I live in Brooklyn Park, MN and would like to get a scanner to listen primarily to EMS frequencies....North, HCMC, Allina, etc. Do I need to get a scanner with digital and trunking capabilities?
Thanks...........
Welcome to RadioReference, Heizwilli
These appear to be using talkgroups on the
ARMER trunked system. To listen to that radio traffic, yes, you would ned a digital trunk tracking scanner.
Your potential choices, in no specific order, would include:
GRE:
PSR-500 (handheld) or
PSR-600 (base/mobile)
Radio Shack sells very slightly different versions of the two above, made for them by GRE as the
Pro-106 (handheld) and
Pro-197 (base/mobile).
Uniden:
BCD396XT (handheld) or
BCD996XT (base/mobile)
Two other scanners that would work would be GRE's
PSR-800, a handheld, or Uniden's
Home Patrol. (The Home Patrol is not a true handheld, in that it does not come with a belt clip or carrying strap. It does, however, run on batteries, and comes with both an ac & dc power adapter.)
Both the PSR-800 & Home Patrol have the entire RadioReference database loaded in them on a memory card, with weekly updates included. You select your area, and the channels, or talkgroup types desired, via menu options to create scan lists (PSR-800) or Favorites lists (Home Patrol), and the scanner does the rest for you.
You might also drop down to the
Minnesota forum to get a more localized answer on which scanner seems to work best for your area.
