Living in Quito, Ecuador!

[mw_uio]

I live in Quito, Ecuador. 2880 metres above sea level. It is rugged land. I am a few km away from the flight path of planes landing. I can see who is coming in each day as I can see their markings on the tail. There are antennas all over the place on mountain ridges. I am new to scanning. I do not have a scanner yet. Many businesses have armed guards with radios. In my neighbourhood I can see antennas. I am in the centre of everything here, embassies, hotels, police, fire.. etc.... Quito is in a valley surrounded by the Andes....I did one day go to visit Icom, looked at the R20 and the R3 with the TV. Very expensive. I did ask if it is legal to listen, and yes it is ok, and since Icom sells scanners then I said to myself I should get one. I did try and look for a BC246T when the model came out but sold out everywhere. Now that stock quantities are up...I can make the leap..... Would the BC246T be a good to model to get into?
I can have one shipped to me in days from USA. I do know that Motorola has a large prescene here....plus I know that there is trunking...I read this forum to learn. If walking in the city, many business people carry Motorolas for business. Even with my FRS Motorola 6220T two way radio I can pickup taxi dispatchers...Could this be paradise and I do not even know it? Do I just say what the @#$% and get the BC246T and be done with it as it is in my price range or look towards another model like digital.

thank you.

 

[SAR923]

Well, I have no idea what radio systems are used in Quito but, as long as they aren't digital or something that no scanner can monitor, like TETRA, the 246t should work fine. It will certainly pick up the traffic from the civil airliners you see. Maybe whatever shop sells scanners has a frequency list. I could find nothng on my search through Google.

 

[Gilligan]

Here's my input from experience. I've used many Radio Shack scanners and always thought they were great. I've been scanning for about 10 years and in the past two years have specialized my hobby into mostly finding the "unlisted" comms and identifying who I'm listening to. I must say that even though RS scanners are great for the most part, I love the 246T. I got it about three weeks ago and use it all the time. It's so much better than most of the RS scanners I've used, primarily for two big reasons: It has Close Call and it has PL/DCS Search & Decode. I've owned an Opto Scout 40 and Close Call beats it any day. And the tone decoder is great for blocking out interference and identifying users. With my Pro-95, I was severly limited to identifying by freq (not helpful w/ multiple users per freq and definatly not usable for LTR). The 246T allows you to scan Motorola, EDACS, and LTR and distinguish users on a freq by their separate tones. I may be wrong, but I doubt digital technology has made it into the mainstream of radio traffic where you are. If it is used, it's probably only in the highest priority government applications. My opinion is definately GO WITH THE 246T!

 

[mw_uio]

thanks

This is what I have done. I sent my payment today for the Bearcat 246T which will shipout tomorrow. Should get by next week. I took everyones advice....yeah you are right the features on this baby are outstanding with new technology.....I am new to scanning so this is the start.

I will report my findings when I receive it and tell you all about what is happening here in Quito....

thank you