Multiple scanners

[lawman210]

I see that many members have multiple scanners. Do you use these to monitor different PD's or do you set them up 1 for fire, one for pd, one for ems? I thought a way to use these would be best when monitoring a situation to use a different for each service so if they are multiple services dispatched you could can monitor each service without jumping back and forth.

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[Ed6698]

With my scanners as far as the local analog stuff, if I pick up something interesting I lock a scanner onto that channel and will use another scanner to keep scanning. I have all the same local analog frequencies programmed in all 4. There are times I have had all 4 scanners going. I had a time when ISP and several local agencies were all working on the same call. I could hear most of everything that was going on between the locals and dispatch. ISP was on SAFE-T and the locals were on analog. Got quite involved trying to follow it all. Would not have been able to do it without multiple scanners.

 

[mikesatter]

I usually have minimum of two going but have one just for local (favorites) scanning.

 

[N8IAA]

Being that I like listening to multiple agencies, analog and digital, at the same time, yes that's why I have many scanners. My ears never get bored:lol: Especially after the snow debacle in the Metro ATL area earlier this week
Larry

 

[jfhtm350]

Around here it seems they call the EMS first and milliseconds after page the fire department so while using one scanner you miss the first of the fire call. Most times I have one on law, another on fire and another on EMS and it works pretty good except when they all talk at once.

 

[lawman210]

Seems that Atlanta thing was a Bing thing. I don't know what happened as I caught a tale end of a news story but nearly laughed when they said there was almost 2 inches of snow and it all came down at once. 2"? Wow they need to come north a bit.


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[lep]

I have 5 scanners in my home office, at least 2 are always on. One on the Regional 700 MHz P-25 system (in ID search and runs 24/7) and one on the Local 800 MHz analog trunking. Others are turned on if there is a major incident in which I am interested. Most are cabled to USB multiple ports and are displayed as 'virtual scanners' on the PC screen. There is NO P-25 Phase 2 in my area so I have not yet ordered either of the new Unidens. I probably will buy both after things have "shaken out" a little more in the market.

 

[rbm]

Like most, I started out with one scanner.

Then there were times I wanted to do some searching around the Fed. frequencies. (FBI, DEA, USMS, and SS pre-encryption days)

I didn't like the idea of having my only scanner tied up searching frequencies that were rarely active.
But when they were active the listening was great.
At the same time, I would be missing all of the local activity.

So, I got a second scanner. That way I could listen to my favorite frequencies and search others at the same time..

Then I started logging audio and I needed yet another scanner.

Then, more and more stuff started showing up on the air.
So I got a third scanner. etc. etc. etc.

Now I have more than 40 Uniden BCD396*, BCD996*, and BCT15* scanners running 24x7.
And another 30 or so older GRE scanners (mostly PRO-2006 and PRO-2042 scanners on the shelf).

I designate scanners to SatCom, MilAir, Civilian Air, State Police, Tac frequencies, individual counties, power company, etc.
Normally they aren't all talking at the same time. So this listening doesn't 'normally' get too hectic.

For each town or county I normally listen to their PD, Fire, and Tac Frequencies.
I have one for each county's Sheriff, and one for each county's Fire.

Rich

By the way, here's a YouTube video of a LOT of Uniden scanners getting a Close Call hit at the same time.
Uniden Close Call - CC DND - YouTube

 

[lawman210]

Yeah I hear that. I just spoke to the dealer near me who got some of these in. They had listed them on a local website for 499 and 599. Once they got them in I called and they had bumped the price up 100.00 on each. I explained that I had saw them listing them 2 months earlier and was anticipating them arriving so I could pick one up. They honored the listed price but I since inquired about the 436 and they said that if I had a pre order in I am getting a heck of a deal at 499.00 but if not there they are 599.99 because they had had a cost increase on them. They tried to make it sound as if they had to pay more for them but obviously that's not true as you can get them for 500.00 off a local auction site. Any how they ask what area I was from and I told him. They said that they were trying to target the lower half of Maryland where the Tdma services are. I guess they figured those guys who need these scanners to listen to their services in their area would be more excited to pay the higher cost. Then they made it seem like selling me that scanner would be a waste of a unit since my area doesn't need it. Fact is I paid the sales tax, drove 25 miles each way and paid 8.00 in tolls because I wanted to buy it and walk out with it versus buying over the Internet and chewing my nails off waiting to molest/ambush my mailman everyday to see if he had my package. All in all I paid about 50.00 more above what I could of got it off the local auction site but hey I look at it as supporting my local business


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[zz0468]

If you're trying to listen to multiple trunked systems, it's easier with a separate scanner for each system. In my area, for example, there are 3 systems with overlapping coverage what one is required to listen to if you want to hear all of the local PD's and the county sheriff.

