over 4 1/2 miles long. I was able to listen to Placer SO, CHP, CalFire, air-attack, Nevada SO, as well as various tactical channels. If you're concerned about your immediate area (Newcastle, Auburn, Penryn ect. .), you don't need a complicated or expensive scanner. I do suggest you look for one with at least text-tagging, although in your neck of the woods, that isn't even a must-have. In fact, I'll give you one of my old scanners if you want. It's not in the best of shape (second-hand), but it already has most of the foothill freqs in it, just doesn't have text-tags. PM me if you are interested.

Matthew

 

[pjpatti06]

Thanks for the kind offer. I don't mind spending good dollars to get a scanner that would have given us a liitle more information and fore warning. Just out of curiousity where did you get most of your information? Were the communications being trunked?

 

[linuxwrangler]

Scanners during evacuations are nice.

A few months ago our office building was evacuated due to a "hazardous materials leak". I already have Emeryville fire (actually Oakland's system), Emeryville PD and the building's radios programmed in so in pretty short order I knew:

1. It was some refrigerant - not very toxic and many floors away so really no cause for worry

2. They were going to spend a while cleaning it up (had to wait for county hazmat to show up and sprinkle holy-water on the scene before they would sound the all-clear) so we should all just walk a block to Chevy's and beat the lunch rush while everyone else stood out in the sun and wind.

Not as dramatic as being suddenly evacuated from a firestorm but enough to make a scanner owner feel pretty smug for the day.

 

[scannerboy02]

Thanks for the kind offer. I don't mind spending good dollars to get a scanner that would have given us a liitle more information and fore warning. Just out of curiousity where did you get most of your information? Were the communications being trunked?

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=213 is a good source for the information. The communications in that area are not trunked. www.propertyroom.com has some good scanners that would work well in that area.

 

[pjpatti06]

Scanner needs

Thanks for all the kind help. Can anyone shed some light on Cal-Fire and Placer County sheriffs not being trunked? I thought they were....

 

[NWtoSFO]

No, Placer SO and CalFire are not trunked. Most all of the freq's you are looking for are on this database. Both CalFire and the Sheriff come in very clear around Newcastle/Auburn.

I have a couple of Radio Shack scanners and both pick up transmissions well, but I like the Bearcats, too. They scan faster than most RS's, which is nice. I got an SC230 for my Dad (Diamond Springs) and he picks up all of Amador, El Dorado, Placer SO and Fire and some Nevada Co Sheriff. The SC230 doesn't do trunking, so that suits my parents just fine.