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Shastao posted:What would be the "Eton E5" of scanners, in terms of capability for affordability?  But I'm old school like that.
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Jul 27, 2007 07:18
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Sennheiser posted:Wow, so what you're saying is I basically just wasted $40? gently caress. Not at all, just wait for late Saturday night and listen to the police channels. Depending on your city it can get pretty interesting. (reference my earlier post on the first 2-3 pages about 'superman' running around an apartment complex) EDIT: Halah posted:I will not replace my PRO-2006 even if it can't do trunked channels. That's not old school, that's just hot. EDIT2: Holy crap that covers AMPS cell towers and cordless phones doesn't it? Man that's awesome! My father used to have a scanner that covered those freq's too! (call me paranoid but that is also the main reason I used a landline to talk to girls when I was in high school) blugu64 fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 07:24
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blugu64 posted:Not at all, just wait for late Saturday night and listen to the police channels. Depending on your city it can get pretty interesting. (reference my earlier post on the first 2-3 pages about 'superman' running around an apartment complex) But every frequency in Chicago is on the 5th decimal. My scanner only goes to the third. So I'll never get good audio.
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Jul 27, 2007 07:32
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Sennheiser posted:But every frequency in Chicago is on the 5th decimal. My scanner only goes to the third. So I'll never get good audio. Check the suburbs and every other place around you. I have a three digit scanner radio in Dallas and haven't been bored yet! (keep in mind the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex area is larger then the state of New Jersey; And that almost all the police departments use trunked systems, and my scanner isn't) EDIT: Click around here http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&mid=38 I'm sure you'll be able to find something interesting to listen too, if not then perhaps you /might/ have wasted $40. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 07:40
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blugu64 posted:Not at all, just wait for late Saturday night and listen to the police channels. Depending on your city it can get pretty interesting. (reference my earlier post on the first 2-3 pages about 'superman' running around an apartment complex)
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Jul 27, 2007 07:42
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Halah posted:It took a little surgical prowess to unlock the cell frequencies, but one snip and the deed was done. There are some crazy-assed mods that can be done with this thing. Like 6,400 memory channels. I haven't done that one yet, but this thing is sick in what you can do to it. I bet so, some of those older scanners are awesome with what you can do with them. Again I used to play with my fathers old scanner back in the day. It was fully unlocked with the AMPS and cordless phone frequencies. It was pure awesomeness with what you could listen to on that scanner. Man those were the days.
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Jul 27, 2007 07:48
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blugu64 posted:EDIT: For example: 851.93750 806.93750 WPFY221 RM Emergency Communications Office FM The frequency being the first number, will my scanner be able to pick that up well? Or will it not come through/be scratchy?
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Jul 27, 2007 07:51
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Sennheiser posted:For example: Perhaps I couldn't say other then give it a shot! the worst that can happen is a few minutes in vein. Also I was going to look up the specs of your radio to find some good channels to look up but couldn't find any specifications for your radio online. If you know what bands it supports (and since we know it only steps in .001khz increments) we should be able to tell you what you can hear.
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Jul 27, 2007 08:13
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Sennheiser posted:For example: Edit: Yeah, blugu beat me by nearly an hour. Halah fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 09:09
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cycowolf posted:This is so true. I love my scanner even though its a few years old now. I hope to get a new one and a SW soon. About 5 years ago I was on my scanner and picked up a phone call. I realized it was the voice of an older guy in my neighborhood. He was screaming about going out to get the fuckers who shorted him on his latest herion sale. The next day I heard him talking to his daughter about seeing his grandkids and how he was enjoying his retirement. We had a smattering of drug dealers, but none were as great an entrepreneur as the guy who had a yard sale literally every single Thu-Sun. When a friend asked him where he found all that poo poo, he whispered "don't tell nobody...but I gets it at da laaaandfilllllll." Another highlight was getting to hear little Tanya grow up. Tanya was the child of a woman named Cathy (whose boyfriend always greeted her with a weird suave "heay, cyaaaathy" in a super-smoove voice and inflection worthy of Barry White), and thanks to the scanner we knew that she "dookie EV'RY MORNIN" and "if Tanya don't dookie I KNOW somethin' wrong!" nmfree posted:I hope you still have that tape somewhere. Somewhere, I don't believe I ever taped over it. I have no clue which one of the dozen unlabelled tapes it's on though. Of course you don't have to always fall back on cordless phones, one can still get comedy on the police frequencies. Some highlights that have turned up on the all-night tape (pops has a voice-activated recorder attached to the machine at night) of the last couple of years includes a newbie Sheriff's dispatcher accidentally muttering "oh gently caress" (and being met with a chorus of 'COPY THAT.') on the air, and the saga of a small-town cop in a town small enough to only have one cop's hours-long pursuit of a loose dog across several yards. Rev. Bleech_ fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 09:40
