Since my county and the neighboring one went dark on law enforcement. I switch things up from time to time. Fire/EMS is always on, our local public transit system has their own police department that is still in the clear and that gets interesting. Mostly quality of life issues. Railroad and aircraft round out the daily list.
When you can't listen to law enforcement, what do you listen to?
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I'm pretty blessed. The police main dispatch talkgroups are clear, though many others are encrypted for reasons I understand. Fire is wide open and is interesting. Railroads and aviation are still available, but frankly can be boring.
I'd say if encryption got too tight, it might be time for the political process to be used. First pressure elected officials to mandate some happy medium. If that doesn't work get yourself on the ballot as a pro transparency candidate.
I'd say if encryption got too tight, it might be time for the political process to be used. First pressure elected officials to mandate some happy medium. If that doesn't work get yourself on the ballot as a pro transparency candidate.
Yeah--even with the presence of non-encrypted chatter most of the juicy stuff went out by VDT...
Some TV stations use VHF links to the remote reporters, and/or helicopters, so you can hear things going on that way. Look under the media section of the database, for your county. (In the Detroit area, channel 2 used to have their own helicopter, and they would give a lot of chatter to the studio. Plus they would have the live audio from the studio, during newscasts, for the field reporters to know when to start talking.)
I second checking out the local commercial lease systems, owned by the local radio shops. There can be a lot on those systems.
I second checking out the local commercial lease systems, owned by the local radio shops. There can be a lot on those systems.
Cognomen
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In addition to law enforcement, I listen to whatever my antennas can grab out of the air, mostly all at the same time, from local and nearby jurisdictions. I live in a high location, so I have a good-sized coverage area. Analog, DMR, NXDN, P25, conventional, trunked, various bands.
Aero - unallocated airspace ch, air search and rescue, local light-plane flight corridors, military.
Airports - tower and ground traffic, airport fire dept, airport security, the rare crash.
Amateur - local and linked repeaters/systems.
Ambulance - emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, disasters, air-to-ground with rescue crews and hospitals.
Emergency Preparedness - Regional emergency repeaters and simplex, for earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.
Coast Guard - marine search and rescue, assist and distress calls, patrols.
Electric Utility - power line repair during/after storms and power outages.
Environment - oil-spill clean-up, pollution patrol (via aerial surveillance).
Fire - fires, motor vehicle accidents, high-angle rescues, swift-water rescues, disasters.
Fisheries - surveillance, enforcement.
Forestry - wilderness patrols, wildfire fighting, interface fires.
HF - Amateur, shortwave, whatever I can find.
Highways - traffic and road conditions, snow-plow activity.
Industry - large mines and other industrial entities.
News Media - air-to-ground and other channels.
Public Works - snow-plow activity, bylaw enforcement.
Prisons - general traffic, occasional disturbances.
Search and Rescue - searches, wilderness vehicle extrication calls in areas not covered by city fire depts, heavy urban search and rescue.
Security - hospitals, malls, large infrastructure projects.
Ski hills - ski patrol, search and rescue.
Tow trucks - monitor dispatches for locations of motor vehicle accidents (to avoid).
Trucking - highway chatter for traffic and road conditions, logging roads.
There are other entities of course. Not everything gets published on the Internet, so that we can continue to monitor them without them getting wise to the fact.
Aero - unallocated airspace ch, air search and rescue, local light-plane flight corridors, military.
Airports - tower and ground traffic, airport fire dept, airport security, the rare crash.
Amateur - local and linked repeaters/systems.
Ambulance - emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, disasters, air-to-ground with rescue crews and hospitals.
Emergency Preparedness - Regional emergency repeaters and simplex, for earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.
Coast Guard - marine search and rescue, assist and distress calls, patrols.
Electric Utility - power line repair during/after storms and power outages.
Environment - oil-spill clean-up, pollution patrol (via aerial surveillance).
Fire - fires, motor vehicle accidents, high-angle rescues, swift-water rescues, disasters.
Fisheries - surveillance, enforcement.
Forestry - wilderness patrols, wildfire fighting, interface fires.
HF - Amateur, shortwave, whatever I can find.
Highways - traffic and road conditions, snow-plow activity.
Industry - large mines and other industrial entities.
News Media - air-to-ground and other channels.
Public Works - snow-plow activity, bylaw enforcement.
Prisons - general traffic, occasional disturbances.
Search and Rescue - searches, wilderness vehicle extrication calls in areas not covered by city fire depts, heavy urban search and rescue.
Security - hospitals, malls, large infrastructure projects.
Ski hills - ski patrol, search and rescue.
Tow trucks - monitor dispatches for locations of motor vehicle accidents (to avoid).
Trucking - highway chatter for traffic and road conditions, logging roads.
There are other entities of course. Not everything gets published on the Internet, so that we can continue to monitor them without them getting wise to the fact.
One of the more entertaining communications I enjoy is hotel/motel and/or shopping mall security. Especially the former when they don't realize their communications can be monitored and make comments about the guests (I'll leave the rest to your imagination).
