Road Trip Frequencies

[trh179]

A couple of friends and I are driving from New Jersey to Disney World the beginning of March and i was wondering if any one had any good frequencies to monitor on the way down. I have a VHF Motorola XPR 6550. I am also a, hoping a few of you have suggestions on a decent mobile semi-permanent CB radio I can put in my Tahoe for the drive. I am not looking to drill and holes or do an wiring for it. Also if their are a lof of other goof frequencies like UHF, 800, or trunking I may pick up a cheap scanner as well. Thanks and I appriciat any help I can get.

 

[CompuDoc]

If I were you I would look at your route that your going to take. Then look at the database for the frequencies and what systems they are on. This will tell you if you need a new scanner or not. One thing for sure the NJ State Troopers are on a trunking system so if you wanted to monitor them then you would need to pick up another scanner.

If your looking to buy a trunking scanner look at the Uniden BC346XT.

BC346XT
BC346XT Portable Compact Handheld Scanner
The BC346XT comes equipped with features like Uniden's exclusive Advanced Dynamic Memory System, Close Call Capture Technology and GPS compatibility features.

IEI Electronics in Airport Plaza on Route 36 in Hazlet NJ has it in the display case for $229.95. You can pick it up their or you might be able to save a little if you decided to go mail order. Bear in mind that the BC346XT is an analog trunking scanner not digital. A good digital will run almost 600 so if when you plan your route you see that your going to need a digital scanner it probably would not be worth buying as New Jersey is mostly on analog systems.

No idea of any good CB manufacturer's but whatever you get you could use a good magnetic antenna and since you do not want to hard wire it just put a cigarette lighter plug on the power cable. Make sure that the power cable has a fuse. I would think that they do have one already.

 

[ka3jjz]

Moved to the general scanning forum, since this has little to do with freqs below 30 mhz (except for the CB stuff...)

In any case, before anyone can answer, it's going to be necessary to get a better plot of your route. Many areas - my home in Maryland is an example - is largely using digital trunking, as is the state of Delaware (which is totally digital). A cheap scanner simply won't cut it, unfortunately - the digital trunktrackers are pretty expensive, unless you find one on sale or in our used area. The 346XT is not digital, so that disqualifies it outright.

The applicable models are listed in the wiki article below (just click on the blue text)

Categoryigital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

73 Mike

 

[GrayJeep]

Friend of mine was planning his Christmas road trip from Colorado to Louisiana.

Following the road atlas and using Radio Reference he worked thru the route county by county, state by state, agency by agency.

It took him about 3 solid days of work to develop the program which included some possible weather reroutings.

I have no doubt that he would have had a very effective program and heard what he was interested in and not much garbage.

That's the method that will work. Just "scanning the police bands" doesn't really work anymore. The world of radio is MUCH more complicated than that.

Have a nice trip.
Give my best to Officer Obie.

 

[N_Jay]

Is this really worthwhile for most decent length road trips?

I figure at any decent speed you are going to be in and out of the average coverage of a system in under 45 minutes, so you are going to have to keep reprogramming or spend a lot of time pre-programing for the slight chance that you will happen to be somewhere just when something worth listening to happens.

Thoughts?

 

[GrayJeep]

Necessary? Only if you want to catch the action.

45 minutes on a system might be all you get Back East but a trip across Wyoming can be covered effectively with half a bank or less in a Pro-96. A run from N to S in Colorado is about 10 Pro-106 scanlists (or less).

Sorting things to the various scanlists and optimising the changeover points consumed part of the time in programming. The idea was to be able to drive all day only changing scanlists then loading a new vscanner content at the motel that night.

He had fun and learned a lot. Didn't get to use it though - he got sick and the trip was cancelled.

 

[BCFlash]

It's perhaps more fun to do you own lists and programming, but if one is looking to buy a scanner for travel, I suggest the Bearcat BCT-15 (or -8 if it meets your needs, less expensive). They come pre-programmed, by state, with the useful frequencies for travel. They also come with antennas and all the accessories for base or mobile use that you need for a trip.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

Don't overlook the MURS frequencies as they are in use just about everywhere. You can search the railroad band and marine band if you are near a larger body of water. Or just put it in search of whatever frequency range you want and see what comes up.