Newbie needs scanner advice ...

[cmeisenzahl]

Thinking about getting a scanner. I live in and around Monroe and Livingston counties in Rochester, NY.

I was looking at this. What do you think of it?
http://www.icomamerica.com/products/receivers/r5/
http://www.javiation.co.uk/ic-r5.html
http://www.ukmidlandscanner.co.uk/r5rev.htm


Ideally, I would get a radio that received/scanned EMS/fire/police/am/fm. Will this scanner do all of that?

What else will it do? Scan amateur radio too?

Is there something else I should be looking at? This is absolutely at the top of my price range. I would prefer handheld over a fixed base unit. I don't believe there are any trunked systems in my area.

All advice appreciated, thanks very much in advance,

Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/

 

[nexus]

The ICOM R5 is not a scanner. It's a wide-band receiver with memories and scan capability. If you're primary function is going to be listening to public safety as you outlined I would strongly suggest buying the new Uniden BCD396T Trunktracker V with Digital capability..

Goto http://www.scannermaster.com and click on scanners and handhelds you'll see the BCD396 there. It's fully features, it'll scan everything except (EDACS PROVOICE) If they're regular edacs or motorola or conventional you'll hear it.

It costs about 520 dollars. If that's too much and you've already checked the database on this site to see if your area's public safety is not using digital you can get the analog only scanner BC246T for 219 dollars.

BTW, I noticed you listed UK websites to buy your icon R5 from...

<b>if you think you're going to get it for cell phone monitoring DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!</b> Most of the cellphone traffic is now in the 1900mhz band and is DIGITAL. No scanner will decode it. The AMPS (analog) cell stuff is pretty much non-exisitant these days. So save you some hassle. That little bit of the band is desolate these days. I know, I own a Yupiteru MVT7100 from Javiation and there's nothing there! Save you some money and customs hassles and buy it stateside...

Eastman Kodak Rochester NY is ASTRO 25 (requires a digital trunktracker BDC396)
Looks like the rest of Monroe county is using coventional VHF and UHF. Livingston County only lists some low band stuff... If you don't have a need to scan Eastman Kodak then a BC246T would be the perfect choice..

 

[cmeisenzahl]

Thanks very much Nexus, I appreciate it. No, no interest in cell phones, I hadn't even thought about it.

I'll definitely look at those models you mentioned. I'm a little confused by the difference between the a scanner and a receiver that scans.

I only grabbed the UK site when googling around for reviews and info. ;-)

Thanks again!

Chris

 

[nexus]

Well for a long time now wide band receivers weren't intended to be used as scanners. they had memory channels to program in your favorite frequencies but the scan rate (speed) at which it scanned through the memory channels or steps in vfo mode was slow compared to a scanner. Also the selectivity of a wideband receiver is going to be more open and interference from outside sources will reduce your monitoring ability.

Wideband receivers were never meant to be "scanners" just a radio capable of tuning a frequency all across the bands.

Scanners are radio receivers that were designed soley to scan programmed memory channels at a very high rate. The faster a scanner can scan it's memories, the better your chances of listening to as many transmissions possible. The scanner was designed to focus on a narrow portion of the bands primarily (VHF LOW- 45mhz) (VHF HIGH- 150mhz) (UHF- 450-470mhz) As time and technology moved along the scanners became more and more advanced. Now most mid-range to high end scanners cover 30mhz to 956 or 1300mhz exluding cellular and do trunktracking. Have thousands of memories instead of just a few hundred, and can scan faster than before.

Its like saying what's the difference between a Ford Taurus and a Porche 924? They're both cars. they both have 4 wheels and operate on a gas engine. But if you break them down you'll see one car is designed for one purpose and the other one for something completely different. The taurus as a family sedan and the porshe as a proven sports/race car.

Like I said, if you want to be able to listen to shortwave and stations all over the country and world like hams and stuff the ICOM R5 is a good radio. that's it's bread and butter. Wideband... 500 khz (way below the am broadcast band) and up to about 2000 mhz just inside the microwave band. But if you want something geared toward monitoring public safety, aircrafts etc. the Uniden BC246T is the ticket, unless you need digital then you'll want the BCD396T or the radio shack PRO-96.

 

[mciupa]

Thinking about getting a scanner. I live in and around Monroe and Livingston counties in Rochester, NY.

Hey cmeisenzahl . You should Private Message a member who lives in
your area . JMedley 1 He frequents this board a lot and lives in the
Rochester area.
He may even read this before you do ! :lol: Anyways, try and contact him
and see what his suggestions are.