Noob in CA with Questions

[67roadster]

I am completely new at this and still trying to figure out all the terminology, what the equipment does, etc.

With that said, I'd like to get a HT plus something that I can listen to local pd on for emergencies. I didn't want to have to get a HT and a scanner so this unit seems to do both. I live in South Orange County and see on this site that many of the pd frequencies are encrypted.

Anyone have experience with the Yaesu FT-60R? Is it good for both listening to local fire/pd and HT..especially for a noob?

NEW YAESU FT-60R DUAL BAND HAM RADIO TRANSCEIVER - Radioshop888 KG-UVD1P VX-8R VX-3R VX-7R VX-170 KG-699E KG-669 KG-689 PX-777 PX-888 FT-897 FT-857 VX-177 VXA-300 KG-679 VEV-3288S V-1000 TG-UV FT-817ND FT-60R FT-897 FT-857 VX-7R VX-7RB VX-6R VX-3R FT

Frequency Range Receive:
- 108 - 137 MHz
- 137 - 520 MHz
- 700 - 999 MHz (Cellular Blocked)

Thanks.

 

[Markb]

Welcome to the forums. The FT-60 is a good little radio, but not for monitoring any 800Mhz trunking in Orange County. You really need to get a digital scanner or you will drive yourself crazy trying to listen to what is going on. You will also find that even though an amateur radio says it has wide band RX, YMMV. I like to listen to military aircraft and most ham radios are basically deaf in much of that range. That's worst case, but the manufacturers don't guarantee good reception for anything outside the ham bands.
The other issue is that much of the OC system is digital and there isn't a ham radio that decodes APCO P25 digital, so besides the radio not tracking a trunked system, it will not decode digital, so all you'll hear is noise much of the time.

Mark

 

[67roadster]

Mark,

Thanks for the reply.

Any recommendation on a scanner that works well in OC? Anything around $200?

Tom

 

[SkipSanders]

No ham handie is a 'good' scanner. The requirements for trancievers and scanners are very different.

Scan rate alone will be MUCH slower on an HT.

As mentioned above, the HT's also cannot handle trunking, or digital... and most of the police traffic on the Orange County trunking system is, so far as I've heard, encrypted and unmonitorable other than some interagency channels.

The fire channels do appear to be analog, but without a trunking scanner than can monitor ONLY those talkgroups, you'd be listening to constant 'noise' from the encrypted and digital groups.

Bottom line: If you want a scanner, you're going to have to buy a scanner, not a tranciever.

 

[RadioDaze]

I use an FT-60R monitor LA County Fire and LA County Sheriffs. Nothing you can buy will be able to monitor OC law enforcement, except for the "Red Channel", but that's a good one to have since pursuits will be broadcast on there. However, that requires a digital (P25) capable scanner. And for the most part, the channel is silent. With an analog, trunk-tracking scanner, you will be able to hear most of the fire operations in OC, and it's pretty good listening. So you can get into it cheap enough, probably new on sale for about $150. But if you spring for the $400+ for a digital scanner, you can also receive OC Lifeguards and medic-to-hospital transmissions. LAPD, also digital and not encrypted, is a great listen, but you'll struggle to hear it from south OC. If you have a ham license, or are planning to get one, you'll still find use for a Yaesu HT. Otherwise, leave it alone.

 

[cj5]

I have no experience with the FT-60, but I can vouch for the responders to your initial post, that you will be very limited in your ability to scan much of anything in Orange County because of trunking and digital encryption. Since you're in the Southern part of the county try adding San Diego frequencies, and see if that helps. Since the radio is limited to 2 meters and 70 centimeter receive, you are also missing out on CHP traffic, which is mostly down in the 30 to 40 MHz range, and analog as well. The only exception to that is the UHF/VHF Ops channels, and the mobile extenders frequency, which are not generally busy.

Go to RR's database, and just program in some frequencies, and see what you get! Orange County, California (CA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference