I'm brand new at listening to scanners and I could use a little help. I have a uniden bc75xlt, it's not much but it works. I'm a freelance photographer for several newspapers and I like to get all the info i can whether it be a fire, car accident or whatever. i'd like a few tips if someone out there is nice enough to help out. First off can someone please explain to me what the "red" channel is and what is the frequency? Also, is there away to listen to the digitized channels that are now in use? And the last thing can someone please give me all the good frequencies for central wisconsin?
Welcome to RadioReference.
Without knowing the county, or at least a more specific description than 'central Wisconsin', "Red channel" sounds like a designation used by a local agency. Taking a wild guess at the area, I did see that for this
county, a number of their channels are tagged with a color. For instance, the first one listed, 154.205, shows a text tag of "WPRED". There are other frequencies with color tags on the same page.
For frequencies in your state, click on the Databases menu at the top of the page, then select US, then your state,
Wisconsin. From there, you can select individual counties to get more information. You can also visit the Wisconsin
forum to interact with members local to your state.
As far as receiving the digital transmissions, you would not be able to do that with the BC75XLT. If the frequency, or system, is carried on an audio feed, you could listen to it via a smart phone app or pc. Otherwise, your only option would be to purchase a digital scanner.