For me it was having parents that had CB radios when they were first new, and they then wanted an eight channel crystal scanner with toggle switches to select the active channels to monitor. This was to keep tabs on a small towns fire department, where half the grown men in town were the volunteer fire department. From there it was constant upgrades to:CB radios, scanners, computer, etc.
First scanner I had was some desktop vacuum fluorescent Bearcat, computer was a Commodore Vic-20 and CB radios would have been some old VRC- Radio Shack special.
It was always nice to hear the real reports of what was happening and not the rumors and whatever the local "rag" newspaper decided to print. Then when cordless phones and cell phones became popular, I was hooked onto scanning for sure. That is when I bought the then new Radio Shack Pro-2006 and a copy of Bill Cheek's book.