 

[lawman210]

Like most, I started out with one scanner.

Then there were times I wanted to do some searching around the Fed. frequencies. (FBI, DEA, USMS, and SS pre-encryption days)

I didn't like the idea of having my only scanner tied up searching frequencies that were rarely active.
But when they were active the listening was great.
At the same time, I would be missing all of the local activity.

So, I got a second scanner. That way I could listen to my favorite frequencies and search others at the same time..

Then I started logging audio and I needed yet another scanner.

Then, more and more stuff started showing up on the air.
So I got a third scanner. etc. etc. etc.

Now I have more than 40 Uniden BCD396*, BCD996*, and BCT15* scanners running 24x7.
And another 30 or so older GRE scanners (mostly PRO-2006 and PRO-2042 scanners on the shelf).

I designate scanners to SatCom, MilAir, Civilian Air, State Police, Tac frequencies, individual counties, power company, etc.
Normally they aren't all talking at the same time. So this listening doesn't 'normally' get too hectic.

For each town or county I normally listen to their PD, Fire, and Tac Frequencies.
I have one for each county's Sheriff, and one for each county's Fire.

Rich

By the way, here's a YouTube video of a LOT of Uniden scanners getting a Close Call hit at the same time.
Uniden Close Call - CC DND - YouTube

Sir I believe there maybe a non profit organization out there somewhere to help you with that addiction! Lol. I thought I was crazy for owning 19 pair of the same model sunglasses. All those scanners would make my ears bleed but I would at least I have eye protection from the glare!

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[rbm]

Sir I believe there maybe a non profit organization out there somewhere to help you with that addiction! Lol. I thought I was crazy for owning 19 pair of the same model sunglasses. All those scanners would make my ears bleed but I would at least I have eye protection from the glare!

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I'm sure there is.

But ........................
I DON'T WANT TO BE HELPED!

Now, THAT many sunglasses sounds problematic!
I only have six pair.

Rich

 

[lawman210]

That's just one model of sunglasses. I have nearly 50 total. Much like most people I started of with one head and........

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[rbm]

That's just one model of sunglasses. I have nearly 50 total. Much like most people I started of with one head and........

You must spend a fortune on hats!

 

[lawman210]

How did u know? Lol

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[kb2hpw]

Multiple scanners in my case, in multiple places around the house. Garage and shack have the base scanners, with decent outside antennas. Portables in the house, sometimes I'm in the kitchen and I hear sirens, I grab one and hear what's going on.

I actually don't have any digital/trunking scanners...yet. I've gotten by so far with my 800mhz analog rigs, the county I'm in does operate 800mhz trunked but there are only 5 or 6 active freqs, and if you keep the "delay" off, and keep that scan list in only one bank, you can follow the action well. But the day is coming when i will have to upgrade...I follow the GRE (Whistler) and Uniden threads closely for good info.

I also give a plug to good old fashioned analog scanners though...there is still quite a bit of stuff on UHF and below that is informative. Like many in the radio hobby i just don't tune in one thing exclusively...if you listen to local DPW freqs you can find out about traffic closures, or assisting with barricades for a fire or helping law enforcement. Taxi services, transport buses, etc those folks can be real chatty and you'll hear stuff about your areas road conditions and other things. People are real chatty, just takes patience to listen.

 

[questnz]

Rich, bloody amazing I will be kick out of the house by the Chief Commanding Officer and have two minutes to pack all this gear, she would evict me in no time.
How many antennas do you use and how all this scanners are connected?
Chris

 

[rbm]

Rich, bloody amazing I will be kick out of the house by the Chief Commanding Officer and have two minutes to pack all this gear, she would evict me in no time.
How many antennas do you use and how all this scanners are connected?
Chris

Hi Chris,
I currently have the following antennas in use.

Five ST2 antennas. One of which feeds 32 scanners including my Broadcastify feed.
The other four feed 4 to 12 scanners each.

An Antenex FG9026

An Antenex FG8966

A home made X-Wing for SatCom - (w/LNA-580 preamp)

A home made OFCD for MilAir and civilian air.

All of the above have low noise preamps right at the base of the antenna.

A Diamond dual band ham antenna 144/440MHZ (this has no preamp)
I use that for various testing and during power outages.

As for how I feed all the scanners, here’s several examples of what I do.
I also use some EDA-2800 8-port amplifier/splitters.
Rich

The following will feed 16 scanners.
I use two of them on one of the ST2 antennas for the 32 scanners. (Without the Holland preamp)


Here's a post of mine from another thread.
http://forums.radioreference.com/sc...ntennacraft-st2-scantenna-11.html#post2015393