scanners and amateurs

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scannersnstuff

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i have what i think is an interesting question <at least to me>. how many amateurs actually use scanner's as part of their shack's ?. how many amateur's don't incorporate scanner's into their shack's,and use their ham gear as part of scanning public safety and other frequencies ?. what's the general opinion, do amateur radio's beat scanner's as scanner's ?. happy holiday's. happy scanning & hamming.
 
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zz0468

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I only have one scanner (!), an ancient Pro-2020 which is almost exclusively used to listen to ham traffic. Not so much because it performs better, but since I almost exclusively use commercial radios on the ham bands, I need SOMETHING that's frequency agile for occasional casual listening.
 

canav844

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I use the 996t for all sorts of trunked stuff, and for fast finding of PL tones. And usually the ham radios are tied up on HAM chatter so I'll listen to anything else (planes, public safety business etc) on the scanner, as scanning is what I got into first.
 

kc2rgw

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I've got multiple scanners. I scan repeaters with ham gear but public safety and anything else with the dedicated scanners. They are generally lots faster and have more scan specific features than ham equipment.

My Yaesu VX7R actually makes for a decent scanner as does my FT7800. They have decent memory grouping options and reasonable speed.
 

RadioDaze

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A generalization - hams enjoy radios. Many hams like all kinds of radios and related electronics. Some hams were drawn in initially because of shortwave and/or scanning. II think monitoring public safety sort of goes hand-in-hand with Amateur Radio. I would guess that a lot of hams look at some of their ham equipment and wish that they could find scanners as well-built and full-featured.

My Yaesu FT-60R vastly exceeds my expectations as a scanner - much more competent than my old Icom IC-W2A that I let go of almost 15 years ago. If the FT-60R had trunking it would be that much better, and if it had P25, it would be perfect.

I was in HRO today picking up a mag mount, and it was like a candy store. All the rigs are so appealing. They are like puppies - you want to take all of them home with you.
 

llucas

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Scanners

I use multiple scanners to listen to the traffic in the Tri-State area. I got started in the world of scanning and shortwave. The ham radio is used to ham chatter SSTV and PSK.
 

gewecke

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A uniden 996xt and 780xlt take care of most of the scanning at home,while a yaesu vx-5r doubles as a scanner while mobile. Transmitting is usually done on commercial equip.at home and at work.
N9ZAS
 

MeddleMan

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Drop in the bucket...

I like to play with most anything wireless. Most of them I find second-hand (third- or more) at the local flea-market. Anything will do, if I can scan it. Ham and scanners are nicely interchangeable. Still dabble in CB, MURS, FURS, etc. Some of this stuff comes in free. So, if it glows, I play with it. If not, it goes in the box for later.
 

N4DES

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I have 2 scanners in my shack. One is an old RS Pro-2022 that I use to monitor the local repeaters, to include the ones I'm responsible for and the other is a Uniden BC780 to monitor 813A which will be replaced very soon with a BCT15X once I take it out of the box and program it.
 

K1MIZ

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I have 2 scanners in my shack, plus most of my HAM gear also is used to monitor public safety. In my mobile, I run a GRE PSR600 for all the trunking systems I listen to along w the digital coms I need to monitor while on the road that the HAM gear cant pick up. I also utilize my FT60 to monitor local PDs in the town I work in while I am not in the mobile.

73s
 
D

DaveNF2G

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I own 2 ham radios and 9 scanners. The scanner-to-ham ratio in my shack has always been very high, but then, how many radios can one transmit on at the same time?

I have used ham rigs as scanners, but I practically never use a scanner to listen to hams.
 

APTN

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Me

I've got CB and ham transceivers, and a scanner. Why not have them all ? More toys to play with, right ?:D
 

newsphotog

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I am with NF2G on this one too. Scanners have always outnumbered ham radios. I was scanning waaaaayyyyyy before I got my ham ticket.

It's especially worth noting that I got even deeper into scanning after I got my ham ticket. Funny how that works.
 

MeddleMan

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Ahem!

Furs??:lol: I'm not gonna ask!
N9ZAS

What I meant to say, was Family Radio service, as you already know. I don't want to confuse anyone about piracy, as before, if I had mentioned dabbling in GMRS/FRS. I do dabble in FRS,mainly for teaching the kids how to use a "radio." Lately, we have been using MURS to involve others in training, since I own more of those Than FRS.
 

texasemt13

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I have more scanners than rigs (7 to 1), but I started out as a scanhead then moved to ham radio. I could see it becoming more leveled out, but I expect to keep more scanners than amateur rigs.

As others posted I use my scanner for quick finding of unknown tones on amateur frequencies but never exclusively listen to hams on my scanner. I really enjoy listening to public safety.

I do use my FT7900 as a scanner though. My only rig, right now, is my mobile rig which has a much better antenna than my PSR500 (drilled on top of my truck compared to the Diamond RH77CA inside my cab). So I'll use my 2m/70cm dual band Diamond antenna on my FT7900 to scan analog VHF and amateur repeaters in the area. Works very well and as long as your scan list isn't too long you'll catch the beginning of the transmissions (list < 50 channels).

Looking back though, I should start getting into commercial radios more... I like the ones I have used (thanks to another ham friend of mine who has more commercial radios than scanners, and more scanners than amateur rigs). Amateur P25 can't be beat.
 
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