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

[w2lpa]

My friend had a huge old scanner that looked like a console, that used crystals. I don't remember what model or brand it was. This was the late '70s and there were places in town that still stocked crystals for the different local agencies' frequencies. I remember how excited we were when he got the crystal that let us listen to the local fire department and we heard the first call come through. I was into radio before then but that was swl. It wasn't until many years later that I got my first scanner, a PRO-51. Though it wasn't mine, I still think of that old crystal scanner as the first.

 

[Arnal]

First radio was a SEARS COM TREK 9 band in 1970. FD was on low band, but the radio did not perform well on low band. FD often not strong enough to break the squelch. We were in the river valley. Across the Potomac river was MD. Their PD was on high band, and the radio worked well for them, getting high signal strength meter readings and good squelch action. My PD had already gone to UHF by then, but this radio didn't do UHF. Or did it? I could see the Repeater site. One night, near 161 MHz, I heard a PD and confirmed it was mine. How? LO for 161 MHz = ~150 MHz, third harmonic = 450 MHz = LO for my 460 MHz PD! Sloppy that it worked that way, but it did! I learned a lot about radio from that radio that didn't work so well for me. Made me ask "Why?" or "Why not?" Always wanted one of those 'grand and glorious' multi-band tunable radios that picked up all three bands, moderately well at least, but never got one.

Next was a Patrolman 9 for the family move to IN. It was high band only for IN, 7 crystal controlled channels + an 8th tunable channel that could also be scanned. Actually got busted with that radio in my car at age 16! But things worked out Ok. My 'holding cell' was the conference room with a whole glass wall overlooking the Dispatch Center. Oh, hurt 16-year-old-me, interested in radio, some more!! Added a synthesizer to it in 1975.

From working at Radio Shack, I actually wound up working at the Regency scanner factory in 1978 on the Touch 16K first synthesized scanner. From there, Ham and Commercial FCC licenses. Then became a Navy pilot, call sign "Marconi" for all the radio, Morse Code, and frequency knowledge I took INTO the Navy with me. "Working" 225-400 MHz in AM mode was all business. Picked up PRO-2004 that picked up the military band, and the AOR-1000 hand held that also picked up the 225-400 MHz band in AM, and even wideband FM that could pick up the sonobuoys we dropped. Sea stories about how those radios both helped, and made senior officer suspicious of me and my radio capabilities.

 

[swlqsl]

In the 70's my dad had a Hallifcrafter radio and I would sit there and watch him pick up CW and decode it - he was USAF and I was impressed. By the time I was 20 I bought the Realistic DX-302 and I have been in the game every since... Now retired US Navy veteran and still doing SWL and connecting with people internationally. Now living in Australia and loving digital decoding FT8 - RTTY - PSK31 technology has finally caught up with radio and its real exciting...

 

[KC2CQD]

When I was about 12, my Step-dad had a portable Philco, I believe, that could receive AM/FM and shortwave as well as VHF outside the commercial FM. I'd spend hours tuning around, listening to everything from aviation, the local police and fire frequencies and of course, the usual shortwave stuff that was around in the early 80s. One year my parents had a garage sale and one of our neighbors brought some stuff up to sell. One item caught my eye as soon as their trunk lid opened.......This glorious grey-green masterpiece! It was marked to sell at $25. I grabbed my paper route collection book and started hitting up the rest of the stragglers on my route.
After a while I had about half of the money needed. I stopped at the neighbors house and told "Mr. L" that I wanted to buy his radio but only had about $10 up front and if it was OK with him, I'd get him the remainder the following week. He accepted that offer, so I took the rest and rode to a local Radio Shack and got a roll of speaker wire. I made up an inverted V. I lifted this heavy beast onto my desk, hooked up the speaker and flipped the Standby switch up then powered her up...then of course came the QSL cards. Mom was concerned about where many of them came from......Moscow, Cuba, China..the typical powerhouse broadcasters of the time. Yes I had some VOA and TONS of stuff from WWV, I still know the address by memory.
I still have that Nation NC-125 and it still works today, even better after replacing the old wax caps with modern caps. Many of the tubes still test at about 90% or better. After that, came an ongoing stream of CBs, base CBs, crystal set scanners and various programmables and of course more modern SWRs. I even got my ham license.

Side note....I spent the better part of 2 hours last night trying to get a fix on some clown with a China radio making a less than good effort at attempting to jam my local PD...glad they don't know anything about repeater offsets or DCS tones.

 

[signal500]

My grandfather got me interested in radio at the very early age of 9. He bought me a Realistic Patrolman-3 for Christmas. Once I figured out I could monitor Police, Fire, and EMS I was hooked. Over time I shoveled snow and cut grass so I could could purchase my first scanner from Radio Shack. The four channel "pocket scanner" Pro-21. I would change out the crystals often depending on what I wanted to monitor. Those were the days...

 

[KevinC]

View attachment 133463View attachment 133464View attachment 133465My grandfather got me interested in radio at the very early age of 9. He bought me a Realistic Patrolman-3 for Christmas. Once I figured out I could monitor Police, Fire, and EMS I was hooked. Over time I shoveled snow and cut grass so I could could purchase my first scanner from Radio Shack. The four channel "pocket scanner" Pro-21. I would change out the crystals often depending on what I wanted to monitor. Those were the days...