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Here's a page with some "Stupid Radio Tricks". A lot of them are just that (lol use HAM radio to fry hard drive), but there are some interesting things in there. Somewhere in there it tells how to use a scanner's internal operating frequencies (Sennheiser, the manual for that scanner you bought lists the internal freqs.) to be able to pick up frequencies the scanner doesn't directly receive. I think it was simply multiplying or dividing the frequency you want to hear with/by the internal frequencies to find a result that falls within a frequency that can be programmed into the scanner. The "Search" function is also nice to have. The only scanners I've personally seen that don't have it are pretty old. If you know what type of frequency you're looking for {i.e. police, aeronautical, etc.) you put in the upper and lower limits of that band and it scans through the entire rang rather than the present channels. Set the scanner to delay so you have a chance to look at the thing when it stops on a transmission. That's how I found the local Wendy's drive-through. I personally have more fun finding random junk than listening to the cops. "traffic stop, 5 and 20, lincoln 0 lincoln whiskey tango foxtrot" every 10 minutes all day while you wait hoping to hear something interesting gets boring pretty fast. Also, as far as I know with the older scanners that don't only have three decimal places, the bandwidth of the scanner is wide enough to cover that extra variation that a fourth decimal provides. I think the only problem would be two very close frequencies that are only separated by that extra decimal overlapping. EDIT: Whoops, I was way off. quote:To listen to frequencies that you know exist, but are unable to program, simply find the IF frequency of the scanner and double the number. now whip out the calculator and add or subtract this number to/from the frequency (or band) you want to hear untill the result is in a band you CAN get. If the signal is strong enough (there is some loss) magically, it is now within your reach!! This also works when you find a new frequency that is not listed, but you can hear it OR if you get interference from someplace that is not listed for a frequency you are trying to hear, you can find out where it really comes from. You may be looking in the wrong place. Dog Case fucked around with this message at 10:18 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 10:14
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Why don't drive-thrus use FRS communications, is this frequency band just more secure or something?
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Jul 27, 2007 14:56
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OP's been updated to link to Page 18 for scanner discussions.
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Jul 27, 2007 16:26
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Throw another $150 for an E5 I bought during the last numbers station thread if you think that should count. Add another ~$25 for the passport book I bought yesterday which is amazing. If you've been thinking about buying the passport book, just do it. I picked up a spanish numbers lady yesterday evening (~23:00) somewhere around 6850. It didn't sound like the usual spanish number lady that I often get. She said her numbers for a while and then stopped. For the next hour or so the station still came in crystal clear, but wasn't broadcasting anything. It was as if someone had "key'd the mic" and just left it laying there. I left the radio on while the neighbors were hanging out hoping to scare the crap out of them if she would start up with another number sequence, but no luck. After that, it just went back to an empty (static) station. Neato.
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Jul 27, 2007 17:23
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nmfree posted:Police, firefighters, ambulances, street sweepers, utility companies, hams, studio link feeds for commercial broadcasters, cordless phones, paging services, marine radios, NOAA weather radio, etc. Ooo, fun. Now I'm torn between getting one of those or saving up to upgrade my E5 to something a bit more powerful.
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Jul 27, 2007 17:34
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Cadillac Sometimes I posted:Ooo, fun. Now I'm torn between getting one of those or saving up to upgrade my E5 to something a bit more powerful. If my scanner that is arriving sometime before Tuesday comes, and doesn't handle Chicago 5-decimal frequencies...I can sell you an old scanner for $45  Plus, having two radio looking things is cooler than having one! 
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Jul 27, 2007 17:37
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Sennheiser posted:For example: Why hello fellow Chicago scanner/shortwave listeners. You don't need the last digit, your scanner filter is wide enough to tune those frequencies without the fourth digit. The audio will be just fine. If you're in Chicago, all you really need to listen to is two frequencies 460.125 and 460.175. These are the "Citywide Detectives" frequencies where anything worth happening is broadcast in non-digital. You'll hear all kind of grisly murders, gang shoutouts, etc; most of which never make it to the news. I'd have to dig out my scanner frequencies for the fire department and other frequencies for Chicago. I've been messing with scanners much longer than shortwave.
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Jul 27, 2007 20:12
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If you want to hear some shady communication, go to any large jam band concert or summer festival where drugs are sold. Bring along a scanner that can listen on the FRS and GMRS frequencies. Make sure you can cycle through the various PL tones while scanning.
