My Scanner saved me from ???

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Randyk4661

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Have heard this story before, was it on Harbor or Euclid? Near the Boulevard? And I still have the original version AR-3000 I bought at Communications Center on Euclid. Did you have a MX7000?

I was going north on Harbor blvd. The guy was going east on Garden Grove blvd.
Yup, it was a MX-7000. I always wanted a AOR3000 but could never afford the $1100 price tag. That was a great scanner.
Communications Center on Euclid was the place to go before the online shopping took over.
 

es93546

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Three incidents come to mind. The first was on a drive from the eastern Sierra to the LAX area. As is usual we stop in Pearsonville to load the California Desert file into the GRE PSR-600 mounted in our car. We then stop in Mojave where we load the L.A. County file. We were not far out of Mojave when we started to hear some CHP traffic about an accident on CA14 near the Aqua Dulce exit. We then heard just a little L.A. Co FD traffic about a truck on fire in the same location. Then Caltrans chimed in with traffic about changeable message signs, extended time road closures and getting some engineering folks rolling as pavement and bridge damage assessments were likely. We then heard that a large fuel tank truck was flipped over and the truck and trailer were on fire. Fuel was running down the road on fire and the heat was so intense that whatever part of the truck not physically blocking the lanes had all four lanes closed. We were able to hear a blow by blow description of where the traffic was backed up to. We first thought of taking the old highway, past Boiling Point, etc. Then we heard it was backed up as that was the official detour. I told my wife we would have take the Pearblossom Highway exit and get onto Angeles Forest highway. We were climbing the hill when someone from Caltrans announced that CA 14 was within a few car lengths of being backed up to that exit and that the changeable message signs should be moved to that exit so people would exit there and then get back to the old highway in Acton. We exited before that and only had one car doing the same. We took Angeles Forest highway and arrived about 45 minutes later than normal for this trip. That night on the news we heard that some vehicles were stuck on 14 for 9 hours. The fact that Dept. of Transportation employees tend to be the chattiest people on the radio helped us in this case.

The second incident was on the drive to the Scottsdale, Arizona area for Christmas. At that time we were driving down to I-10 in San Bernardino to take across to Phoenix. When were 30-40 miles west of the Phoenix metro area when we heard about a major incident in the I-10 tunnels near downtown Phoenix. I had figured out the ADOT trunked system on previous trips to the area. We had the benefit of listening to it and the AZ DPS, which both use repeaters so all the mobile traffic could be heard from that distance. I heard that the backup included AZ 101, I-17 and I-10. At some point, someone with ADOT on the west side needed to go around to enter the tunnels from the east side using I-10. Someone replied with what lane to stay in until a certain exit, to then get into a particular lane, then at another point get into another lane. Then, somewhere near the I-17 get off at an exit, take such and such streets, get on I-17, take it to the northbound I-10 and get into the tunnel from the east. They said the backup started somewhere west of the 90 degree turn I-10 take near downtown. Yessiree Bob, we moved faster through the backup west of I-17 than any other lane and when we got near the backup on the east side of the incident we turned east on AZ 202. It was like having a helicopter telling us where to go. Later that night, once again, the 11 pm news covered the incident, along with saying some cars were trapped in the backup for 3 hours and that all surface streets were backed up, requiring Phoenix PD officers to direct traffic at intersections.

The third time was during a fire on the Angeles National Forest on northbound I-5. I was in my USFS green truck along with my fire crew in a bus behind me. We'd been on this fire for a couple of days at that point. The plan for the day was to do a burnout starting on the east shoulder of the freeway a few miles north of the Templin Highway exit. Caltrans was going to close off 2 or 3 lanes of northbound I-5 to give us room to operate. I love burning operations any time I can get near one so I was excited. We drove up the freeway to our assigned location. I had turned on my trusty BC-780 mounted under the Midland on the dash. and I had my scanner going with both the CHP and Caltrans in my "highway" bank. I carried freq. info in my truck at all times. This was back in 1996 so a current copy of "Police Call" California volume was on board. I had programmed the 780 in camp the 1st chance I had. There was an entire division of resources parked on the shoulder of the road including dozers, engine strike teams, water tenders and several crews. Some Caltrans people started talking about how the lane closures could not be done and why. I called my division sup to relay what I heard. He told me to get on command and call the incident comms. This news caused a bit of a stir with command staff and comms told us to standby, they were working on it. Then, another part of the fire near Magic Mountain blew up and we lost all the dozers, most of the engines and water tenders and a couple of crews. Command got back to us and told us to cancel and join the structure protection folks at the Paradise "Ranch." Passing on this information was quite helpful and very timely for command. The fire made a good downhill run at the mobile home park at Paradise, but the years that place is not threatened by a fire are infrequent. The events that afternoon were pretty wild when the fire made a major run at us, but that is another story.

There are several others, but these two are the most dramatic. I always listen to the DOT's in any state I'm driving through. I don't understand why people aren't interested in getting good freq. info for DOT's. To me these are important agencies to listen to, especially living in heavy snow country as I do.
 

es93546

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I was going north on Harbor blvd. The guy was going east on Garden Grove blvd.
Yup, it was a MX-7000. I always wanted a AOR3000 but could never afford the $1100 price tag. That was a great scanner.
Communications Center on Euclid was the place to go before the online shopping took over.

I still have my MX7000 squirreled away in storage. I bought mine a few months after transferring to California in late 1981. Caltrans started going to 800 MHz in District 9 in 1982, the first district to do so. I had been listening to them on 47 MHz during the first winter I moved in. I had to be able to listen to Caltrans and the MX7000 was my first 800 MHz radio. Seven years later I transferred south 55 miles and this scanner was my only 800 MHz base radio for a few more years. I think the Radio Shack PRO-2006 finally took over in 1991 or 1992. Both of these radios were very good, but the MX7000 scanned fairly slowly. It got relegated to the living room later, a place where it is good to have a scanner close by if we hear sirens and can't dash upstairs quick enough to turn on the office "shack" radios. Currently a BC780 fulfills that role, I still have 2 of those and a BC950 (very similar precursor) in my collection.
 

GregOH

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Not making room for a First Responder.

My wife and I were driving on a 2 lane state route on a Saturday afternoon that is always bumper to bumper traffic and a call came across that there was an accident at an intersection we'd just passed. We were also past the location of the Fire station that would handle that call. I slowed down and kept distance between my vehicle and the one ahead of me a my wife said "here he comes" and I pulled to the berm and those behind me did as well.

The paramedic was having a tough time getting through the bumper to bumper traffic ahead of me because they couldn't get to the berm easily. I pulled over and ahead and that helped to make a hole much quicker.
 
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I use my 106 to listen to fire & LE 24 hours a day. Usually get a heads up on fires and rescues. The southern part of my state uses the big E in most areas. Northern part not as much. I hope that E will somehow disappear eventually. As a Volunteer Fire Fighter I depend on my 106 and others to get fire calls or a heads up. But if E becomes more prevelant, then might as well give it up because I am only interested in fire, ems and law enforcement. Encryption is fine for sensitive communications on some channels, but why play secret squirrel on the rest. I hope it is ok to post this, if not ignore it...
 

dadandmemake2

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In this era of demonstrations and street blockages' and civil disorder; I wanted to start a thread about how my scanner saved me from getting caught up in one of the above situations. I'll Start:
I was traveling sounthbound not to long ago on HWY 101 in Los Angeles, when I heard on CHP radio that protesters were beginning to block lanes on the HWY 101 at Alameda, 3 miles ahead, sitting down on the HWY and blocking vehicles, also throwing items from the overpasses onto the freeway. I was SB 101 at Santa Monica when I heard this I got off the 101 and took city streets down to HWY 10 and continued east to my destination unmolested by protestors or items from overpasses. If not for the scanner I could have been caught in a mess that lasted for hours. That's my story. God bless CHP and my scanner, the [traffic on the 5's] news station did not cover the breaking news until it would have been to late for me to avoid the scene.

Wow, I get you are glad you had that with you!
 

speedlaw

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the occasional mass production speed trap...the radar car calls out on car-to-car, you can hear the "red corvette....873 feet.....91 mph" "silver minivan, 400 feet.....78 mph....driver holding cell phone" a good three miles off....

