You Know You are Old Scanner Listener When.....

[w2xq]

Well, my first police-fire-emergency services receiver was c.1965. Living inn Bucks County, PA, using a Lafayette HA-50A

with a short wire I could hear MO and IA state police on c.44 Mc. Once I listened in on a car chase as a bank robber crossed the Mississippi River. And I listened to the US Secret Service as Nixon campaigned in the area. I timed it right to be the first at a scheduled nearby shopping center, got to shake Nixon's hand. What was disturbing? Virtually all of the WHCA codes were unchanged from those within the best-seller book "The Death of a President" (the JFK assasination) by William Manchester (I think).

 

[br0adband]

You know you're an old scanner listen when:

you hear a report on some law enforcement frequency of "crystal" being found in a location and all that comes to mind is when you were younger and you knew all the frequencies of your local PD/FD/etc off the top of your head because the scanners in those days worked with crystals per frequency...

And for the record, I remember the original 3 frequencies - just three - that my hometown used for all Police, Fire, EMS, and even some of the city government work too: 460.025 Ch 1, 460.100 Ch 2, 460.300 Ch 3. They didn't get anything new till except for a few more frequencies added over the years until they were one of the first cities that Motorola set up with their original 800 MHz trunking systems and from what I gather my hometown is still using that system to this day.

Yeah, I'm old, like many of us, that's how it goes.

 

[KK4JUG]

And for the record, I remember the original 3 frequencies - just three - that my hometown used for all Police, Fire, EMS, and even some of the city government work too: 460.025 Ch 1, 460.100 Ch 2, 460.300 Ch 3. They didn't get anything new till except for a few more frequencies added over the years until they were one of the first cities that Motorola set up with their original 800 MHz trunking systems and from what I gather my hometown is still using that system to this day.

Yeah, I'm old, like many of us, that's how it goes.

You were uptown. We only had 2 VHF channels: 159.09 and 159.21, The FD had one: 154.85 (I think). And, there were dead spots all over town. It's P25 Phase II now and pretty dependable.

 

[mm]

YOU KNOW YOUR AN OLD OLD OLD SCANNER LISTENER; When you still call any cops portable radio a 'PREP' and you still miss that old single channel mechanically tuned POLICE receiver you started with at 10 years old in the late 1960's.

As I remember, the term 'Prep' was DPD'S over the air name for their portables.

Coming from Detroit and listening to DPD SINCE late 1960's, starting with an ancient Montgomery Wards 1 channel pseudo wideband FM RECEIVER that also had a police band on it which was basically a single drum dial tuned channel in the the 150 -174 MHZ range for PD/FIRE.

no LEDS either, just the old drum and string mechanical tuning dial that took patience to find the channel you wanted to listen to.

If you set it just right you could copy 2 or 3 close spaced PD/FIRE/EMS channels at 1 dial setting.

MY Next real scanner was a 23 channel CB THAT also had a crystal controlled PD/FIRE scanner built in to it although I don't remember the Mfg nor model it was one cool radio, the scanner half certainly got more use than the cb did.

Next in the early 70'S was a Regency ACT-10, which was space aged tech for me.

Then after these 3 came an assortment of other fancy pants LCD multi frequency scanners but still the old Monkey Wards AM/FM BROADCAST RADIO with the single channel PD/FIRE Receiver started it all.

 

[LEH]

You've been scanning a while when you recall one of the earliest 'programmable' scanners used a modified punch card to program frequencies.

Midland, Fanon, and Regency were well known brands.

Being thrilled to find a multi band scanner with 8 channels. I could finally listen to our city FD on UHF.

Finding a receiver, Regency I think, that had 2 VHF crystal slots and tuning knob that went from around 148-174 MHz. I could tune in the maintenance net on the base where I was stationed, if I wasn't too far away.

Rushing out to buy a Bearcat 100 handheld programmable scanner with 16 channels.

 

[svrstorm]

I started with a RadioShack patrolman 4 in McAllister,Oklahoma. What’s neat is the police are still on the same frequency of 155.715

 

[appalling_hauling]

What I loved was going to Wal Mart and programming the scanners on display with the frequencies of the store managers walkie talkies. They got so frustrated they took the units off display.

 

[sallen07]

still on the same frequency

Well I'm a youngster compared to some of you but I too got started when I was 12, or maybe a bit younger. My grandfather was an insurance salesman and had an office attached to his house, and in his office he had a 8 (I think) channel crystal scanner that was hooked up to a speaker so it could be heard throughout the main floor of the house. Down in the basement (the TV room) he had a Bearcat 210. He and my grandmother used to go visit my aunts in California once or twice a year and he would bring the 210 for me to "babysit" while he was away. I can remember laying in bed at night with the scanner on a TV table next to me!

