Scanner + Ham radio.

[VECTOR-77]

I am still looking for my first scanner and now I kinda want a radio that can receive alot of the scanner frequencies, but also is able to transmit on Ham freq's.

Do products like this exist. I guess I am looking for a product that I can carry with me and use for alot of uses.

 

[N4JNW]

You would probably need a ham radio with extended recieve capability and a big boat load of progammable memory.

I'll advise though, there are no ham radio's that will monitor trunked systems.

 

[Dubbin]

Yes there are radios like that BUT you would be much better off having separate radios for each use (especially if you need to monitor a trunking system).

 

[ka3jjz]

Assuming you have (or going to get) your Tech license - it's easy these days - then I would turn to the EHam website and check out the user equipment reviews. You can then see if there's a Yahoo group devoted to whatever radio you choose. There's no better place to go for information like that than the folks that are using the radio you want to use.... 73s Mike

 

[n211cr]

I purchased a Yaesu 7800, now owning two of them for this purpose. All of our local public safety is VHF conventional and I use it for this purpose more than transmitting. I also use it for aviation, and some UHF EDACS which obviously has its draw backs compared to a regular scanner but it works great in a jam. It has 1000 channels, and 5 buttons than are easily set to scan "banks" that you setup. I have a few set for conventional public safety systems and the rest broken up into some local ham repeaters. There are many other HAM rigs that have a wide receive range.

 

[SkipSanders]

Ham radios which also monitor are often poor at scanning, that is, scan slowly, with very difficult to use lockout, etc. You have to check very closely, and actually go LOOK at one a friend or store will let you play with, to decide if it will meet your 'scanner' needs.

For instance, I have a Kenwood TH-F6 handie talkie, which has 2 meters, 220, and 440, and will receive from 100 KHz to 1299.999 MHz! SSB up to 420 MHz. It actually does scan fairly well, and makes a good conventional scanner, with CTCSS, DCS, and a very good receiver. But it won't do trunking. So in most urban areas these days, it's a 'backup' scanner, not a primary, as far as the local cops and fire go.

Be aware that no matter what frequency range it covers, HT's aren't good shortwave receivers, it takes a different design to really handle HF... but it will receive strong signals ok.

 

[n211cr]

Ham radios which also monitor are often poor at scanning, that is, scan slowly, with very difficult to use lockout, etc. You have to check very closely, and actually go LOOK at one a friend or store will let you play with, to decide if it will meet your 'scanner' needs.

My 7800 does scan slower than a traditional scanner, and the lockout feature is one that is more diffucult to get it. That is probably the only problem I have had when using it as a scanner.

 

[wogggieee]

I would do as others have advised and recomend having two dedicated radios. A normal scanner for the scanner stuff will do you much better for that and then a radio for the ham stuff. Most ham stuff has a pretty slow scan rate and it wont do trunking. I also have a Kenwood TH-F6A handheld, and it is a very nice radio, but for scanning it doesn't compare to my bcd396t. Also have a FT-8800 which i also like a lot, but again, not best for scanning. Neither do trunking and a lot of stuff here is digital trunked.

 

[iMONITOR]

I would do as others have advised and recomend having two dedicated radios. A normal scanner for the scanner stuff will do you much better for that and then a radio for the ham stuff. Most ham stuff has a pretty slow scan rate and it wont do trunking. I also have a Kenwood TH-F6A handheld, and it is a very nice radio, but for scanning it doesn't compare to my bcd396t. Also have a FT-8800 which i also like a lot, but again, not best for scanning. Neither do trunking and a lot of stuff here is digital trunked.

Good points, especially no trunking, and no digital, seriously limits any ham radio equipment for public service scanning requirements.

 

[elk2370bruce]

I'd agree completely with the above. So long as you don't require digital scanning capability, you can go with an inexpensive scanner + either a nice dual bank hand-held or a decent mobile/base rig like the Yaesu 7800. I also use the scanner when I'm in a different part of the country so I can find out where the active repeaters (and CTSS) are and plug them in while I'm in the area.

 

[gcgrotz]

I have carried an Alinco DJ-V5 all over the place; Europe, Caribbean, Alaska. I'm planning to buy a Yaesu VX-6R soon, it has a very flexible memory system and is PC friendly. If you can only carry (or afford) one radio a wideband Ham HT is a good choice. Yes, it is slower scanning and a little less user friendly and doesn't trunk but on the other hand I have made some contacts with local hams when traveling and that's always fun. It does a very good job on Air and Marine frequencies, my main source of scanning fun when on Vacation.

 

[jmp883]

Here's my experience with using a ham radio as a scanner.

I'm a licensed ham, got my Tech in 3/06 and my General in 3/07. I currently use a Kenwood TM-V708 in my truck. It is a great radio for both repeater work and for scanning. Along with the Kenwood I also have 2 Yaesu FT-7800's and a Yaesu FT-60 handheld (along with a Icom IC-756 for HF work). They are all excellent as scanners and they do have a scan speed control-you just have to know where to find it (neither Kenwood or Yaesu print this in their respective manuals).

Most importantly it will only work if you are scanning only PL/DPL-controlled frequencies. If you are scanning a mix of PL/DPL and CSQ or all CSQ-controlled frequencies the scan speed won't work. As you are scanning your PL/DPL-controlled frequencies rotate the Squelch knob clockwise. The scan speed will increase. Obviously if you are scanning CSQ frequencies you'll need to set the squelch for optimum sensitivity, which may make the radio scan slower than you'd like it to.

I just wonder why that feature never made it to the instruction manuals.....

 

[SAR923]

As others have written, a ham portable is not what you want if you need either trunking or digital. If you live in an area that's still all conventional and need a ham portable anyway, there are any number of ham portables that will do just fine monitoring any conventional public safety, air band, or marine frequencies. As an example, I own a Yaesu VX-2R. It's small, computer programmable, scans at about 30 channels a second, and it's at least as sensitive as my Pro-96 or Pro-97. The controls are not as easy to use as a dedicated scanner but you get used to them. You can get one for about $100 and it performs better than any $100 scanner I know of. It all really depends on what you want to monitor and what system they use as to whether or not a ham portable would be a good choice.