New portable Scanner

[craigcolby]

Hi, I am in the market for a digital portable scanner, I am leaning to the whistler brand, is that brand a good one, and any good and bad points?

Thanks,

Craig

 

[krokus]

Hi, I am in the market for a digital portable scanner, I am leaning to the whistler brand, is that brand a good one, and any good and bad points?

Thanks,

Craig

Which system, and which counties, do you want to listen to?

 

[cmdrwill]

Which system, and which counties, do you want to listen to?

Yes that makes all the difference as to which scanner to get.

 

[craigcolby]

I want to be able to get the Auburn and Lewuston, Maine FD and PD's, and the 400 Mhz for NDXN and DMR reception for the local hospitals, and I would like to get sat comms too.

 

[ka3jjz]

The Unidens reportedly do a much better job at NXDN and DMR than the Whistlers. SATCOMs - depending on what you want to hear - generally require a good outdoor antenna (altho I have heard of folks being able to hear the ISS on an indoor antenna, but the pass was very high), and many (tho not all) such transmissions are encrypted. Mike

 

[jonwienke]

I want to be able to get the Auburn and Lewuston, Maine FD and PD's, and the 400 Mhz for NDXN and DMR reception for the local hospitals, and I would like to get sat comms too.

What county is that?

 

[hiegtx]

What county is that?

Based on the city in his profile, the OP's county is Androscoggin.

I want to be able to get the Auburn and Lewuston, Maine FD and PD's, and the 400 Mhz for NDXN and DMR reception for the local hospitals, and I would like to get sat comms too.

Looking at the county, it has some conventional public safety systems using P25, including Auburn. Auburn Police are listed as using conventional P25, as well as analog, for PD dispatch. also, one hospital on DMR, another using NXDN.

Lewiston's PD & FD are using P25 conventional, with schools & college security using DMR.

For neighboring Cumberland County, Portland has a P25 Phase I trunked system, and several public safety agencies have one or more DMR channels. Of the other neighboring counties, a couple appear to be all conventional analog. The rest have a mix of analog & P25 conventional, along with a few DMR users. Someone more faliliar with the area would need to comment on how many of the adjoining agencies might be monitorable in the OPs home county, along with whether of not an external antenna is needed.

See this thread in a different forum about trying to monitor satellite or space station comms.