Scanning Labrador

[02_grandam]

Hey guys,

Making a move to Labrador (Chruchill Falls specifically) within the next month. Since it's an isolated spot, and I'll have some extra money to spend, I'm going to be going deeper into my scanning hobby. Unfortunatly, as I start in a contract position, I'll be living in a staff apartment so I can't run an outside antenna. Any comments on what scanner to get? I'd like to get something P25 capable as I assume they're on that system up there. Wouldn't mind hitting some plane frequencies ethier. Thanks,

Hodder

 

[tassie]

Scanning in Labarador

There should be lots of traffic on the air bands and lots of places on the internet to see what is being used.
and what area they cover.
Tassie

 

[02_grandam]

What's everyones thoughts on the HomePatrol from Uniden? It seems simple as hell to program, but will it actually scan the bands like the old scanners?

EDIT: Also looking at the GRE Pro-163, anyone have the pros and cons of each?

 

[02_grandam]

Still fairly quiet!

My thoughts on the Home Patrol have dropped. I'll have some more time on my hands so I wouldn't mind something that takes a bit more than 3 minutes to set up! haha

Any suggestions guys? I'd like to be able to listen in on P25 if possible, but it's not a must. I'd have a hell of a time finding codes anyways I'd predict.

 

[Jay911]

If you have the funds, get the HP. You can set it up to scan/search any part of the radio spectrum, and better yet than normal scanners, you can actually log them both to a file and to audio clips with the Discovery Mode function.

Imagine telling your scanner to "listen to 137 to 174 MHz, record everything (until I've heard x number of seconds, then lock out the channel), and save it all to the memory card". I can do that with my HP all day long, and you can set it for any chunk of spectrum the scanner can pick up. It also won't hang up "forever" on things like data channels, birdies, etc., because you can limit it to a certain amount of time. Mine is set to 180 seconds - once I've heard 3 minutes' worth of sound on a certain frequency (either in a bunch of little clips that add up to 180 seconds, or one long clip), I better be able to figure out what it is.
Note: Discovery mode, if I recall correctly, requires you to purchase the "Extreme Upgrade" which is another $100 over the cost of the scanner.

The scanner will also do P25 decode, if they're on the new trunk system. You can either take the programming stored in it (taken directly from the RadioReference database), or program up the system in a custom format in your own "Favorites list".