Is This why you have so many scanners in your shack?

[perigee123]

First off, many thanks - I went from one scanner in the closet to four on the desk in two lousy weeks.

I'm not entirely sure whether that thanks is sarcastic or not....

So - let me see if I'm doing this wrong.

1) Location - Burlington County NJ; gateway to Philadelphia on the metro corridor.

2) So, the catch-22 is this: If you only put your local frequencies on the scanner, you live through a lot of silence, interrupted by occasional action, BUT because the scanner is whipping through relatively few frequencies, you rarely miss anything.

2) If you decide, "Hey - I need more guys talking at me," and range wider, you get more action, but because the scanner is now handling more active frequencies, you're likely to miss whatever is happening at home, because 3/4 of your scanning cycle is happening outside your area.

3) So, you take an old scanner and chuck your local fire and EMS on it, one digital scanner to handle police stuff within 5 miles, another digital scanner to lookie-loo around Philadelphia, and a last analogue for... I dunno; I haven't figured out what to do with that yet....

Am I Still doing this wrong, or have I finally figured out the proper way to deal with all of this stuff?

 

[R1VINCE]

My opinion;

I guess it boils down to what you want to listen to. Theoretically, if you wanted to listen to just public safety in your part of the world, 1 capable scanner is all you need to hear those comms. As I see it, for every time that your 1 scanner stops on that one transmission, there may be other comms you are missing. Therefore, it would make perfect sense to have 2 radios - one to scan what the other is missing while stopped.
Or even 3 or 4 radios - even more if desired - one for each agency/entity you want to listen to.

More capable radios = more capable options

So dont get me wrong - dont go buy more gear to hear everything. Find out what you really want to listen to and utilize what you have to listen to that. You may find that all that "silence" you get may prompt you to open up to other parts of the radio spectrum to "find" all the action that you may never had thought was of any interest before.

 

[NYRHKY94]

Depending on the number of live feeds available in your listening areas of interest, you could also use ScannerLive to monitor up to 10 scanners at once, with your "favorite" feed as a priority so you don't miss any action on that one feed. It's a great software based solution for those folks who enjoy monitoring multiple feeds, without having to maintain their own equipment. Just a thought....

ScannerLive

 

[perigee123]

My opinion;

More capable radios = more capable options

So, generally, I do understand the crux of the issue, right? This may seem like a goofy or sardonic question, but it's really not - what seems simple to you guys is extremely counter-intuitive. You buy this piece of gear that holds 6,000 channels (systems, groups - whatever - this part is still fuzzy), but for the unit to be really effective as a monitoring device, you need to limit the number of channels you actively scan to a tiny fraction of that.

Not that I'm complaining - I think, gear-wise, I'm pretty well set for a 'casual' listener. I just wanted to make sure that I Basically figured out the balance of power in this hobby, and wasn't missing something critical. I have this gnawing fear that someone more in-the-know would look at my scanner set up and crow, "Are you nuts?? A five-hundred dollar scanner, and you're using it for one trunked system?? What's wrong with you?"

NYRHKY94: Intriguing, for twenty bucks. I'd certainly be interested in this software, to free up one of my other units for band-scanning. Is there some place to check the available frequencies/trunks covered before you buy in? The web page leads to a manual, and the manual references a forum, but the link leads right back to the web page again.

 

[NYRHKY94]

Perigee123:

That program works off of the live feed audio database right here on RR. So any live feeds available on the RR site can be programmed into the ScannerLive software. In addition, any "other" live feeds that are not on RR (including your own) can also be programmed in. In short, any live feed you can find on the internet can be used in ScannerLive. Hope this helps.

P.S. I don't work or sell for the ScannerLive folks.......just enjoy using their program (I was one of their Beta testers)

 

[DaveNF2G]

perigee - You have indeed figured out a major truth about the scanning hobby. Well done, especially for being so new at the hobby.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

First off, many thanks - I went from one scanner in the closet to four on the desk in two lousy weeks.

I'm not entirely sure whether that thanks is sarcastic or not....

So - let me see if I'm doing this wrong.

1) Location - Burlington County NJ; gateway to Philadelphia on the metro corridor.

2) So, the catch-22 is this: If you only put your local frequencies on the scanner, you live through a lot of silence, interrupted by occasional action, BUT because the scanner is whipping through relatively few frequencies, you rarely miss anything.

2) If you decide, "Hey - I need more guys talking at me," and range wider, you get more action, but because the scanner is now handling more active frequencies, you're likely to miss whatever is happening at home, because 3/4 of your scanning cycle is happening outside your area.

3) So, you take an old scanner and chuck your local fire and EMS on it, one digital scanner to handle police stuff within 5 miles, another digital scanner to lookie-loo around Philadelphia, and a last analogue for... I dunno; I haven't figured out what to do with that yet....

Am I Still doing this wrong, or have I finally figured out the proper way to deal with all of this stuff?

Sounds like you've hit the nail right on the head.

 

[N9JIG]

Even with the latest scanners that have upwards of 25,000 channels the radio can only be listening to a single frequency at a time. Ypu can scan dozens, hundreds or thousands but only hear one at a time.

If you have a variety of interests, then multiple scanners can help. You need to be able to discern multiple conversations at a time, or be able to prioritize your attention.

