Newbie help, southern part of SF/Police listening

[ChrisSF]

Howdy!

I'm completely new to monitoring/scanning but I'd love to check it out.

I was thinking it would be fantastic to have a workshop for us noobs in the bay area but alas none so I'm here asking for your help

I just want to listen to SF police in my area. I've always been curious to know what's happening in my neighborhood. I often ask police who are watching a crime scene about what's going on but thats always a awkward situation as they ' always friendly. I think there should be a law for them to give a one sentence answer anyhow...

I'm on the southern part of SF, Geneva/Mission area and on the boarder of Daly City.
Mostly interested in Police chatter, maybe EMT stuff. My budget is $200 max. I want to avoid Radio Shack just because I don't like their styles. It's like the styles of Sharper Image (which I also hated), just IMHO.

I was sort of oogling the BC246t or BC346XT mostly based on "cool looking" factor. I know, I know..

But I better ask some pros otherwise I'll have an expensive 1 way walkie talkie

Thanks for any help.

Chris

 

[K270]

I'm new here myself Chris, but maybe I can help. I called scanner master (1-800-SCANNER) and talked to a sales person. I believe they have e-mail available as well as live chat. Anyway, I called them and told them what I wanted and what my listening habits would be. He told me a basic analog scanner should be fine for what you want to listen to. I want to listen to Fire, Medic, Police and Airport Traffic. I live in San Mateo. He checked out the radio channels and told me most of the area is Analog. I do remember him saying the SF General was Digital. Anyway, I ended up going to Frys and buying a Uniden BC95XLT. You can also buy from Scanner Master, it's all up to you. Good luck in you new venture, I'll be right there learning with you.

 

[Eng74]

The 346XT works great in The City. I was useing mine all last weekend, should have been using it again this weekend if the 49ers would have won two of their last three, wrong board for that rant. You might want to look at the GRE PSR 310 also.

 

[Hooligan]

Unless you're dirt-poor & expect that status to continue for a long time, I'd encourage you to get a scanner that does have 'digital' (P-25) capability. While most of San Francisco's digital talk groups on their trunked system are encrypted, last I knew, there were still a few interesting ones that surprisingly were not.

Most public safety agencies in SM county are on analog repeaters & simplex, but the Sheriff's Office, Airports Dept, Animal Control, & other agencies are on the digital trunked system. Being new to scanners, yes, there's a lot of stuff you'll be able to hear with just an inexpensive analog-only model but if you really get into it, you'll quickly wish you had a P-25 capable scanner.

I'm a former resident of SM County.

 

[ChrisSF]

Cool thanks for the answers guys. I ended up buying this one

Uniden BC346XT Scanner - eBay (item 170588838871 end time Jan-09-11 10:47:33 PST)

What do you think? $150 shipped for the BC346XT. I talked to the guy and it works fine. New seller but a Google search popped his name on here and few other places and seems legit.

I wish I could take a class on scanners and radio! I have a lot of interests and I want to get into metal detecting as well.

Anyhow what do you think of the BC346XT as a buy? I hope it's not too complex to figure it out.

Thanks again for all the info

Chris

 

[K270]

I went to scanner master to see all the specs for that model. Looks like you get lots of good stuff in the box. Here's the link for the scanner master spec page. Looks like there may be some links you may be interested in (Yahoo Groups)

Uniden Bearcat BC346XT Police Scanner Radio

 

[Eng74]

Great price on the 346XT. The best thing to do is get software for programming. There are some free programs and others that you can pay for. The only thing you might want to do is upgrade the antenna. This is the one that I have on my my XT's and my 396. 800 MHz Low Profile 1/4 Wave Portable SMA Antenna

 

[K270]

I'm going to ask another question. I've been going through the frequency database for my area but would like to know if there's more listed somewhere else. I've been picking up a frequency on my scanner thanks to the "close call" feature. It comes up as 152.425. I've searched through the frequencys and can't find what it belongs to. That's why I'm asking if there's another database somewhere that has frequencies that maybe Tow Companies, Cab Companies or any other companies use? I don't really want to input tow or cab companies into my scanner, but when a "close call" comes in I'd like to look the frequency up (sorry, I'm not a premium member here).

 

[Hooligan]

152Mhz is mostly pagers & taxi companies.

Go sell some plasma so you can be a premium member here & use the DB, but also, spend some time
learning how to use the FCC license search application:

License Search

Specifically, you'll want to do a Geographic Search You can then search for frequencies licenses in a certain county, or do a geographic search centered on your home.