Can of worms topic, I'm sure. To avoid the "how long is a piece of
string" nature of this question, I'll give some particulars.

I'm looking to buy a good basic police/EMS scanner for my father, a
retired police dispatcher, to get back into the hobby (he hasn't
actively listened in a few years). The scanner he has now, an old basic
Uniden model, evidently can no longer handle the frequencies the LEA
has switched to (he's tried to program them to no avail, I'm assuming
it's just because of a shift in mhz to higher bands).

He lives in a suburb of Washington DC so anything with good range that
could get his local city/county frequencies and those of nearby (within
a five to ten mile radius, max) would be great, as would any public
government/military frequencies he might be in the range of. External
antennas are definitely an option, as he's got a roof-mounted dinosaur
he used to use for CB radio as well (going to try to get him back into
that as well).

He's getting "on in age," as they say, and his eyesight is now quite
poor, so anything with a larger, well-lit display would be a definite
plus, but it's not a deal killer as I'd probably be programming it for
him and I don't know that he'd need to see the frequency display to
know the channels after a while (and honestly, I don't know that
there'd be a scanner unit with numbers large enough for him to read).

I'm so inexperienced with this subject that I wouldn't even know how to
approach the topic of pricing. I guess we're looking for a "solid,
middle of the line table-top model," but don't need a lot of complex
bells and whistles he'd have to manage through an array of tiny (and
therefore pretty much invisible to him) switches and dials. I'm really
looking for the good old-fashioned "fire and forget" setup approach, if
such a thing is even still possible. I do see him at least once a week,
so occasional tweaking, if necessary, would definitely be fine.

I realize this is a bit of a broad question, and I'll thank everyone in
advance for the patience and their replies. With his fading eyesight,
he's gotten a bit "down at the mouth," and this is one hobby he used to
enjoy that he could still do given his current circumstances, and I'm
just sort of looking around trying to find something to get him
involved and interested in again that may lift his spirits.

Thanks again--I look forward to your replies. Feel free to reply also
to my email address: kriskane (at) gmail (dot com).

On 29 Aug 2006 13:43:30 -0700, wrote:

I'm looking to buy a good basic police/EMS scanner for my father, a
retired police dispatcher, to get back into the hobby (he hasn't
actively listened in a few years). The scanner he has now, an old basic
Uniden model, evidently can no longer handle the frequencies the LEA
has switched to (he's tried to program them to no avail, I'm assuming
it's just because of a shift in mhz to higher bands).

He lives in a suburb of Washington DC so anything with good range that
could get his local city/county frequencies and those of nearby (within
a five to ten mile radius, max) would be great, as would any public
government/military frequencies he might be in the range of. External
antennas are definitely an option, as he's got a roof-mounted dinosaur
he used to use for CB radio as well (going to try to get him back into
that as well).


Most likely you will need/want to have a radio that can receive
digital signals, which ups the price. But gets you a nice rig.

Without digital you will miss out on a lot; police/fire.

Take a look at these base units. Lots of web reviews to read on
these.

========
Uniden BCD996T
Mobile Trunking Scanner with GPS Support and APCO-25
http://www.uniden.com/products/produ...lic%20 Safety
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...cd996t+scanner
6000 Dynamically Allocated channels
Location-Based Scanning
APCO 25 Digital
100 System Quick Keys
Dual-Color Display
Temporary Lockout
Dangerous Crossing, Dangerous Road and POI Alert
DIN-E Mounting
Multi-Site Trunking Support
Close Call™ RF Capture Technology - Instantly tunes to signals from
nearby transmitters
Public Safety Scanner


=======
Radio Shack Pro-2096
http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=family
http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...shack+pro+2096
Tracks trunked systems like a digital hound dog.
Trunked systems, used by many cities and towns, jump from one
frequency to another with every transmission. You need a trunking
scanner to allow you to hear the entire conversation. Digital trunked
systems, which are becoming more common, can only be followed using a
digital trunking scanner. The PRO-2096 follows both digital and analog
sytems, including 9600bps control channel and C-QPSK modulation.
Listen to law enforcement officers and fire fighters, and hear advance
warnings of dangerous weather conditions. Frequency coverage: 25-50MHz
VHF-Lo, 50-54MHz 6-meter Ham, 108-136.9875MHz aircraft, 137-174,
216.0025-225MHz, 406-512MHz, 806-960MHz (excluding cellular bands),
1240-1300MHz.


Tunes virtually all important bands--local marine, fire/police, HAM,
CB, VHF-air, racing, weather
Virtual Scanner Memory Management system stores 11 memory
configurations, each with 500 channels
Preprogrammed for most major metropolitan areas
Alphanumeric display with text entry can show ID code or service name
Easy-to-read backlit control and display for low-light viewing
Mobile/base design with DIN-E in-dash mounting (requires separate
installation kit for your vehicle

=======


---
Bob Anderson*Bitwisebob
Eugene Oregon

On 29 Aug 2006 13:43:30 -0700, wrote:

Can of worms topic, I'm sure. To avoid the "how long is a piece of

I'd definitely go with the Uniden BCT15 for analog or the BCT996D (I
think that's where they put the D - at the end) for digital. What he
needs depends on the signals he wants. Go to
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR and look around.
If the mode for what he wants is D, he needs digital, otherwise an
analog scanner will do. Both of them track trunked systems, so he can
follow the DC PD (and FD) systems, and they cover all currently used
frequencies.