Personal Scanning Histories - How did you get into it and what was 'your first'?

[Omega-TI]

I'll start the thread off...

My first transistor radio, when I was about eight years old, opened up my world to the wonders of DX... all when I was supposed to be asleep in bed. When I got a little older, like ten, I 'made' different radios with my 100 in 1 electronic project kit, then a Radio Shack 'Globe Patrol' Shortwave radio kit, and then later with my dearly beloved Realistic DX-160. Life went on the CB radio craze had come and gone, I grew up, and had a multi-band radio that was always tuned to the police frequency and then one day, I spotted a mint condition RCA 16S400 at a garage sale my wife had dragged me to. I caught 10 kinds of grief because I spent $35.00 on the scanner, yeah she was like that, although she listened to it as much as I did, and later she even bought me a Bearcat 200XLT portable, and this was after we already had a Uniden Bearcat 800xlt, so I guess radio kind of grew on her! She did not like listening to Hams rag chewing though! (I could not blame her really).

I tried to find a decent photo of that scanner, and found only one photo from that time period with the RCA in it...



Those were good times, good enough I wish I could turn back the clock.

 

[KB8RQH]

Have same scanner in the left upper corner. Nothing on it anymore! But I let it run, reminds me of the old days
Used to wait for a ride to get to Radio Shack to order crystals, wait for weeks then go back. It ran 24/7, still does.
Sure do miss those days! Now it's SDS200/SDS100..

 

[natedawg1604]

I have to ask, what is that computer?

 

[mastr]

My first "scanner"- Regency H604. Why? Because back then, the only way for a civilian to get instant news was to listen to police, fire, EMS etc.
I still have it around here someplace.

 

[AJAT]

My father showing me how to tune the local PD on a Patrolman 5 got me started.

 

[Omega-TI]

I have to ask, what is that computer?

The beige one in the photo above was an NEC PC-8201 and the silver one is a TI-99/4A. I no longer have the NEC, but the TI? Oh yeah, that's been my 'other hobby' for the past 8 or 9 years. I've kind of burned myself out on the TI and am now transitioning back into radio.

 

[a417]

I have to ask, what is that computer?

...TI99/4A?

[edit @Omega-TI beat me to it. )

 

[Omega-TI]

Sure do miss those days! Now it's SDS200/SDS100..

I had to look it up, man that's a beauty! I may have to consider 'updating' my scanner next!

 

[trentbob]

Haha, when I started oh, there were no scanners, dad, uncle were ham operators so around 1964- 65, age 11 or 12, I got into shortwave listening with an old tube radio that was the guts of a stand-up zenith radio piece of furniture, got a Lafayette tube He90 CB and listened to several slide rule dial monitors for police and fire. This is the one they got for me.



So technically the first scanner I got was an Electra Bearcat lll H/L.

 

[drdeputy]

I'll start the thread off...

My first transistor radio, when I was about eight years old, opened up my world to the wonders of DX... all when I was supposed to be asleep in bed. When I got a little older, like ten, I 'made' different radios with my 100 in 1 electronic project kit, then a Radio Shack 'Globe Patrol' Shortwave radio kit, and then later with my dearly beloved Realistic DX-160. Life went on the CB radio craze had come and gone, I grew up, and had a multi-band radio that was always tuned to the police frequency and then one day, I spotted a mint condition RCA 16S400 at a garage sale my wife had dragged me to. I caught 10 kinds of grief because I spent $35.00 on the scanner, yeah she was like that, although she listened to it as much as I did, and later she even bought me a Bearcat 200XLT portable, and this was after we already had a Uniden Bearcat 800xlt, so I guess radio kind of grew on her! She did not like listening to Hams rag chewing though! (I could not blame her really).

I tried to find a decent photo of that scanner, and found only one photo from that time period with the RCA in it...


Those were good times, good enough I wish I could turn back the clock.

Is that your pin-paper feed for that Epson on the top shelf? Classic look of course, because it is.

 

[iMONITOR]

I have to ask, what is that computer?

That caught my eye too! I thought it was an old S100 bus vintage.

 

[WX4JCW]

my first listen to public safety was probably 1977 we had an AM/FM/VHF rotary tune radio and i found the local sheriff, after that my First scanner was as a teenager probably 83-84 was a BC140, then I got a Radio Shack portable

 

[mmckenna]

My father showing me how to tune the local PD on a Patrolman 5 got me started.

View attachment 108461

I had one of those. Wore the dang thing out. Might have been my first radio.

 

[merlin]

I started SWL back in like 1963 with an old Cadillac radio. The wonder-bar seek I guess you could call a scanner.
First real scanner back in '68 a Bearcat III electra like above. About the same time got a boatload of old surplus
radio stuff of which all I kept was the Watkins Johnson 8711 and the twins (8626-8628) all those have scan and memory. Maybe '72 I had a UHF Icom portable with scan and as of late got a BX15X. (It is sitting here now making racket)

 

[jmp883]

My start in the radio hobby was in the early 1970's with a Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royale. I'd spend hours with that radio tuning all over the bands. Sadly that radio is long gone...

In high school I received a Regency ACT-C4 4-channel crystal scanner. I was hooked on scanning from that moment on and listening to scanners led me to my career of dispatching. I've been dispatching 29 years now and still love it. Not looking to retire anytime soon.

In the early 2000's I got my Technician-class license, upgrading to General-class within a year.

Radio has been a lot of fun, and I don't see that changing anytime soon!

 

[trap5858]

I got my start in the hobby back in the early 70's. A family friend who was the chief of police of a shore town on Long Beach Island NJ gave me a device that inductively coupled with an AM radio. It had two crystals and a switch for which frequency I wanted to listen to. One was the county sheriffs office and the other was the county fire dispatch frequency. That got me hooked and from there I had a tunable VHF receiver then a Tennalec Tennatrac II 10 channel base scanner and my first handheld was a Fannon Courier 4 channel VHF hi/lo UHF. Since that time I have owned more scanners than I could count, can't even recall all of them. But it kept me off the streets at night.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

My Mom got me a BEARCAT 210 for Christmas in 1980 when I was 16 years old. I used to brag to my High School buddies of the things I used to hear on it. Including NOAA radio since this was before smartphones were even thought of and cable TV was in only limited areas. Only 10 channels and no aircraft band. I certainly got hooked from then on and have had many scanners since. But we never forget the first one.

 

[Omega-TI]

Is that your pin-paper feed for that Epson on the top shelf? Classic look of course, because it is.

Yeah, I wanted a lit enclosure for the printer, but in the everything that was printed had to come out the front. That configuration only lasted for a couple of years. I had to give up the den to make it into a nursery, so that was an example of "a rushed downsizing".

 

[PINIONSEAL]

I got my start in the mid 1950's. I found a National NC98 radio that went to 40mc. (mhz). On the back of the radio was a plug which would accommodate an FM adapter. This was enough to receive my local police on 39.58 Mhz. I then graduated to a Monitoradio DR200 with both variable and crystals in both the low and high bands. The crystal control feature eliminated the constant FM drift which occurred in the tunable radios. I graduated through, I believe, every radio offering until today when I have four SDS200s, 1 SDS100, two BCD535s, and on BCD996P2.

 

[NuthinFancy]

My first radio was the Patrolman 5, I could listen to local police and fire. There were five bands Including AM and FM, of course you could only listen to one channel at a time . But it was a great little radio until I took it apart too many times.it also had two antennas.one for vhf and one for uhf. the picture in post#5 sparked my memory.