Need a recomendation for a scanner

[sirsqueeboo]

First off, I am very new to the entire world of radios, scanners, etc. With that, I am seeking advice regarding a scanner that will primarily be used to listen to the Providence Police radio. I will be keeping this on my desk, so a handheld model isn't necessary, but whatever will do the job for the least amount of money. For what it's worth, I live a few blocks away from the police station and the huge broadcast antenna that is on top of the parking garage. So I am not too worried about reception problems.

Thanks for all of your help.

 

[ka3jjz]

When you say broadcast antenna, is that for a FM or TV station? With an antenna that close, any scanner you get is almost certain to have overloading issues from it. This can manifest itself in many ways - from hearing lots of garbage (pagers, ect.) where you don't expect, to actually losing sensitivity on a band or bands.

If we examine the RRDB entry for Providence you seem to have a large conventional system, but also have RISCOM, which is digital. To hear both, you would need one of the Digital Trunktrackers - otherwise one of the Analog Trunktrackers will do the job. Either will handle those conventional freqs easily. (Anything in blue is a link). If it were me, and I was leaving a scanner at work, I'd probably look at a BC796 (if I were interested in hearing RISCOM) or a BC780 (if not).

Since you do have a little trunking in your area, it will be fairly important to understand the concepts, particularly if you decide to listen to RISCOM. Our Trunking wiki article has several links - stick with the basics, Motorola Type II and LTR links, since those seem to comprise the types of trunks you have in the area.

73s Mike

 

[rescueone]

Prov Police do not use the RI trunked system, they are on a 7 channel UHF conventional system. All the info you need is available here.
http://www.scancapecod.us/wiki/index.php/Providence_County_Police_Departments
Any desktop scanner that receives UHF will do. They may be switching to the RI Digital Trunked System (RISCON) in the future, in that case you'll need a scanner capable of receiving those systems. (RS PRO-2096, Uniden 996)

 

[Grog]

Hey Matt, good to see you made it over here