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

[Steve08CVPI]

My grandfather had one on a side table in the living room when I was a kid. I was fascinated by it listening to the fire dept and cops. My first was a Realistic Patrolman 10 in the 70s

 

[ratboy]

My dad sold the "Little Tiger" convertors at his store, and I got one for my birthday when I was like 8. A second one came soon after that, and the ham across the street threw it off freq to get fire calls. The Regency, Midland, RS, Lafayette, LLoyd's, and Allied tunable VHF radios followed and I had like about 15 of them at the end, most bought used at hamfests and garage sales. My frist actual scanner was a short lived Regency that died about one week after the warranty ended. I sold the crystals to a friend, and my next scanner was a Bearcat III that I got right before the police moved to UHF, so I heard the tests of the system before it went "live". Next came a BC-210 that I got for $40 almost new when some guy lost all his money at the casino I worked at and needed money to get home to Los Angeles. Back in Ohio, I got into it big time, with BC-200XLT's, RS Pro 2004, 2005, 2006, 34, 37, 43, 106, 651, and several other common models. I got into some of the oddball ones with the awful Regency HX-2000 with the crunchy squelch, the great rail scanners HX-1000, 1200, 1500, and even a Yupiteru MVT-9000 and a Welz W1000 too. At one point I had over 30 handheld scanners and about 10 ham HT's. At this point, I'm down to two SDS200's, and three old RS/GRE/Whistler Pro106 and clones, and a couple of HT's.

 

[GB46]

In the 1980s I got my introduction to scanning from a volunteer firefighter, who also sold me my first scanner, his Realistic Pro-2001 with 16 channels. He was upgrading his equipment at the time.


I used a back-of-the-set antenna, and monitored mainly police and fire frequencies. That scanner was rugged and very reliable. When there was a fire in one of the apartments in the high-rise where I lived, I overheard the firefighters planning an evacuation before it was announced to the tenants, and my suite was right next to the fire exit stairwell, so I was perhaps the first tenant to leave the building. There was only a small fire sparked by a faulty electrical fixture inside a tenant's storeroom on another floor, but the smoke got into the corridor, and instead of being kept from spreading, a fault in the ventilation system sucked the smoke all the way from one fire exit to the fire exit at the other end of the corridor.

 

[Kingscup]

My dad brought home a scanner (no idea on model) that he received from a ham radio friend. I was around 12 years old and this was around 79-80. The first night I was able to listen without family interruptions, I hear an engine company arrive on scene of a residential structure fire with the siren winding in background and giving a report on conditions. I was hooked. Some point after that, I bought a 4 crystal scanner (probably a Pro23). Sometime during the mid 1980s, I bought a Pro30. After a career in public safety, I don't listen much anymore. I have 2 scanners that I use for Broadcastify and I will occasionally listen to that for a few minutes but that is about it. If/when I move out of the area, I may pick it up again but I think it will be mostly to see how they do things in that area compared to what I already know.

 

[jaspence]

My first was a Radio Shack Pro-4 Pocket-Scan (RadioPics Database - RadioShack/Realistic - PRO-4) that still sits on the shelf with my newer radios. It used 2 nine volt batteries due to the current draw. The first call I remember hearing was a deputy reporting that the roof of a local furniture store had collapsed in downtown Kalamazoo during a tornado. That got me interested in ham radio public service as a storm spotter and the Pro-4 is one of 8 scanners in my current collect, along with around 35 new and vintage ham hts.

 

[kainixon2187]

I started when I was around 11 because I wanted to listen to my local pd/fire and I wasn't a big fan of broadcastify. My parents bought me a BC125AT but nobody really knew about the different digital modulations or bands. Of course, the city I'm in used a P25 trunked system . After that, I started doing my research on the different types of digital, trunking, and other info. As I did more research I realized that there was a whole world of things I could listen to. I then got a BCD436HP which actually allowed me to listen to p25, dmr, nxdn, and so much more. I ended up having a lot of fun listening to different stuff and exploring with SDR. Since then I've acquired a variety of different radios.

 

[Mopar392]

My first one was the bc60xlt I carried it every where and used to sneak listening to it in school

 

[consys]

First... and last?
When I was a teen my dad bought a "all band" radio from Wards. It was near impossible to tune, but I found the PD while playing with it during one of our frequent all night cat fishing trips in the CA delta. Later I lusted after a scanner but with two kids and mortgage... In 1985 I inherited a Bearcat 210XL from a grandfather, a toy I didn't know he had. I also didn't know how contagious it would be- I just added a P25RX-II to the collection. With the county here a flip of a switch from encryption, it might be the last. I hope not.