My situation is a bit extreme (Search the Shack Photos forum for my call...) but then I only actively listen to 3 or 4 scanners at a time. I use several others to serve as data collectors or searchers for fire tones or new channels. I usually have a couple set to specific types of channels such as fire, rail, police, Inter-Op, aviation etc., and then adjust my monitoring to suit my fancy by volume. If I am in the mood to listen to my local aviation, I turn up that radio and down the other.

I tend to use mostly Uniden scanners, I have had good luck with them and feel comfortable using them. I use several of the features that GRE just doesn't have (FTO, remote head to name a couple) and save the expensive digital scanners for digital systems. There is no point in using a $500 digital scanner for aviation for example.

I would not suggest starting off with multiple radios, start small and work your way up as your interests grow.

 

[b7spectra]

Old oriental adage:

He who die with the most scanners is still dead.

 

[n5usr]

There are a variety of reasons for using multiple scanners. In my case, I'm not usually too interested in a wide variety of things. Most of the time I will only have a single scanner going, but when something particularly interesting pops up I'll turn on others as needed to dedicate to a specific frequency or TG. Depending on what the event is, that may just require a single other scanner or it could require a small fleet!

An extreme example was back when we had some wildfires on the east side of the metro. Primary fire command was MWC FD, but they had a host of other units there from various departments. Not all had radios to talk with MWC FD directly so you might hear something on their frequencies or other shared mutual aid frequencies. Then there were a number of different police agencies doing traffic control and evacuation. Repeat the whole setup for *another* series of wildfires simultaneously burning to the north of the city! I could easily have used every scanner I had on different departments for that one.

Rather more typically is just one other going fixed to the incident of interest while the main one continues scanning for other things.

This means for the most part my scanners all have the same programming in them - makes it easier for me to find what I'm looking for if they're all (mostly) the same.

I do have a couple older scanners that are/were dedicated to particular functions. One is all-ham, with various simplex and repeater frequencies, grouped in varying configs in the different banks. The other used to listen to a whopping four frequencies for my city's PD/FD and the neighboring small city that works closely with them. Both cities have gone / are going to a Provoice system, though, so that one has lost its purpose...

 

[scanchs]

Lolz @ b7spectra...

Old oriental adage:

He who die with the most scanners is still dead.

Oh noes! And all this time I figured that if I listened to enough scanners, I'd hear the Grim Reaper coming and have time to leave before he gets here...

ScanCHS

 

[KR4BD]

From the list of scanners I have, I will often have three of them going simultaneously. Each is dedicated to one or two particular services. In my distant past, I worked in radio news and having numerous scanners going was a "normal" event.

Now, at home my portable scanners are used primarily as follows, each covering a particular service for me:

Pro-106---State Police and Local Power Utility, both in Conventional P-25 digital
Pro-94 or Pro-97---Local Fire Department on an analog EDACS system
BC-200XLT---Local Police and Railroads using Conventional Analog frequencies

At my office:

I use a Pro-92 for the Fire Department (800 MHz EDACS) and Local PD (VHF). The Pro-92 is very deaf at 800 MHz and does not work at my home on the local EDACS system, but my office is about a mile from the EDACS system and works fine there so it usually stays there.

So, even with so many scanners in my collection, I still use most of them on a "regular basis".

 

[2wayfreq]

I basically acquired my 996T and 396T though a friend with some trading, didn't pay boatloads of money for them. They cover P25 and I can program a lot of the new narrow fire/forestry tac frequencies when we have big fires out here. Sure, its fun to listen to law enforcement. But for me, those days are numbered since they are going P25 TDMA AND (AES 256) Encrypted. So, am I looking at a 396XT or Pro-106 for the future? NOPE! It would be a waste. I believe what I have now will be fine for a very long time.

 

[HillWalker]

You've cracked it.

As has been said, no matter how many channels a scanner has, you can't listen to them all at once. So I generally split my frequencies between two scanners: one for local emergency services and Mil Air, and a second older model for civil air, taxis, and private security frequencies.

I also have a third scanner programmed only to all the national Civil Defence frequencies here, which is useful when there's flooding, or snow blocking roads. And then a fourth scanner for everything else, or for the local EMS frequency when I leave my shack temporarily.

 

[perigee123]

I would not suggest starting off with multiple radios, start small and work your way up as your interests grow.

Ordinarily, I'd agree with you; but my geographic situation (and my tendency to go overboard) ended up in a mini electronics store on my bedside table. ~Grin~

For example, last night, after figuring out how to temporarily lock out systems, I was reveling in the complete and instant coverage of my local guys. A lot of silence, but I didn't miss a thing. Very cool....

BUT, little did I know, a policeman was shot over in Philadelphia, and no doubt those temporarily locked-out frequencies were jumping.

Hopefully, tonight I should be able to get the other digital programmed, and I'll be more agile in my listening, without sacrificing immediacy. As extreme as it seemed to me, it did seem to be the only way to get scanning to work the way I always thought it was supposed to.

 

[Zagadka]

@ Perigee - Thanks for asking the question. As a noob myself, I too have been wondering how to keep up with everyting out there but wasn't sure how to pose the question. Well done.