I've also heard pursuit of individual DWI-erratic drivers, and set ups for groups of cycles running the law....
 

dadandmemake2

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The police have a thing where if you have an iPhone they can hook the frequency of the phone. When they hook the phone they can follow you like a GPS traker. They can do this even if your phone is off or the location is off.

That's why I have a "retro" flip-up with no location.
 

es93546

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The police have a thing where if you have an iPhone they can hook the frequency of the phone. When they hook the phone they can follow you like a GPS traker. They can do this even if your phone is off or the location is off.

That's why I have a "retro" flip-up with no location.

Thanks for this. I have a flip phone because I just want to talk on it and to have people reach me when I'm not home. Smart phones are just too big to carry around, especially if I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt. People make fun of me because of my little flip phone. I will use what you have said here as just one more justification to keep my flip phone. I hope the technology continues to support flip phones and that I can replace it in kind if mine stops working.
 

dadandmemake2

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Thanks for this. I have a flip phone because I just want to talk on it and to have people reach me when I'm not home. Smart phones are just too big to carry around, especially if I'm wearing shorts and a T shirt. People make fun of me because of my little flip phone. I will use what you have said here as just one more justification to keep my flip phone. I hope the technology continues to support flip phones and that I can replace it in kind if mine stops working.

Yea, just ignore them if they make fun of you. flip-up phones are the best. I think the phone has to be 3 or 4G to work, but I'm not sure.
 

KK6ZTE

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The police have a thing where if you have an iPhone they can hook the frequency of the phone. When they hook the phone they can follow you like a GPS traker. They can do this even if your phone is off or the location is off.

That's why I have a "retro" flip-up with no location.
Any evidence for this claim?
 

n0xvz

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...if you have an iPhone they can hook the frequency of the phone...

That's why I have a "retro" flip-up with no location.

Both an iPhone and flip phone would use the same frequencies to communicate with the cell tower. If they can "hook" one type of phone, what prevents them from "hooking" another? Even a flip phone is a small pocket computer...
 

dadandmemake2

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Any evidence for this claim?

This should work for you :)
 

dadandmemake2

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Both an iPhone and flip phone would use the same frequencies to communicate with the cell tower. If they can "hook" one type of phone, what prevents them from "hooking" another? Even a flip phone is a small pocket computer...

I might be wrong, but an older phone might not be so attractive to the police. anyway here are some links:


 

Randyk4661

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Law enforcement has been doing this long before the smart phones. With a court order they can monitor the phone, track the phone through the cell sites. Probably even monitor the text messages. Even heard they could lock on to the frequency and listen to the calls. I think this was more of placing a tap at the exchange. It doesn't make any difference if you have a flip phone or a smart phone, if law enforcement wants to find you,they will.
Now as for speeding down the highway, I don't think they can just start tracking you without knowing something about you first like the phone number or ESN number of the phone. An frankly the cop on the side of the road is to busy to set up electronic tracking, he is simply going to radio to their coworker a mile or two up the road to watch for this vehicle. It's a team effort on their part.
 

wtp

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frequency of the phone...
what does this mean exactly as all phone are a radio that shares the same frequencies.
now if you had said phone number, that is different.
and off is off.
next up, it can install a battery to find you....if you pulled yours out.
 

Randyk4661

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Different carriers operate on different frequency bands. Some are on 600, 700, 800Mhz bands, and I believe there is one company on 5.4 Ghz.
Long gone is the 869 to 894 analog band with only 894 frequences, they now now have thousands. Also take into consideration all phones use digital time sharing of frequencies, there are more than one phone call going off a single frequency at any given time. The old nextel's could have three calls on a single frequency at any one cell site and that was twenty years ago.
You are right, the best way to keep them from tracking you is to remove the battery and with so many phones using sealed in batteries, this could be a chore to remove.
 

dadandmemake2

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frequency of the phone...
what does this mean exactly as all phone are a radio that shares the same frequencies.
now if you had said phone number, that is different.
and off is off.
next up, it can install a battery to find you....if you pulled yours out.

Yea, I'm starting to understand this police tool more now. They listen to your phone calls. You're right if you remove your battery I don't think they can listen anymore.
 

PDXh0b0

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recently mine alerted me too a wanted arm suspect wanted for kidnaping and auto theft was lose in my neighborhood while my niece and nephew were playing in the park
 
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