Cute. I had exactly the same 2 first radios. What was nice about the Patrolman 3 was I could hear both the FD and PD without having to tune around. We lived a few hundred feet from the transmitters and the selectivity was so bad I heard both when tuned to either one.

 

[mass-man]

Or like my Hallicrafters Civic Patrol VHF-lo that when tuned to the highway patrol dispatch frequency of 42.90 could hear the mobiles on 42.74! My room was adjacent to the laundry room and when the dryer started it pulled the radio off frequency!!!!

 

[rrobinso84]

[Love this thread!]

I was introduced to ham radio in 8th grade in a program sponsored by the Goddard Space Flight Center in MD. A few volunteer engineers taught us basic electronics and radio theory, then how to build a Heathkit practice amp, and finally to learn Morse Code well enough to pass the Novice test. This was before term "STEM" was thought up. My dad bought me a used (thankfully, pre-built) Heathkit transmitter, receiver and external VSO; we strung up some copper line outside our trailer in the mountains near Thurmont, MD; and I spent the summer trying to get my first contact. Finally did, send and received the QSL cards (a ham somewhere in Florida--not bad!); then drifted away to other hobbies....

Picked up a Realistic PRO-2021 analog scanner in the mid-'80s to mount as a mobile unit in the Midwest, then sold the car and stashed the scanner away.

Moved to the PHX area a few years ago, found the analog scanner, plugged it in (IT STILL WORKED!) and got re-fascinated with the hobby and all things Scanner (and now SDR--so much cool technology!). With so much simulcast in my area, I decided to get the SDS200. [And I learned that thanks to THIS FORUM--certainly pays to research what the locals are doing and the equipment they use!]

Here's my current setup, which is a nice blend of the Old and the New now:



I'm really digging the ability to RECORD in the SDS200, and of course using Proscan is phenomenal since it not only allows remote control, but the recordings are collected together channel-by-channel, so you can follow all the threads of conversation on a given channel, and all the 'dead time' is left out. Don't forget how cool that seemingly trivial detail is, gang!

Looking forward to learning (and re-learning) in this fascinating and mostly-invisible world! I'm glad this group and forum are available and we have so many knowledgeable experts here to share their insights and experiences!

 

[Alain]

My very first radio [357C] for the VHF bands was the one that you see in my avatar. I was made by Kuhn Radio Electronics in Cincinnati. I believe that they used to advertise in Pop Electronics in the mid-1960's. I saw it in a 1966 issue. I know the date because that was the year I graduated high school. The only difference in my 357C was that it was painted a forest green. Don't recall how much I paid for it but it probably was around $50 or so. It took about a month for it to arrive. I waited for the mailman every day, finally, it was delivered.

It had a telescoping antenna on a "Z" bracket [again, made from Plexi-Glas] that mounted to the top of the enclosure. The antenna had a base loaded coil that premitted both VHF and UHF reception, if I recall correctly.

The enclosure was made from 3/8" plywood[!]. The dial was silk screened onto that green face and the band spread pointer was made from Plexi-Glas. It had a line scored through the center of it. A year later the Newark riots erupted and I was listening all through the night.

There was a dispatcher, named Walt, who was on duty back then in Newark, July of 1967.

He would always conclude his call with the street/mobile officers with his signature voice [baritone] with, "AAaaaa O.K." During one day of the riots, one of the officers said something to Walt that he took exception to. Don't recall what it was but he replied, ...and when you get back to the precinct, I'll be waitin' for ya..." Never forgotten that.

In the 50+ years since, I have never heard an exchange like that on a scanner.

 

[BinaryMode]

My career as an RF statistician began way back in 1923... HAHA Just kidding.

When I was young and got some of those 49 MHz "walkie talkies" for Christmas I thought they were really cool. I even rubber banded one of the walkie talkie's PTT and placed it next to my kids AM/FM tape recorder so that I could be a DJ. Latter, I climbed up on the roof with dismembered walkie talkie in hand, disconnected the TV antenna wire and connected it to my walkie talkie's antenna to see if I could hear other kids out there. To my dismay there were none.

In middle school I was absolutely fascinated with the campus monitor's two-way radios and asked about how far they could go and other questions. Fast forward to high school and while in JROTC we all had to do a 40 minute long presentation on the subject of our choice. Two of my friends did their presentation on amateur radio and the likes and I was blown away. They showed how a TNC worked and all kinds of stuff. It was then I started to become RadioShack's "number 1 customer..." LOL! I always had various jobs throughout my young life and plenty of disposable income so I'd practically buy a scanner every month or so along with other stuff. I remember seeing the Ad for the Icom IC-R3 on the back of a Monitoring Times Mag and said, "I have got to have that!". So called Bob Groove and ordered one. Remember phone ordering? It's how I discovered the Florida company Optoelectronics and ordered the OS535 board for my Pro-2042 of which I still own.

So that's it in a nutshell. I've always had a natural interest in radio I guess. That and well, computers, electronics, science, cosmology, history, and aviation to name a few.