The Fire and EMS channels here are the same as they were back then, although the county is moving to a 800 MHz TRS.

Fast-forward 40 years to last November. We spent Thanksgiving with my parents, and I brought a couple scanners with me (of course). Before I left I said to my dad, "Hey, would you like me to leave this one here for you to listen to?"

My Mom passed away a couple weeks later, and every Sunday night when I talk to my dad on the phone (as I have done since I went away to college) I can hear that scanner in the background.

Thanks, Grandpa.

 

[KX0Z]

49 meg cordless phones. Heard all sorts off things on them..

 

[appalling_hauling]

49 meg cordless phones. Heard all sorts off things on them..

Uh huh. Its like my old neighbors didn't have a clue. I heard too much information.

 

[appalling_hauling]

I loved listening to cell phone traffic too. My buddy once heard me and my boss talking while I was just above the land between the lakes in Kentucky so he recorded it and played it back to me later. Nothing interesting but he thought I would find it interesting.
The last phone conversations I heard were more alarming than anything else. A tornado had just tore through Providence KY..And people were driving around assessing damage. Whole houses were gone.
I live right by a cell tower but alas the only time close call activates its that pesky radio tower on the other side of me. Why cant the cell tower blow out my speakers like the broadcast radio channels on that tower ?

 

[iscanvnc2]

I too go back to the days of what I call “manual” scanning; the turning the tuning-knob-dial-string method where you have to twiddle the knob back-and-forth near where the dial indicated the frequency should be & hear the desired station. You couldn’t go by the dial. For stations that rarely transmitted, this could be awhile. Then there was drift. Because the early scanners were tube, the tuned frequency would drift as they warmed up necessitating more twiddling. Next day, start over. These devices were known as receivers.

After graduating from college in 1964 I became volunteer dispatcher for the Del Mar,CA FD (KAY234 46.46 MHz) and bought a Lafayette 30-50 MHz This receiver also provided coverage of the San Diego County SO & CHP.

In 1966, I took a job in Ventura County (where I still reside) which necessitated purchase of a Monitoradio 150-175 receiver. My next buy was a Lafayette mobile 150-175 receiver for my car.

My first “real” scanner was a Robyn 8-crystal 150-175 with a small lamp & colored plastic covers for each channel. Quite a colorful display as it scanned in the dark at night!

My first handheld was a 4-crystal 150-175 Radio Shack.

Jumping to the present I have a Radio Shack PRO-2048 & Uniden 396T, 996T, 996XT.

 

[TailGator911]

Way back when, if you wanted to know what was REALLY going on in your neighborhood you would have one scanner on search mode in the 46-49mhz band - cordless phones and baby monitors, yup. The things we heard...

 

[CrabbyMilton]

I still remember monitoring the very old school mobile phone range in the 152mhz range. Also, the pagers in the 152mhz range as well as 454mhz.
My first scanner was a BEARCAT 210XLT in 1980. only 10 channels and no aircraft band. I love my current UNIDEN 436HP but man did I have fun with that first one.

 

[kruser]

49 meg cordless phones. Heard all sorts off things on them..

My first cordless phone had no dial pad in the handset and used a frequency close to 1.7 MHz for one side of the communication with the base. The base transmitted on the 1.7xxx MHz frequency while the handset transmitted on one of the 49.xxx frequencies.
I used to tune around the 1.7 MHz area and sure enough, when the band was open, I could hear several cordless phone signals from far away.

I modded my handset and installed a DTMF keypad in it so I could use it for making calls. It was an old model that RadioShack sold back in the day.

 

[KevinC]

You know you're old when you see someone else's response and you think "that's not old, here's what's old...".

Oh yeah, get off my lawn!

 

[trentbob]

You know you're old when you see someone else's response and you think "that's not old, here's what's old...".

Oh yeah, get off my lawn!

Oh yeah, get off my lawn!... Pretty funny! LMAO.

 

[ladn]

You know you're an old scanner listener when you remember wishing your scanner covered the "forbidden band" (Milair UHF) and you thought anything above 460 MHz was "exotic".

 

[CrabbyMilton]

Or when a birdie would pop up on one of the government bands, you thought at first that the transmission was coming from some super secret bunker someplace.

 

[darkness975]

This thread is awesome, but also depressing.

I didn't live through those times as I am much younger than a lot here but I wish I had. Scanning (and life overall) was much simpler back then.

Every day I listen to my units I have this feeling of dread that it will be my last ...