Is Our Hobby Slowly Dieing? a opinion/ thought on how to fix it

Akuriko

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Jul 12, 2022
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387
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Friday Harbor,Washington , in the San Juan Islands
Hello, I am not knowing where to post this so here goes, I have a short story for you, the other day my county sheriff said why do we need scanners. just use your phone, i was like really holding my tongue on his remark, which got me to think, most people want an app for it so it's slowly dying, but is there a main reason why? of course, my opinion is this. I have family all over the USA who want to get into the hobby, but since I am the one who is retired I am supposed to cater and do their bidding as some say, lol and do massive research for their needs of hat ever, they're all interested in an everyday scanner to listen to the base station and mobile, I keep telling them to use radio reference and use broadcasting to know if it's for them, then they say well I don't understand this or that, take my big brother, he buys a 355N doesn't work then now installing an SDR software for a Linux ubuntu, lol to see if it works. the 355N was sent back, a lot of people where i live to want to listen to the scanner, and they ask me questions I'm like well try this or that, unfortunately, I think the following could be fixed to get new members in the hobby.

1. conventional vs trunked, most police, fire, and ems still use trunked, when shopping for a scanner or someone who needs to get into the hobby people sit there and say which one?, well analog? or well digital?, conventional or trunked?

2. manufactures should let people know or others what works and doesn't work? I am not going to send someone down the wrong rabbit hole on scanners, for example, if I recommend someone a scanner its either the 15x for trunked analog systems or a 325p2 or 996p2 to make sure they get the trunked police they want, I live on an island and I'm learning more and more every day, fire and ems on separate supposedly encrypted channels, the sheriff wants digital but has too many fire and police boats needs to sell em to cover the bill for it and with only 200 calls a week recorded in the paper they really don't want to waste the money currently,

I am always recommending the 325p2 or the 996p2 to start if you are on an island like me because some people buy a non-trunked scanner it will be used mostly for marine and railroad,

3, makers of Uniden or whistler should tell people this unit will and can pick up public safety with a star * saying within reason, a lot of people buy analog thinking well i use it in my analog town then don't know the police, fire, ems is trunked.

for example the 355N, then I haven't got it to pick up the sheriff or any of the others, 30C same thing, the 75xlt or 125at or the 365crs, the same thing, so my thoughts is if the public safety is trunked then the basic scanners won't work, they need to get a trunked scanner the 325p2 or the 996p2 to start or the 15x if its analog and not going anywherre or people are not traveling, most mobile scanners can be used as a hobby but i have not seen yet without being trunked to pick up public safety.

now like me i do get the P2 system on the WSDOT otherwise mostly the sheriff, witch means 1 channel for me, lol, but when i go to skagit or watcom county i take my hand held and i have tested the analog and without it being trunked doesnt pick up any public works so there is a difference, i do highly recommend the 436 and 536 for the all rounder scanner for mobile and for travel, for analog and digital i also recommend unless your in a simulcasting area you dont need anything better then the 436 and 536, like i said 1 channel where i live on most days, but i wanted to share my thoughts, is it a dead hobby because of the phones? or apps? maybe, is it dead or dying because of everything going encrypted, most definitely.

to help people like my naibors out who all want a scanner to listen to the police they say what works now i can say a trunked scanner, a $100 whistler or up to $150 uniden non trunked wont work, so there like oh better use a app or something, so i have done so much research on this with helping my brother and naibors but i dont mind i wanted to share my thoughs and opinions.

have a safe and happy new years eve and new years day, lets make 2023 a great year.

Peace and love

~Akuriko
 

Whiskey3JMC

Keep your friends close & your radios closer
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Wash...rinse...repeat...
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

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Dec 22, 2013
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Recently, I dumped my iPhone for a Punkt™ cell phone. Phone calls and SMS only.

How am I supposed to use it as a scanner?
Holy cow, they $ure are proud of that phone at that price. I bought a TCL-4056-S for that same experience. $79.99, actually free from Verizon to replace my Razr V3M. The Punkt is nicer looking. Though, I am sure the buttons will be inadvertently getting pushed all the time if I had one.

$379
1672562546087.png
 

n0esc

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SE MN EN33
@Whiskey3JMC linked recent forum posts, note that these seem to crop up about every 6 months or so like clockwork.

But the "belief" that scanning as a hobby is dying has been around since the dawn of the hobby. Technology will forever be progressing, on both sides, and while encryption as a blanket response to privacy and first responder safety is a relatively new phenomenon all things considered, I don't suspect that that will well and truly kill the hobby as it is, rather shift the focus, either to other things or ways to monitor or technology will catch up with the drive for encryption, lowering the barrier for agencies to provide plug and play online feeds, albeit probably delayed, directly to local citizens.

As an example of how long your thinking has existed, there is an article from 1988 Monitoring Times when trunking and 800MHz were in their infancy and scanners sold for the equivalent of $1000 to begin to monitor what at the time agencies felt made them unmonitoriable...

Trunk Busting Basics for Scanner Listeners (Bob Kay) - Page 1

Page 2

To address your point of expecting manufacturers to tell you what will and won't work, I think that's an unreasonable expectation, and let me give you a comparison. Ford or Chevy sell vehicles. They themselves don't know where you live, or what it is that you want to do with the vehicle. Even if you live in the same area as someone else, Jim needs a Chevy Spark to commute 5 miles downtown to work at Amazon HQ. Ben needs a Ford F350 turbo diesel for his Arctic Fox camper and towing a 30ft offshore aluminum boat. Needs are different. Just like with your local car salesman at a dealership, while we no longer have face to face resources like Radio Shack, this is where sites like this one come in. The crowdsourced database, help guides and forums are what point people in the right direction based on their needs. Someone interested in monitoring railroad frequencies or air traffic can get by with a very basic scanner, and it wouldn't matter to them in the slightest if they were in a fully trunked simulcast metro area public safety system where until recently only SDS scanners would have been successful.
 
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StoliRaz

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I use my cell phone for a scanner all the time. It's useful scanning important documents into PDF form. Good for quick easy digital access.

But if they're taking about scanner radio apps, they must be really short sighted not seeing the obvious, people with real scannners or SDRs make them possible
 

avaloncourt

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Jun 10, 2011
Messages
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But if they're taking about scanner radio apps, they must be really short sighted not seeing the obvious, people with real scannners or SDRs make them possible

Of course, they're short-sighted. People think food comes from the grocery store. Then, the price of eggs shoots to $7/dozen and they have zero concept of supply channels. I'm an auditor and analyst for a group purchasing company that handles contracts for thousands of medical, educational and business facilities. People don't have a clue how complex distribution chains are when something goes wrong in a place they'd never think was related.
 

n0esc

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Of course, they're short-sighted. People think food comes from the grocery store. Then, the price of eggs shoots to $7/dozen and they have zero concept of supply channels. I'm an auditor and analyst for a group purchasing company that handles contracts for thousands of medical, educational and business facilities. People don't have a clue how complex distribution chains are when something goes wrong in a place they'd never think was related.

This is also a highly overlapping Venn diagram of the number of people who get irrationally angry at the airport when their flight is delayed but the weather outside is absolutely beautiful.
 

avaloncourt

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This is also a highly overlapping Venn diagram of the number of people who get irrationally angry at the airport when their flight is delayed but the weather outside is absolutely beautiful.
Very valid point
 
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