Just do the work.

[Wilrobnson]

At some point—I'm not exactly sure when, the scanner hobby hit cruise control and slammed the brakes on curiosity. What used to be a playground for signal chasers and frequency sleuths has turned into a plug-and-play circus. Programming your own scanner? Barbaric. Researching a system? Unthinkable. If it doesn’t land in your GPS circle or pop up in some database, it might as well not exist. Using your brain? Apparently, that’s asking too much.

And oh, the database here- treated like the holy grail, yet somehow still missing huge chunks of business and industrial trunked systems. Want to guess why? Because the real info is hiding in plain sight—in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System under those YG class licenses no one bothers to check. Take a system I found in New Jersey: licensed, active for 2 years, but with zero fieldwork done on it. Meanwhile, folks keep griping about missing data without ever lifting a finger to fill in the blanks. Can't hear the major business next door? "Ah, must be encrypted or something."

Here’s the kicker: this isn’t about tech skills. It’s about effort and curiosity—two things that seem to have fled the building. Most scanner users don’t even know the FCC database exists. And if they do? They sure as hell aren’t touching it. If it’s not spoon-fed, they treat it like radioactive waste. The idea of uncovering undocumented systems? That’s for “experts” or masochists with too much free time. I have zero interest in a DMR system owned by a Hindu temple 1500 miles from me, but is there someone that might?

Meanwhile, the airwaves are alive and buzzing with systems no one’s logged, no one’s listening to, and no one even knows about. This hobby used to be about finding stuff, not downloading partial lists and calling it a day. So here’s a newsflash: if you want to hear more than dead air, maybe crack open the FCC database, quit whining about your tools, and start doing the damn work.

 

[pb_lonny]

I spend hours searching the bands and also our ACMA database (same as the FCC database but for Australia). I don't know what more scanner users do this...

 

[w2lie]

Licensed for two years doesn't necessarily mean it is in use. There are plenty of fire districts where I am that will squat on frequencies for years just because they have the money to grab them when other departments forget to renew. Do they plan on using those frequencies or are they holding them for a rainy day?

I always promote "the secrets are in the searches", so I agree with what you are saying about thinking outside of the database. But like most hobbies, there are ebbs and flows. You'll have periods where there is more forward momentum and then you'll have times where there is less.

And then you have the party poopers who think that the big E is the end of the hobby just because what they wanted to listen to is no longer accessible to them. Again, that is where I suggest, search out something new to enjoy. Nobody throws away their TV just because their favorite show has aired their finale.

 

[kc2asb]

+1 When I received my first scanner back in my high school days (late 80's) and a Betty Bearcat guide, it was a basic 10 channel unit with no search function. I didn't know what I was missing until a couple of years later when the folks helped me buy a PRO-2006. The search banks, all 10 of them, opened up a whole world of discovering and identifying new frequencies. Granted, radio systems were simpler then, but the thrill of discovery should still be a major part of the hobby,

 

[rbrtklamp2]

Amen brother preach it! 🙌🙌🙌 scanner users have become lazy and all of this pre-programmed stuff is the reason for a lot of enc. Just plug in your Zip Code and scan everything around you its such a shame. The excitement of the hunt is gone or unknown to most. Creating a lazy just give me the answer attitude for most users these days. Around my area in Chicago amd the Chicago suburbs I can count how many people I know that still search things out on one hand. But once you give someone what they want instead of teaching them how to to get it on there own its over. They become lazy and complacent and just want it handed to them. This hobby is and is heading into a sad state.

 

[RaleighGuy]

the thrill of discovery should still be a major part of the hobby,

The excitement of the hunt is gone or unknown to most.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, for me it still is the "thrill of discovery" @kc2asb mentioned, and the "excitement of the hunt" @rbrtklamp2 says is almost gone. I spend far more time searching and analyzing the airwaves than I do listening.

And while the RR database makes it easy, and is very good, the FCC database has several search engines that allow you to find so much more, from location based searches to license types, from temporary licenses, renewals, or new licenses not yet heard, it's all waiting to be discovered.

 

[EAFrizzle]

I still put an analog scanner on one MHz all day a couple of times a week. Lots of interesting stuff out there, both legitimate and otherwise.

 

[kc2asb]

I still put an analog scanner on one MHz all day a couple of times a week. Lots of interesting stuff out there, both legitimate and otherwise.

That is a great approach. Searching the itinerant channels, plus MURS, FRS, business band, etc can turn up almost anything. Plus, many scanners come with pre-programmed service searches. It's nothing new, having first appeared on the Bearcat 300 in the early 80's, but it's a feature that many scanner owners overlook.

Magazines like Popular Communications were great in this regard also. Seemed that every month they had a new article about discovering new frequencies on your scanner. One month it was "Tune in on private investigators!" and the most common ranges where P.I.'s operated were provided. It fired up the imagination and motivated you to go beyond the frequency guides.

