Scanner recommendation for San Jose/San Francisco

[wildgoose007]

Hello,

Can someone recommend a scanner for the San Jose and San Francisco area? I am mostly interested in getting the local police/fire broadcasts.. I live in San Jose area but goes to SF pretty often too.

From the database, am I correct that Santa Clara County is mostly still analog? (Is FMN FM-narrow-band?) I see a P25, is that a digital system?

Santa Clara County: Santa Clara County, California (CA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
SF: San Francisco County, California (CA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Thanks!

 

[gmclam]

Yes P25 means digital. I'm using a PSR-310 for analog and PSR-500 for digital. The GRE-made scanners are not that easy to find right now and are out of production. But still, I'd recommend you get the digital if you can afford it. Slowly channel by channel things are switching over. And some places are significantly digital.

 

[wildgoose007]

What's the main difference between the PSR-310 vs the PSR-300? Can they receive FM radio broadcast? (You know, NPR, local radio station, etc)

Almost got one and then realized the frequency coverage does not include FM radio. So just want to confirm this.

 

[Stealthguy05]

If you can find one, I recommend holding out for a P25 Phase II capable scanner. Santa Clara City, Sunnyvale DPS, and County Comm are launching a new phase 2 system at the end of the year.

 

[gmclam]

What's the main difference between the PSR-310 vs the PSR-300?

From a "radio" point of view, nothing. The '310 uses a new larger LCD with a white backlight. While the '300 is a bank-oriented scanner (10 banks of 100 channels each) the '310 is object-oriented and holds ~1800 objects. Each object can be a conventional frequency or element of a trunked radio system.

Can they receive FM radio broadcast? (You know, NPR, local radio station, etc)

No. I don't think GRE made any radios that receive FM broadcast and/or analog TV audio. Uniden has models which do that.

Almost got one and then realized the frequency coverage does not include FM radio. So just want to confirm this.

If that's what you need, then you won't want either the '310 or '300 (or other GRE-made radios).

 

[wildgoose007]

Ah interesting. I thought such feature would be a standard on scanners. I understand that eventually everything will be digital and encrypted, so worst comes to worst the scanner can still be used as an FM radio rather than an expensive brick.

I wonder if it's feasible to decode HDTV audio. A scanner with FM and TV audio decoding capability will be very interesting..

 

[gmclam]

I wonder if it's feasible to decode HDTV audio. A scanner with FM and TV audio decoding capability will be very interesting..

First off; scanners only scan when there is no signal. So the best use of a scanner is when you're monitoring signals which are not continuously broadcast.

Secondly, TV audio. It uses a different modulation scheme compared to what public safety uses, and a different coding scheme. ATSC (digital TV in the USA) is modulated 8VSB and MPEG(2) encoded, so it would require a specific IC just for that purpose. It's not really something I'd want to pay for in a digital scanner. There are dozens of other capabilities I would rather see the cost go toward.