That’s what I forgot to buy. Where can I pick up a cheap scanner. Do they work in Ohio? When I was researching them, it said some police were switching the frequencies or something.
On one of the threads a few days ago someone was saying that a lot of the police have gone digital and their radios are scrambled so they can’t be picked up on scanners.
Check out Radioreference.com You should be able to find out info about your local police and fire.
There are three general types of radio systems.
Conventional — radios transmit on a fixed frequency like. Any scanner should pick up transmissions.
Trunked analog — radios transmit on changing, computer-assigned frequencies and use talk groups to identify the agency or channel. You need a scanner that can scan trunked systems. The two common types of trunked systems are Motorola and EDACS. (With a few places using LTS. LTS is generally used by commercial operators like trucking companies.)
Digital/trunked digital — can use conventional frequencies or trunked systems. Transmissions are digital and are often encrypted. Some expensive scanners can pick up unencrypted APCO-25 digital, but there are some proprietary digital systems (Open Sky) that no scanner can pick up.
Radioshack is probably the only place that will have scanners in stock. Their scanners are generally rebranded Uniden and GRE receivers.
The new Pro-106 looks like a good option if your police are on APCO-25 digital.
The Pro-162 would work if they are using conventional or trunked analog transmissions. The older Pro-528 is nice if you can find it on clearance. Avoid older models (Pro-97 and earlier) since they will be obsolete due to a change in FCC rules regarding a frequency swap with Sprint/Nextel.
Unless you have someone to help you get things set up, it’s probably too late to get a scanner and have it properly set up.