radios/scanners

[jrscvfs]

hi im jonathan and im new to the site. i have been a jr firefighter/explorer for a couple of months now. i asked my cpt what do i do about radios/scanners. he said that our county does not supply and for me to buy one. im lookin for a portable radio/scanner that will work. if u can give me some radio names or scanner names ide be more than thankful!

[Res343cue]

Well we can't help you find a radio without knowing what area you are in so we can look up the radio system....

VHF? UHF? 800 Meg? Conventional? Trunked? Digital? P25?

[SWLAFireDawg]

Would that information be readily available? I would be interested in one also.

[AFDExplorer]

Well............

It all depends on what you need,

how many channels, capabilities, fire tones outs, batt tones out options, Quik Call II, DTMF, MDC-1200, trunking and many other things that apply. You may want to join Radioreference.com and ask the question.

If you need to know a general radio you could, i would need to know your freqs, how many channels, and other needs like fire tones out, etc. It could be a motorola, kenwood, icom, or many others. I would personally recommend Motorola, but thats my choice. Thier customer is not that great, but the quality is very very good.

Here is a sample of what they have.
http://www.motorola.com/governmentan..._803i/id_1388i

It is a great site for radio communications, and many people there are firefighters / police officers.

[NWOhio157]

hi im jonathan and im new to the site. i have been a jr firefighter/explorer for a couple of months now. i asked my cpt what do i do about radios/scanners. he said that our county does not supply and for me to buy one. im lookin for a portable radio/scanner that will work. if u can give me some radio names or scanner names ide be more than thankful!

This goes to SWLA also...

What's your FD's frequency?
If it's in the 800s, you want a trunked scanner. If it's in the 50s-100s you can get by with a regular one.

I have a Uniden Bearcat BC350A. It's a 29.0 MHz through 512 MHz base scanner and comes with stuff to mount it in a car. I got it on Ebay for $65. I was unable to attempt a purchase on Uniden's website. Must not be manufactured anymore.

There's a newer model of the Uniden Bearcat.(BC350C). It runs $99.99 new. It's 800 MHz (Which I believe is trunking).

BC350C= http://www.unidendirect.com/itemdeta...?item=B-BC350C

[jrscvfs]

i will ask our cpt. im illiterate in that!!!!!!!!

[SWLAFireDawg]

Yeah, I'll have to get with the Chief or 911 to determine the frequency.

[nosrednanoraa]

Hey bud. If you tell me what county/city/state your in, I'm pretty sure I can help you out. It's pretty easy to find frequencies online. Once I know that, I'll tell you some good scanners to use.

[AFDExplorer]

Very true but not right as he might need a certain freq, and it might be uhf or vhf, and then you need a dual band etc.

Hey bud. If you tell me what county/city/state your in, I'm pretty sure I can help you out. It's pretty easy to find frequencies online. Once I know that, I'll tell you some good scanners to use.

[nosrednanoraa]

Very true but not right as he might need a certain freq, and it might be uhf or vhf, and then you need a dual band etc.

I'm pretty sure that I can help him out if he tells me. If he lives in a smaller town with a volunteer dept. that's paged out with pagers, there's a pretty good chance a simple scanner will do the trick. most scanners will cover these paging systems. If he wants to listen to a larger city with a more advanced system, he might need a trunked scanner. If his city is really fancy, he'll have to get one that covers the APCO systems. AFD, you mention he might need a certain frequency. Thankfully, scanners cover many frequencies so it shouldn't be a problem.

[jrscvfs]

i live in indian mound tennessee, 37079, im part of stewart county volunteer fire services, station 2 red top.

[nosrednanoraa]

Ok. I could only find 2 frequencies for your area and they are this. 154.37 is your county fire dispatch. The Sheriff/EMS dispatch is 460.625. From what it looks like on google maps, your area isn't really a residential area so I hope that this is right.

At radio shack they have a few scanners that would work for you if these frequencies are correct. The cheapest on radio shacks website is this one... http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family
That one would work for you.


Ebay has some pretty cheap ones too. You could pick up a good used one for about 50 bucks. Pretty much the only thing you have to worry about is your scanner having the ability to read frequencies all the way up to 460.625. Most newer ones go all the way up to over 800mhz but one that goes up to 512mhz for you would work out fine.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[gatoremt]

Look on eBay for a handheld scanner. Radio Shack has some good ones. You might as will look at a good one that you use all over that covers trunking. If you get a radio pro series scanner you can downloading free software to program the scanner. radio reference They can also answer any of scanner question on this forum.

[CaptOldTimer]

Just go to radio shack and shell out for a pro 96 scanner. Bring it home, take it out of the box, put the antenna on it and connect the ac cord to the thing. Turn it on and select search and let it find the frequency that your dept is using plus any other that are around you. You can always delete unwanted ones later on.

It isn’t rocket science.

[KTorak]

I'm in Lambertville, MI (48144). What reasonably priced scanner could I look for to listen to the 800 Mhz channels around here? Thanks in advance.