Looking for something cheap.

[nayr]

I am building a self contained mobile base station/repeater to move between home/base camp/vacation property with a bunch of HT's mostly on GMRS freqs. I am being really cheap on this build and I want an old handheld scanner that can decode CTCSS/DCS tones quickly; preferably with alpha text. All I want to scan for is local GMRS/FRS traffic, some 70cm repeater/simplex frequencies and severe weather alerts.. I doubt trunking will be used unless I get bored and decide to add some forest service, fire & medical frequencies to the mix.

So far ive found the RS Pro-92 seems to fit the bill, are there any other old models I should be keeping an eye out for on ebay? the cheaper the better but it does need to be sorta rugged.

I dont have really any scanner knowledge so I figured I'd ask you guys.. there's so much stuff out there and info on old models is hard to come by.

Thanks,
-R

 

[ka3jjz]

'Hard to come by'? Not.

You can start by checking out our wiki - note that anything in blue is a link...

Scanners and Scanning - The RadioReference Wiki

best regards...Mike

 

[nayr]

yeah thats been a great help; too bad the main feature I want tone decoding typically have to dig deep into the manuals to find.. and from what I read the older ones are hit/miss on how well it actually works if it even has it at all.

but thanks tho; I know how to RTFM... its just cumbersome process; most that do tone decoding seem rather expensive or I am missing something.

Im more looking for experiences at this point instead of aimlessly wandering around wikis

-R

 

[ka3jjz]

If tone decoding is available on a particular model, the wiki should tell you this.

Also check out the scanner reviews link on the right hand side. This would be in addition to anything folks reply...

best regards..Mike

 

[scannerboy01]

If you're planning to monitor the City of Denver, you might want to think about getting a digital scanner so that you can monitor in the future should they decide not to encrypt. It seems like the City of Denver os testing a Project 25 digital system according to the database.City and County of Denver - P25 Trunking System, Denver, Colorado - Scanner Frequencies You might want to ask in the Colorado regional forum and talk to people who might know more about radio systems in Colorado.

 

[nayr]

I dont care about the city or local services, mainly just for monitoring my own handhelds and those who are also on the same frequencies... locating available Amateur band repeaters would be nice too... hence the need to decode tones from my mobile base.

-R

 

[scannerboy01]

Then a cheap scanner would work if you aren't interested in monitoring city communications.

 

[nayr]

How so? 420-470 is all I am interested in, no trunking or anything like that.. simple simplex frequencies and repeater inputs.

*edit*
32 channels tops

 

[scannerboy01]

I'm saying that you could buy a cheaper scanner since you have no intentions of monitoring the City of Denver and just simplex frequencies and repeater inputs.

 

[nayr]

oh yeah, sorry misunderstood.. definitely need a cheap one; no reason to get a $180 bearcat. Just want to be able to figure out tones in the field.

After browsing through the wiki the only thing Ive found for cheap is still the RadioShack Pro92, I guess I'll just get that since nobody has any better suggestions..

 

[scannerboy01]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

The only reason that you would need squelch tones is if there are lots of people using the same frequency. If there isn't anybody in your area using the sane frquency, you could get an even cheaper scanner that doesn't have squelch tones.

 

[nayr]

I want to unsqueltch repeaters and other people using the same frequencies; thus the desire to decode the tones... for example there is a local repeater thats not listed online, its new and there still testing it.. Id like to talk to the guys who set it up but without knowing the tone they dont hear me.. Same thing if were deep in back country and pickup hunters in the area, would be great to exchange positions/info than just listen in.

Usage of tones on these frequencies is pretty much the norm, with all the off the shelf transmitters out there there's alot of traffic. I have one scanning w/no tones for the last few weeks and it picks up garbage all day long... but im trying to find the least used channel pair in my area to slap my repeater up on.

-R

 

[scannerboy01]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

Okay. I guess after explaining that, you do need a scanner that does have squelch tones.