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Jul 27, 2007 20:22
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Here are a ton of mostly non-region specific UHF and VHF frequencies: http://www.freqofnature.com/frequencies/common/ EDIT: Also saw Transformers last night. Did anybody else notice that the "shortwave radios" they took from the pawn shop were really just old CB handhelds, and that they used them without the antennas extended? Dog Case fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Jul 27, 2007 |
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Jul 27, 2007 21:17
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Dunno if anyone has mentioned these guys or not, but they ship unblocked scanners (and have been doing so for many years) from the UK. http://www.javiation.co.uk/ That being said: 1) You aren't allowed to have unblocked scanners in the US. 2) You aren't allowed to modify scanners to unblock them in the US. 3) As I mentioned previously, if you live in a major metro area and want to listen to emergency/police services, you're not only going to need a trunking scanner, but one which understands the various digital protocols. Radioshack Pro 96 can do this, but it's pricey. http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Pro-96 4) These days, a lot of emergency traffic is actually typed in through the data terminal in the responding vehicle. This communication is encrypted. Makes sense really, and reduces the chances that some stalker or douche bag lawyer ambulance chaser is going to show up on scene.
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Jul 27, 2007 23:05
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grellgraxer posted:3) As I mentioned previously, if you live in a major metro area and want to listen to emergency/police services, you're not only going to need a trunking scanner, but one which understands the various digital protocols. Radioshack Pro 96 can do this, but it's pricey. Wait, so does this just confirm as by my previous question, that I spent $40 on a useless scanner? Not only does it only tune to three decimal places, it's really old and is not 'trunking'. overflow posted:Why hello fellow Chicago scanner/shortwave listeners. You don't need the last digit, your scanner filter is wide enough to tune those frequencies without the fourth digit. The audio will be just fine. If you're in Chicago, all you really need to listen to is two frequencies 460.125 and 460.175. These are the "Citywide Detectives" frequencies where anything worth happening is broadcast in non-digital. You'll hear all kind of grisly murders, gang shoutouts, etc; most of which never make it to the news. I'd have to dig out my scanner frequencies for the fire department and other frequencies for Chicago. I've been messing with scanners much longer than shortwave. Hey  I'm listening to 460.475 right now and it's pretty interesting. EDIT: My scanner isn't picking up anything on your freqs. 
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Jul 28, 2007 00:06
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^^^ Check out the database at http://www.radioreference.com/ which has lots of frequencies sorted by region. I recently picked up a scanner too and have been listening to all sorts of things. Arrests, fires, rescues, maintenance responding to clogged toilets (this happens all the time), civilian and military aircraft, lots of weird data streams showing up in the 380-400 MHz range where the government is be setting up new digital encrypted trunked systems. For some reason I also heard a phone call from someone in the apartment above me at around 463 MHz. Old cordless phone maybe? Newer ones are way out of listening range. SpunkyRedKnight fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 28, 2007 |
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Jul 28, 2007 00:47
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drat you all, I just got a shortwave radio, and my scanner doesn't do digital. I hate you all.
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Jul 28, 2007 01:53
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Sennheiser posted:Wait, so does this just confirm as by my previous question, that I spent $40 on a useless scanner? Not only does it only tune to three decimal places, it's really old and is not 'trunking'. Give it time.. things heat up as soon as it gets dark.
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Jul 28, 2007 02:06
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overflow posted:Give it time.. things heat up as soon as it gets dark. Unfortunately, it seems I'm totally out of range of 460.125 It's extremely heavy static with a hint of voices, but it's way too much static for me to make out what they're saying. Any tips on antenna/unit placing?
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Jul 28, 2007 02:09
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Sennheiser posted:Why don't drive-thrus use FRS communications, is this frequency band just more secure or something?
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Jul 28, 2007 02:38
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Sennheiser posted:Any tips on antenna/unit placing? It could just be you're too far from the transmitter, though.
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Jul 28, 2007 02:41
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Halah posted:The higher the better. Also, if you have a telescoping antenna, see if collapsing it halfway helps any. In the 460 range you don't need the full length. If you are in a building with a metal frame, that can hamper performance. If I tape a piece of speaker wire to the antenna and run that wire outside through a window and just let it drop down a wall, will it improve reception or just be useless?
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Jul 28, 2007 03:37
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I spent the $20 required at Radio Shack for 50' of speaker wire and the 1/8" antenna plug, soldered them together, and whoa. Huge improvement in reception, even with the wire just sitting in a pile on the floor. I'm going to run the wire out the window and put it up in a tree in my yard to see how that goes. Also, some interesting beeping at 5898 KHz right now.
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Jul 28, 2007 06:13
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Nostratic posted:I spent the $20 required at Radio Shack for 50' of speaker wire and the 1/8" antenna plug, soldered them together, and whoa. Huge improvement in reception, even with the wire just sitting in a pile on the floor. I'm going to run the wire out the window and put it up in a tree in my yard to see how that goes. So you don't have a traditional metal antenna at all, just a pile of speaker wire? Another problem is that the antenna is not seated firmly, why doesn't the antenna port have threads for screwing it in? That's quite confusing.