I've done that a bit here in the Chicago area--most of the time it can be interesting, although when things get slow they'll repeat the audio from the television channel and I certainly don't need to hear a commercial about hemeroid cream when I'm looking for news...
CrabbyMilton
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Like everyone said in one way or another, there are all kinds of things to monitor. Just put in in search and see what you find.
I monitor anything & everything (within reason). When my current county of residence's LE was "in the clear" (up until last year), it accounted for only a tiny portion of my normal listening routines. Most of the fun for me is visiting an area I don't frequent often (or have never been) and just tuning around to hear what I can hear. Mundane or not it's still fascinating to hear all that is out there over the airwaves
ka3jjz
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I'm kinda surprised only 1 person mentioned Milcom and even that only in passing. Here in the DC area, it's a veritable hotbed of activity
Mike
Mike
Being in Orange county Ca. and both the police and fire being encrypted (can listen to fire on broadcastify), I have found city government channels helpful. With the protests in Huntington beach, lifeguard channels would give me bits of information. Statewide Interop channels are also good. Not necessarily PD tac channels. Anaheim traffic control would get updates if protesters were coming their way.
Other than public safety, I have listened to business, shopping malls, hotel's. I've even started to learn about local school district frequencies. News media can give you a heads up on breaking news before they can get it on the air. Good way to find out about pursuits. Air to air frequencies can be useful. If the power goes out, Edison can give you information once they get on scene. If you are close to an airport, airline company channels can be good during busy travel times.
Don't rely on just police and fire to get the information, there is a slew of other radios you can listen to.
Other than public safety, I have listened to business, shopping malls, hotel's. I've even started to learn about local school district frequencies. News media can give you a heads up on breaking news before they can get it on the air. Good way to find out about pursuits. Air to air frequencies can be useful. If the power goes out, Edison can give you information once they get on scene. If you are close to an airport, airline company channels can be good during busy travel times.
Don't rely on just police and fire to get the information, there is a slew of other radios you can listen to.
DJ11DLN
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My primary focus is LE/FD/EMS traffic and thankfully most of that is in the clear where I live, for the time being anyway. If it ever went dark I would probably put more focus on commercial and rail traffic. I'm nowhere close to an AF or ANG base so there's only the occasional squawk on those bands. The local school bus freq is good for a lot of laughs.
I'd still be scanning but nowhere near as actively as I am now.
I'd still be scanning but nowhere near as actively as I am now.
CrabbyMilton
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Rail and air traffic may not be exciting but you can tell in the case of air if a plane is close even though it may be 30k feet. They sound like they could be in the same room.
Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback. I'm finding a lot of interesting things to listen to over the past few days. I caught a missing person's search at a national park. There was a gun shot injury at a nearby military base. I can monitor highway patrol but they speak in their own language and I honestly can't tell what the heck they are talking about most of the time 
The fire frequencies have been loaded with news about accidents and injuries and is pretty busy all day long. A lot of the information on the fire frequencies is quite depressing but listening in give me so much respect for the work they do day in and out.
The fire frequencies have been loaded with news about accidents and injuries and is pretty busy all day long. A lot of the information on the fire frequencies is quite depressing but listening in give me so much respect for the work they do day in and out.
I do a lot of searching, especially in Business Bands and Feds. What I haven't seen mentioned here, that I really like listening to are the electric utilities. The methods and strict measures taken to reset failed circuits and what not is fascinating.
The largest around is National Grid, which uses a Passport LTR system, which isn't "trunk trackable" but can be listened to annoyingly sometimes conventionally. The other, Eversource, is all DMR. Plus I have a dozen or so municipally run electric utilities that are either analog or DMR.
The largest around is National Grid, which uses a Passport LTR system, which isn't "trunk trackable" but can be listened to annoyingly sometimes conventionally. The other, Eversource, is all DMR. Plus I have a dozen or so municipally run electric utilities that are either analog or DMR.
CrabbyMilton
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I find that large airport operations TG's/frequencies/channels are interesting. Those tend to be jumping when the POTUS or VPOTUS visits. During the winter, snow removal operations are almost nonstop. In severe weather, they are often first alert for nearby lightning strikes or approaching thunderstorms.
Around here, golf courses abound. The DB has a lot of course frequencies.
Unless one is on the course and looking for the beer cart, I fail to understand why golf course listening is popular.
Unless one is on the course and looking for the beer cart, I fail to understand why golf course listening is popular.
Somewhere in the garage, I still have a Pioneer SuperTuner II for that, but I don't play golf.
Outside of police I enjoy listening to aviation, everything from jets to small general aviation. I've always been into flight simming so I can understand a lot of the jargon with ease.
Trying to pick up distant signals of any variety is also fun, which leads to testing different antennas and setups.
Lately I've been looking into what can be heard from space, like the ISS. I'm just starting to toy with that.
Nothing really tops the real time information you get from listening to the police and fire though, especially in your own town.
Trying to pick up distant signals of any variety is also fun, which leads to testing different antennas and setups.
Lately I've been looking into what can be heard from space, like the ISS. I'm just starting to toy with that.
Nothing really tops the real time information you get from listening to the police and fire though, especially in your own town.
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