 

[merlin]

Well, I have wasted a lot of my life with headphones on, in front of a receiver and back and forth on dials hunting anything like radio waves.
Over the years, the tools have broadened, built in spectrum analyzers, frequency search, the world of digital and decoding.
Trunking on upper frequencies. It has all come far.
I don't care much searching databases unless I find somthing to listen to first. Cureous, I will look into it.
Up to about 2012, it was HF, all below 60 MHz, Now I am more forced to the world above 90 MHz, all the way to 25 GHz.
It is my entertainment slot and the finding something never heard before and the thrill. Sometimes just listening to blather on ham bands, or getting that faint signal reflected by the moon or meteors. Don't forget satellites.
Just my 3 cents.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

At some point—I'm not exactly sure when, the scanner hobby hit cruise control and slammed the brakes on curiosity. What used to be a playground for signal chasers and frequency sleuths has turned into a plug-and-play circus. Programming your own scanner? Barbaric. Researching a system? Unthinkable. If it doesn’t land in your GPS circle or pop up in some database, it might as well not exist. Using your brain? Apparently, that’s asking too much.

And oh, the database here- treated like the holy grail, yet somehow still missing huge chunks of business and industrial trunked systems. Want to guess why? Because the real info is hiding in plain sight—in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System under those YG class licenses no one bothers to check. Take a system I found in New Jersey: licensed, active for 2 years, but with zero fieldwork done on it. Meanwhile, folks keep griping about missing data without ever lifting a finger to fill in the blanks. Can't hear the major business next door? "Ah, must be encrypted or something."

Here’s the kicker: this isn’t about tech skills. It’s about effort and curiosity—two things that seem to have fled the building. Most scanner users don’t even know the FCC database exists. And if they do? They sure as hell aren’t touching it. If it’s not spoon-fed, they treat it like radioactive waste. The idea of uncovering undocumented systems? That’s for “experts” or masochists with too much free time. I have zero interest in a DMR system owned by a Hindu temple 1500 miles from me, but is there someone that might?

Meanwhile, the airwaves are alive and buzzing with systems no one’s logged, no one’s listening to, and no one even knows about. This hobby used to be about finding stuff, not downloading partial lists and calling it a day. So here’s a newsflash: if you want to hear more than dead air, maybe crack open the FCC database, quit whining about your tools, and start doing the damn work.

I love my 436HP and I programmed it by hand. It took a while but it works just fine. Many scoffed and said why would I do it that way. Very simple, my old PC is pretty much toast and other that things I have in the files, I can't access the internet. My smart type phone suits me just fine so I'm in no hurry to replace to old PC at least not for awhile. Yes, just put it in search and see what comes up. You never know what interesting things will pop up. Plus, you can always confirm on here too.

 

[buddrousa]

We are also in the world of the I cannot do anything for myself generation. I want it all and I want it now. I would bet if I piled the wood up at a building lot for free 90% of the mid 20's to mid 30's people could not build them a house. Most would want someone else do it for them for free and the rest would pay someone to do it for them. 90% want things done and give to them. Look at the cars today when I was 16 to 25 you wanted a hotrod you learned about motors bought the parts put it together tuned it and made it run now you just read on the internet go to ebay buy a tuner kit not having to learn what or how they work. I was in a dealership last year a man came in with a 1967 corvette big block with a miss the guy in the shop looked for over an hour for the computer port before asking the owner where it was he was told to hook it up to the Sun Machine he stated he did not know how to read the Sun Machine and the customer left with the Corvette.

 

[kc2asb]

We are also in the world of the I cannot do anything for myself generation. I want it all and I want it now. I would bet if I piled the wood up at a building lot for free 90% of the mid 20's to mid 30's people could not build them a house. Most would want someone else do it for them for free and the rest would pay someone to do it for them. 90% want things done and give to them.

AI will only serve to make this problem worse. People do not even want to be bothered reading a number of different sources when researching a topic. Now, they just want AI to do an "overview", putting it all together for them. (and this is the least of the threats posed by AI)

Imagine them having to go to a library in person to do research for a term paper.

Look at the cars today when I was 16 to 25 you wanted a hotrod you learned about motors bought the parts put it together tuned it and made it run now you just read on the internet go to ebay buy a tuner kit not having to learn what or how they work. I was in a dealership last year a man came in with a 1967 corvette big block with a miss the guy in the shop looked for over an hour for the computer port before asking the owner where it was he was told to hook it up to the Sun Machine he stated he did not know how to read the Sun Machine and the customer left with the Corvette.

You could excuse a young shop mechanic for not knowing how to work on a carbureted engine, but not for looking for a computer port on a 1967 vintage vehicle. Where is the thought?

 

[W4KRR]

Back in the day before PC's, I had the FCC data on microfiche. Remember those? Spent many hours looking through them.

Remember some important points: Some businesses are using frequencies that you may not find in the database, because they may be unlicensed, or they may be licensed under a name that may not be the name of the actual business. "Joes Towing" might appear in the database as "Joseph A. Smith" instead of the commonly recognized name. Also, for business trunked systems where air time is leased out, the end users are not in the database at all. You will find only the name of the business that owns the trunked system.

