Which state has the least encryption, and the fewest radio systems or the simplest radio systems?
California, because of its physical size and large population, is a diverse and fertile ground for scanning.
Encryption is a major and growing obstacle, but there is an abundance of monitorable radio traffic thruought the radio spectrum, depending on listeners' interests, equipment, technical sophistication and location.
I live in the Los Angeles area. My home is near the foothills of the Angeles National Forest and I work on a college campus near downtown LA. I can easily monitor LA City and County FDs, LAPD, CHP systems. The USFS (ANF) has a lot of radio traffic. The LA Co. Sheriff (RICS) and a number of municipal systems that subscribe to the ICI trunked system have gone encrypted.
We have two major airports (LAX and BUR) plus a lot of commuter and general aviation airports (VNY, WHP, SMO come to mind) so there's lots of both civilian and military air traffic. There are two major seaports (LA Harbor and the Port of Long Beach) and hundreds of miles of coast line near LA for those interested in marine-related radio traffic. LA is also a major rail center generating a considerable amount of radio traffic. And our large utility companies (LADWP, Edison, SoCal Gas) are monitorable for those so inclined.
There are a number of three letter Federal agencies in the LA area, but most of the interesting traffic has gone encrypted.
Then there's the all the commercial systems and news media radio traffic. Some is encrypted, but a lot isn't.
Lastly, there's ham radio. There's a plethora of repeaters and linked systems using analog and digital modes. Traffic volume is down from what it was 30 years ago, but there's still quite a lot from which to pick and choose.
I don't travel to most other areas of the state very much, and when I do, I usually just monitor CHP and maybe some fire/law interop plus ham radio. But one outlying area I do visit with some regularity is the Owens Valley/Eastern California.
For those unfamiliar with California, Eastern California extends roughly from Mojave northward about 300 miles along the eastern slopes of the Sierras. The area is mostly rural (sometimes desolate) with a few light urban areas. MRA is absorbing much of the law and municipal radio traffic into their encrypted trunk system. A lot of easy to monitor local/regional fire systems and some utility / commercial systems remain along with USFS, BLM and NPS. R2508 and other MOA's connected with Edwards AFB, China Lake NAWS, Nellis AFB and the infamous Area 51, offer a considerable amount of MilAir radio traffic.
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