What has changed since you started in the hobby?

[VA3ADP]

So next April will be 10 years since I started the scanning hobby. When I first started my first scanner was GRE PSR 800. Pretty much everything was monitorable, except TRBO started to dominate the market. Never really expected to see a DMR capable scanner. In my area pretty much everything was in the clear with the exception of RCMP and and few police serives. Everybody was pretty much running analog trunking systems, and then about 6 years ago the encryption came along. Mind you, most fire and EMS communications are still in the clear but much of LE in my area is ENCRYPTED. What has changed since you started in the Hobby?

 

[rk911]

it's gotten much more expensive! and complicated.

 

[w2lie]

A lot has changed since I started in the hobby, but I recently spoke on my podcast what has changed in the last decade of scanning and where I think the next 10 years will go.

If you want to take a listen, here is a link: Predictions for the Next Decade in Scanning

Somethings I noted that changed in the last 10 years were:

• Database style radios such as the HP1, HP2, and PRO-18, TRX-1 and TRX-2 where introduced
• P25 Trunking
• DMR
• NXDN
• SDR
• Roll your own with Raspberry Pis and OP25

This isn't the full list, but was was fun to look back at the last 10 years and remember all that changed in the hobby.

 

[KK4JUG]

I'm old and it's a whole new industry. From tuning to crystals to synthesis, from analog to digital, from car-to-car to computer-driven systems, from boat-anchor sized portables to hide-it-in-your-watch pocket multi-channel transceivers. And that's just the tip of the iceberg,

 

[prcguy]

It went from tubes to transistors.

 

[chill30240]

I miss my Bearcat III. Sooo much simpler.

 

[rock2761]

My first use of scanners was in 1978. My first scanner was an SBE OptiScan. you had a programming card and a book. You programmed the card according to the frequency by peeling off stickers in columns. Then on to Uniden, (BearCat I believe in those days). Just enter the frequency and hit enter and you were good to go. Currently BCD996P2 and ARC-XT and sometimes easy and sometime not so much.

 

[kb7gjy]

Back in my day.......

Crystals
Switches to turn on and off said crystals
Synthesized Radios
Tubes
Public safety repeaters that were on different PL for the area that was covered
Public safety repeaters, in a small shack on a high point with the antenna mounted on a reused power pole.
GE Master series
Police Call

(I still have one of these in my shack)
To data, MDCs, Programming changing for easy to hard to ok, and everywhere between.
Now, well, you can see it. computers, updated databases nationwide weekly
Streaming
The list goes on and on.

Sadly, what I miss the most (Not necessarily here but in general), people being polite and helpful. Yes, we had jerks, but they seem a lot more prevalent now.

 

[a417]

Al Gore's World-Wide-Web Internet.

 

[K7MFC]

Police Call

Yeah that brings me back! I loved paging through the annual Police Call and confirming frequencies I had found while scanning, and reprogramming my radios with the latest and greatest info. Internet makes all that much easier now, that's for sure.

 

[belvdr]

I miss the evening fire tone tests.

 

[vagrant]

The ability to use/display alphanumeric characters for memory names, channel banks, etc.

 

[WA9BD]

Going to Radio Shack and buying crystals for my Regency.

 

[jlh]

Everything. Started about 1971 with a Realistic Patrolman receiver.

 

[eyes00only]

For me it went from fun to just about impossible. Can't even listen to my firetruck roll down the street anymore

 

[KK4JUG]

For me it went from fun to just about impossible. Can't even listen to my firetruck roll down the street anymore

It was kinda nice, wasn't it. Put the crystal in and adjust the volume (and maybe the squelch). Voilà, there it was.

 

[zerosix]

I got infected with this scannervirus around 20 years ago when I was still a kid. Back then almost everything could be listened to on a scanner, the only limitation was the technology I had when growing up, i didn’t have the very expensive computer models. Unfortunately police, fire, and other services have been going digital and heavily encrypted between 2002 and 2007.. So I envy many of you that live in a country like the US where there is still many options available to fully enjoy this hobby. Here in the Netherlands, two way radio users have been declining for years in favor of 4G/LTE systems or mobile phones.

 

[ScanYak]

Bearcat invented a scanner.

 

[W8RMH]

Everything. Started about 1971 with a Realistic Patrolman receiver.

My first too. It had something new called a Squelch Control. I had a '67 Chevelle Convertible. I would sit it on the passenger seat, extend the antenna and hook the end to a pin in the convertible top's steel frame which greatly increased receiving range (low band). My next radio was a Regency 8 channel crystal scanner, modern technology.

 

[edweirdFL]

Many things have changed since I started in 1981 with a Regency Touch K100. Things were mostly VHF hi and low band bases with some UHF repeaters in metro areas. There used to be a LOT of paging transmitters.