 

[Wilrobnson]

Licensed for two years doesn't necessarily mean it is in use. There are plenty of fire districts where I am that will squat on frequencies for years just because they have the money to grab them when other departments forget to renew. Do they plan on using those frequencies or are they holding them for a rainy day?

Part of the issue right there. Has someone done the work to see if it's in use? Apparently not. Will someone? Likely not.

I've found plenty of stuff in neighboring counties (I've exhausted mine) that is licenses but not active, or not in the format in which it's licensed. I know that it's not on the air, but, since the license is valid, I know to check back every few months.

No one else is, and I cannot get others interested, so am I screaming into the void here?

 

[Wilrobnson]

Back in the day before PC's, I had the FCC data on microfiche. Remember those? Spent many hours looking through them.

I remember going to a local FCC office (recall those) monthly.

Remember some important points: Some businesses are using frequencies that you may not find in the database, because they may be unlicensed, or they may be licensed under a name that may not be the name of the actual business. "Joes Towing" might appear in the database as "Joseph A. Smith" instead of the commonly recognized name. Also, for business trunked systems where air time is leased out, the end users are not in the database at all. You will find only the name of the business that owns the trunked system.

I made a YouTube video on the OSINT aspects of exactly this a few years ago, and, while people responded favorably, no one "found" anything afterwards (or at least spoke up about it).

I recently sent a DM on Twitter/X on exactly this to point a listener in the right direction for how to find a new system in use on the East Coast. I'm reading his blog regularly to see what he finds.

 

[brian]

There is a substantial segment of scanning hobbyists who only want to listen - their interest is in the content of what they want to hear hear, not in the technical aspects of operating the scanner or understanding system types. The large majority of those folks are only interested in listening to their local public safety agencies. They don't post on forums or want to learn to scour the FCC database for information. For these folks, the database and the "automated" processes for programming are very important.

You can certainly look down on these folks as being less than "true" hobbyists. Consider them Takers rather than Givers to the hobby. But without them, we wouldn't have even the sparse number of options for scanners we have today. Their investment in the hobby helps keep the manufacturers interested in the market, and helps to provides the RadioReference platform we all enjoy.

I choose to use my interest and my curiosity in the hobby to give back in ways that I can. I volunteer as a database admin for my state, I search and sleuth and submit discovered data. Just this weekend I helped someone in my area program their new SDS100, and I gained a new friend. But he's someone that's not interested in the technical aspects of the hobby, he only wants to listen. And that's perfectly fine with me, and I'm thankful for him reaching out and that I was able to help him. Our hobby would be better if those of us with such deep interest were more welcoming and supportive of those that are new or just want to listen.

 

[MTS2000des]

Today's humans raised on screens are programmed for instant gratification. There is no doing any work, that's foreign and spoon feeding is all they know. This is a societal problem and not limited to the radio hobby. When the Internet of the 90s-late oughts ended and the smartphone took over, humans are devolving into lazy, entitled creatures who lack not just motivation, but important things like interpersonal relation ability, critical thinking skills, and respect for others.

 

[AB4BF]

Today's humans raised on screens are programmed for instant gratification. There is no doing any work, that's foreign and spoon feeding is all they know. This is a societal problem and not limited to the radio hobby. When the Internet of the 90s-late oughts ended and the smartphone took over, humans are devolving into lazy, entitled creatures who lack not just motivation, but important things like interpersonal relation ability, critical thinking skills, and respect for others.

I whole heartedly agree! Recently, my Samsung S9+ bit the dust, the battery swole (swelled?) cracking the case, and being an "android" kind of person, I got a Samsung S24. It was on sale at ATT. I've been getting used to it for several weeks now deleting google of all different kinds of ads, recommendations, and idiotic stuff I don't need or want. The damn thing picks up on anything I say, like if I say I need a new ceiling fan, it pops up (it won't as soon as I find the app that does that!).
To entertain myself, I place the phone near my scanners just to see what kind of idiocy pops up...

 

[2wayfreq]

I have noticed that NM DTRS sites listing is definitely way behind and this system is growing faster than crack filler foam! It's missing about 15-20 new sites. I would figure system sleuths would be finding the new control channels and Site IDs. Someone finally entered in Eddy County like a month later after it was live. LOL C'mon, lets see what you can find!!

 

[kc2asb]

Our hobby would be better if those of us with such deep interest were more welcoming and supportive of those that are new or just want to listen.

Overall, the serious hobbyists and professionals on this site are very welcoming of newcomers and often go the extra mile to help them. There are enough threads in the General Scanning and manufacturer-specific forums that demonstrate this. Also, radio systems and the scanners themselves are much more complex, so there is a steeper learning curve compared to say 25 years ago. Confusion and questions from newcomers should be expected.

There is nothing wrong with just wanting to listen. Not everyone can sleuth out and map an entire trunked system. It's when people complain that there is nothing to listen to or they can't find frequencies for a certain service or system in their area that irks many. (when the info often readily available in the Database linked above). It's not unreasonable to expect a little bit of curiosity and effort from even a newcomer.