Apologies if this has been asked but I didn't see it as a sticky topic (other than the "odd/funny" topic) and nothing obvious came up in a search.
Anyhoo, general question: What's the most exciting/cool transmission or event you heard on a scanner?
Living in the Boston area, back in the pre-cell, pre encryptions, I did hear a lot of car chases and on-foot chases with exciting cops yelling into their radios in hot pursuit.
But the most incredible event I ever heard was the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. I was watching live news coverage of the cops surrounding the home with the boat where he was hiding while monitoring my scanner at the same time. The news commentators were about 5 minutes behind what was happening in the police conversations. They had everything set up as a non-encrypted conversation on non-trunked UHF frequencies. I was able to monitor the cops deciding when and how to approach the boat, their comments as they were approaching and entering, and finally his capture--which was transmitted via scanner more than 3 minutes before the news stations announced his capture.
On days like this, a scanner is really worth the money spent on it.
Anyhoo, general question: What's the most exciting/cool transmission or event you heard on a scanner?
Living in the Boston area, back in the pre-cell, pre encryptions, I did hear a lot of car chases and on-foot chases with exciting cops yelling into their radios in hot pursuit.
But the most incredible event I ever heard was the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. I was watching live news coverage of the cops surrounding the home with the boat where he was hiding while monitoring my scanner at the same time. The news commentators were about 5 minutes behind what was happening in the police conversations. They had everything set up as a non-encrypted conversation on non-trunked UHF frequencies. I was able to monitor the cops deciding when and how to approach the boat, their comments as they were approaching and entering, and finally his capture--which was transmitted via scanner more than 3 minutes before the news stations announced his capture.
On days like this, a scanner is really worth the money spent on it.