scanner? Noob questions inside

[possom813]

Evening folks. I'm a new fella to the forum. I've been using CB radios for several years, and now want to get a scanner to add to my setup. Eventually I'm going to get a little ham setup, but finances dictate what I can play with for now.

Anyway, I want a scanner that will cover the police, fire, ambulance bands in the neighborhood. I have no idea what type of scanner I'm looking for.

Here's the link to the database on here. I'm not sure what kind of scanner I need to cover these frequencies.

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2697

 

[soncorn]

To monitor the two trunked radio systems (East Texas Medical Center and Oncor) you would need a trunk tracking scanner like the Uniden 396, Uniden 996, GRE PSR-500 and/or GRE PSR-600. I think there are even some lower end trunk tracking scanners that could track those trunking systems, but I am not familiar with those.

For the rest of the frequencies you just need a conventional scanner that can receive in the VHF range.

 

[fmon]

I think there are even some lower end trunk tracking scanners that could track those trunking systems, but I am not familiar with those.

Definitely lower end will do the job.

GRE PSR-300/400 or Radio Shack versions Pro-162/163 or Radio Shack PRO-97/2055 and Pro-164.
Uniden BCT8/15, BC246, BC898 however, 898 does not have alpha tags.
Several older scanner models will also trunktrack both systems.
GRE made RS Pro-92/2067, 93/2053, 95 and Uniden made RS Pro-94/2052.

 

[SCPD]

And ALPHA Tags sure are nice if your new to scanning.

The best bang for your buck Without the expense of a Digital Scanner might be a Uniden BCT-15. This is the same as a BC996D minus the Digital element. It'll let you program the trunked system simular to an Actual Motorola radio. By Actual systems. Additionally, the Uniden's have access to EDACS Wide & Narrow radio systems. Just if you wanted to also hear TXU or the like.

Welcome to Scanning and Radio Reference.

 

[texasemt13]

I use a Pro-95 on a daily basis... when I travelled through Navarro Cty. it worked great. You can program both of those trunking systems in AND all of the conventioanl frequencies and hear everything. You don't need a digital scanner so stick with an analog (it'll save you some money). If you do decide you like scanning (which I'm sure you will), just update to a digital later (if anything in your area is digital).

In order to tell if it's digital or not, click on the trunked system your interested in (in this case the ETMC or Oncor system), then on the system info page it will list:
Name:
Location:
County:
Type:
Voice: ANALOG/DIGITAL (both ETMC and Oncor are analog; one is MotoII, the other EDACS NarrowNtwk)

Like I said the Pro-93 and Pro-95 will do both of these systems and are pretty inexpensive (about $75).

Welcome to RR.

 

[af5rn]

I receive Navarro County just fine on a crappy mobile antenna from Arlington, so you're not going to have to go top-of-the-line to hear them.

 

[andrewccm]

For the $, it's hard to beat the BCT-15 for the feature set IMHO. $219 and you basically get a 996 without digital as af5rn mentioned. I love mine.

 

[heckles]

Bct-15 looks pretty good what would be a good hand held maybe the BC 246T ? queston not suggestion do not know enough about the new systems .

 

[kd5dga]

Make sure its the BC-15 since ONCOR/TXU uses narrowband EDACS.

 

[heckles]

Scratch that last post by me looks like I will have to go digital to get anything around here.

 

[texasemt13]

digital?

I don't see a single digital system in any county that surrounds Navarro Cty.? Did I miss something? Everything near you appears analog.

 

[hiegtx]

I don't see a single digital system in any county that surrounds Navarro Cty.? Did I miss something? Everything near you appears analog.

This member is in the Austin/San Marcos area, not Navarro County; also not the OP.

Scratch that last post by me looks like I will have to go digital to get anything around here.

For the Navarro County County area, the only digital at this time would be in Hill County (Hillsboro PD is using a P25 conventional); the Tx DPS slowly switching over to digital; and, in the next few years, the ETMC TRS system has plans to convert over to a P25 system from the current Mot Type 2. Bottom line, not going to miss much without digital for now.

 

[texasemt13]

thanks- didn't catch that.