So, why do you scan?

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wtp

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one or two

if you carry one radio you are nosey
if you carry two radios you are very nosey

i was asked once,"why two radios"
i told him "two things could happen at once"
i didn't want to tell him that there was another in the truck !
 

DJ11DLN

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Like some others have posted in this thread, I guess I'm just nosy. Seriously, when my folks got their first Bearcat III back in the early '70s, it was an eye-opener in that so much stuff went on that never even made the news. Others have posted that things come out differently in the news than on the scanner...but I still hear a ton of stuff that I'd think newsworthy, yet you never see it mentioned in the local papers (our local TV news is a joke).

I find a scanner more interesting and entertaining than broadcast radio...I really like having mine with me when I'm driving. I don't find it distracting at all, and if I hear of something happening along my route, I can detour and both avoid the trouble and also not be adding to the burden of the responders on the scene. I run the audio from the headphone jack on my Pro-18 through a Scosche FM micro-transmitter into the car/pickup stereo so I get really good audio quality and my no-longer-young ears can understand things better.

Also I was a Reserve Deputy Sheriff for several years back in the '80s & '90s and have been a Volunteer FF for nearly 30 years, so I got used to being a small part of what was going on locally. Being able to hear the various agencies in my area gives me the feeling that I'm still in the LE part of the loop, I guess. I also have something to refer to when I have to occasionally jack up our County Dispatch because of the sometimes ridiculous delay between an officer reporting something needing FD attention and the dispatch actually going out...
 

FF153

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I scan because I am a firefighter as we as ems and I like being able to hear a CA develop in the next town over and then get to the fire house before the tones even drop! I also like listening when I know my friends are on duty because I can hear what calls they get and If they may need assistance.

Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk
 

jmp883

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I've always loved radio, of any type. I started scanning in 1982 when I was in my senior year of high school. At first I just listened to my local PD/FD/EMS but that wasn't so bad because we shared our frequencies with 5 other towns. It was always interesting! After high school I went to broadcasting school but because of what I learned there I never went into broadcasting. Instead, after a few years of being a party DJ I became an emergency services dispatcher for the town I grew up in.

In the mid 1990s I got my Technician-class amateur radio license, upgrading to General within the year.

I enjoy listening to everything. Aviation, railroads, emergency services...I enjoy it all. It's been 21 years behind the microphone and it hasn't even started to get boring yet :D
 

wbswetnam

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I like listening to the scanner because I am a radio geek! I have been one since high school (I'm also a 1982 high school grad). When I was a high school sophmore, my grandfather gave me his Bearcat III crystal-controlled scanner for Christmas (he had bought a new Bearcat 210 - I was so envious). I got the crystals for my local police and fire and state patrol, and I've been hooked ever since.
 

AZScanner

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I started listening as a teenager because at that time I was planning to apply to be a LASD deputy after high school. That didn't pan out (I was a bit of a wild kid and made a stupid mistake that pretty much killed that job opportunity, LOL - we'll just leave it at that) but the love of listening to the scanner stuck. I started showing up at hot calls just to watch, and then learned that if you bring a good camera to a good call and get some good footage you can make some money by selling said footage to the news. A stringer was born, and I still occasionally chase calls (and bring my camera along) to this day.

-AZ
 

poltergeisty

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Last time I brought a camera to a fire I got a call from the fire Marshall the next day. That was after police made me take everything out of my pockets and give them my info. Won't do it again unless I have a press pass.
 
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