Need some help...

[chrcey]

Hi all.. My name is chris I'm new to the scanner world.. I have been a ham for a little over a year now call sign is KE5RMC..

I live in Houston Tx and would like to know what would be a great scanner for someone living in Houston....

I think my wife has gotting me a scnnner... I think is the 20.404 that radio shack is saling for 99.OO. would that be good are should I upgrade?

Why can"t you use a ham radio as a scanner? I have the FT 60 R and love this radio...

Is there any books on scnner and were is the best place to find the freg for the area you live in?

Thanks, all for your help.
Chris Williams.
73.

 

[kayi4cle]

Welcome to Radio Reference, and congrats on getting your Ham ticket! If you go to the Database and look at Harris County and Houston, you can research what you might be interested in monitoring in the part of Houston where you reside. That will determine what scanner will be right for you.

I looked up the model you mentioned, and it appears to be very basic with no trunking capability and no digital. Using it, you will still be able to hear a lot of stuff, but maybe not what you want to hear. In fact, using your ham radio as a scanner will be similar to the radio you mentioned, except that the scanner will scan at a faster rate.

If you want to be able to monitor all that is available in the Houston area, you will need one of the newer digital radios (one that trunks 700 MHz). 73, good luck and happy scanning!!

 

[gmclam]

Hi all.. My name is chris I'm new to the scanner world.. I have been a ham for a little over a year now call sign is KE5RMC..

Welcome to RadioReference.com!!!! We're not just scanner geeks here, there are hams and lots of other related interests.

I think my wife has gotting me a scnnner... I think is the 20.404 that radio shack is saling for 99.OO. would that be good are should I upgrade?

Upgrade. The scanners you should look at from RS are the PRO-164 analog or PRO-106 digital (those are handheld models, there are equivalent base models).

Why can"t you use a ham radio as a scanner? I have the FT 60 R and love this radio...

You can use your ham radio to pick up ONE frequency. A scanner will momentarily step through dozens of frequencies looking for the next transmission. I usually have two scanners going each with a selection enabled from the same list of about 1000 frequencies.

Is there any books on scnner and were is the best place to find the freg for the area you live in?

The best place to find frequencies is RIGHT HERE on RadioReference.com. For "books" you could start here in the Wiki, but those links are available at the top of every page. For paper type books check Amazon.com. But you'll find a lot of people here who can help and then perhaps that will perk your interest in one (or more) aspect of the hobby and you'll know better what to search for or ask about.

Merry Christmas

 

[ka3jjz]

Actually a lot of ham handhelds will scan like a scanner - I don't know if the FT60R can do this, but (when I had it), my VX5R certainly did. And many others can, too. However, no one has (yet) come out with a dual bander handheld that was also a trunktracker. I suspect that if someone were to do this - the technology is certainly there - it would be very popular with the ham/scannist crowd.

Welcome to RR, Chris 73 Mike

 

[RadioDaze]

The FT-60R is actually a very competent conventional scanner, with bank scanning, priority, etc., and it's pretty fast too. A little complex to get the hang of compared to other conventional scanners, but it does work well. I'd love to see a trunking model in the future.