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Jul 28, 2007 06:25
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I do have a regular antenna, but I have an antenna plug in the radio for an external antenna, and when something gets plugged in there it shuts off the whip antenna. I just tossed the length of wire up a tree, and the reception seems to have improved a bit more. I'm not sure about your scanner; I just got this radio like 3 days ago, so I'm just following suggestions here.
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Jul 28, 2007 06:36
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Sennheiser posted:If I tape a piece of speaker wire to the antenna and run that wire outside through a window and just let it drop down a wall, will it improve reception or just be useless? This is in no way directed at you personally, but I think the recent scanner discussion has been clouded by 18 pages of big-assed, outdoor, toss some wire over a fence shortwave antennas, so I want to throw this out there. The reason long antennas work for shortwave is indicated in the names of the bands. 15 meters, for example. That is roughly the length of one wave (hertz/cycle.) Antennas work best when optimized for the frequency they are receiving. 1/4 wave or 1/2 wave, or even 5/8 wave, for example. A 1/2 wave antenna on 15 meters would be 7.5 meters long. At 460 mhz, for a 1/4 wave antenna, we're talking about 6.5 inches. A full wave antenna at 460 mhz is roughly 26 inches. For future reference, to find the 1/4 wave length, 2992/(freq. in mhz) is a rough approximation. One can do the math from there to find other combinations. Think about it like this - a 1/4 wave antenna at 94 mhz (about the middle of the FM dial) is about 32 inches. Now go measure the antenna on your car. I'm not going down three flights of stairs to measure mine, but I bet it's a 1/4 wave. None of this means you need a new antenna every time you switch bands, but I just want everyone to understand that when it comes to UHF, throwing copper around doesn't guarantee success. Sometimes smaller is really better. Another confusion I can potentially see between the shortwave vs. scanner folks is the numbers we're using. You heard a numbers station on 6833? That's 6833 khz. You heard police activity on 460.0125? That's 460.0125 mhz. 6833 khz = 6.833 mhz 460.0125 mhz = 460012.5 khz For reference; FM radio (US) is 88-108 mhz AM radio (US) is 550-1710 khz "Why type all that, Halah?" I've been saying that higher frequencies need smaller antennas. I want to note that hearing crazy number stations on 6833 is on a lower frequency than hearing police activity on 460.0125 even though the numbers might indicate otherwise. Kilohertz and megahertz operate via the metric scale. I fear that distinction may be getting lost now that scanners are being discussed, and I want to make sure that folks in the US know that.
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Jul 28, 2007 07:00
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Sennheiser posted:So you don't have a traditional metal antenna at all, just a pile of speaker wire?
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Jul 28, 2007 07:05
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Nostratic posted:I'm not sure about your scanner; I just got this radio like 3 days ago, so I'm just following suggestions here. I got mine today 
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Jul 28, 2007 07:09
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Halah posted:To try and explain why shortwave goes worldwide and UHF doesn't, I present the following; Take a basketball onto a court. Now take the ball and throw it down as if you were spiking a football. It's going to bounce a good distance across the court, right? Big ball, covers large distances between hops. That's shortwave. Now do the same with a bouncy ball. It's going to go straight back up into the air and bounce like crazy, but not go far (we're counting bounces here, not rolls.) That's scanner territory. If you're out of the line of sight from a UHF transmitter, you won't hear it no matter what antenna you have. Especially when you get into the police frequencies.
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Jul 28, 2007 07:25
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Halah posted:Seriously, longer isn't necessarily better at the really high frequencies. You can always give it a shot, though. Mind if I add this to the OP?
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Jul 28, 2007 16:12
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grellgraxer posted:Make sure you can cycle through the various PL tones while scanning.
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Jul 28, 2007 22:43
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We need an IRC channel to share our late night evangelist discoveries.
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Jul 28, 2007 23:24
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Nostratic posted:We need an IRC channel to share our late night evangelist discoveries. Heard yesterday afternoon on what sounded like a call-in show:  : They been saying there's other solar systems and I don't know if they found another planet but yes well the stars and the sun and the universe and everything yes everything was created by god himself, by the majestic word of god. : Well I heard they was sayin' that the sun is a star too! Is that right? What is the sun is it a star?: Well I wouldn't know anything about that at all except that the good lord has created us with his word. I don't know if the sun is a star or what it is.: Amen!
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Jul 29, 2007 00:05
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Sennheiser posted:If I tape a piece of speaker wire to the antenna and run that wire outside through a window and just let it drop down a wall, will it improve reception or just be useless? See what Halah said above and what I said on page 18 (essentially the same thing, he's dead on.) You don't want a big rear end antenna for a scanner. Also, where are you in the city? I'm approximately 30 miles away from downtown (Bolingbrook) and I pick up citywide detectives crystal clear. It's a pretty drat powerful transmitter so if you're not picking it up I fear something may be wrong with your scanner.
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Jul 29, 2007 01:46
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