 

[mark40]

Started Christmas Day 1972 with a Regency Monitoradio (tube type), followed by the Lafayette pictured and first crystal scanner was the Pearce-Simpson 8 channel scanner.

 

[StoliRaz]

Mid-1990s I got a RadioShack scanner, 30 channels and if you unplugged it from the outlet you lost all 30 saved channels. Fun times. I used to listen to the subway a lot, and my local police and fire. Scanning for new stuff to listen to has always been fun to me, you never know what you're going to find.

I've been in and out of the hobby a lot. I was big into it until around 2001, got back into it around 2006-2012, back into it 2015-present for various reasons. Busy with life, getting married, having kids, career, etc..got really discouraged by many things around 2012 i.e. digital taking over, the big E becoming more common, the cost of new equipment...I think I'm sticking around this time though. I'm liking SDR lately. We'll see what happens.

 

[mass-man]

My father by virtue of being city manager was also civil defense director...he got two of the Federal Ten Ten receivers for the house...one for our local PD and FD He might turn them on in the morning while he got ready for work, but not often. I talked him out of them, and into my room they went...on 24/7 and I could even sleep thru alarms. Eventually he got a two frequency that would scan and I got a crystal for intercity! So I guess that's about 58 years or so of messing with receivers...

 

[krokus]

My father by virtue of being city manager was also civil defense director...he got two of the Federal Ten Ten receivers for the house...one for our local PD and FD He might turn them on in the morning while he got ready for work, but not often. I talked him out of them, and into my room they went...on 24/7 and I could even sleep thru alarms. Eventually he got a two frequency that would scan and I got a crystal for intercity! So I guess that's about 58 years or so of messing with receivers...
View attachment 111114

Those were really popular with the on-call FF, where I grew up. Almost everyone on my dad's FD had one.

 

[tnbound]

This was my first mobile police and fire receiver in 1969 that I traded for an old CB radio that I had. It was modified before I got it to Boston Fire and State police along with my local police and fire. That radio was the beginning of my life long addiction to police receivers and various radio equipment and my becoming an Extra class ham. but I have recently progressed to a Uniden SDS200 scanner and I am just loving it as I slowly learn the new technology.

 

[mmckenna]

This was my first mobile police and fire receiver in 1969 that I traded for an old CB radio that I had. It was modified before I got it to Boston Fire and State police along with my local police and fire. That radio was the beginning of my life long addiction to police receivers and various radio equipment and my becoming an Extra class ham. but I have recently progressed to a Uniden SDS200 scanner and I am just loving it as I slowly learn the new technology.

When I first started working in the industry, one of my first jobs was replacing a bunch of those with more modern receivers. Our dispatch center had a bunch of those shoved under the console with the speakers remote'd closer to the dispatchers. I had one sitting in my garage for a while and had planned on retuning it, but not sure where it went. Probably given to someone else to play with.

They were still going strong after 30 years, but were pretty much completely packed full of dust.

 

[tnbound]

That radio was a tank and I had it for years

 

[tnbound]

My grandfather had one on a side table in the living room when I was a kid. I was fascinated by it listening to the fire dept and cops. My first was a Realistic Patrolman 10 in the 70s

I had one about the same time and it was a tunable one I don't remember the model but I guess it was before crystals.

 

[bobmich52]

Ahh such memories here

my 1st job about 48 yrs ago @ 12 yrs old was working 4 a caterer cooking 4 parties etc & he had a 10 channel regency in the prep area

Got hooked FAST, saved my money in a coffee can & bought 1

My 1st scanner was a regency with the big red led lights 10 channel rockbound, it lasted about 20 yrs

Have gone through the full spectrum , fanon portable, most bearcat models,785/ 796/996 & now with my 396T, still kicks AZZ, we now have 2 SDS 200 & 1 SDS 100

I still miss the simplicity of the old dazes

 

[tnbound]

My father had one of these in the sixties some time and we would sit in the kitchen and he would tune into Boston police and fire on lowband and I was probably 10 at that time if not younger. This one was 30-50 tunable. I justy threw it out about 60 years later and it still worked.

 

[mass-man]

My father had one of these in the sixties some time and we would sit in the kitchen and he would tune into Boston police and fire on lowband and I was probably 10 at that time if not younger. This one was 30-50 tunable. I justy threw it out about 60 years later and it still worked.


View attachment 111165

I had the same rcvr for the TX Highway Patrol...the dispatcher used 42.90 and the mobiles were on 42.74. Tuning it just a hair below 42.90 I could hear the mobiles if they were within a few miles!!!

 

[dmchalmers]

Started out with think a bearcat 3 in the 70's as a teen then a bcd350 that could pick up cellular finally went dig with a bcd-436hp