I recently was looking into getting a police scanner and I was told
not to buy anything but one with digital capabilities since my county
has already switched over. If I bought an older model, I wouldnt hear
everything I wanted to. However, looking at radio shack (not sure
where else to look) the only ones I saw were $370 and $500. Plus, in
the store they said they only had the $500 one.

Is there no less expensive solution? What would happen if I were to
buy one of the older non-digital ones?

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 16:19:39 GMT, wrote:



Yeah, digital starts at $500. Where exactly are you? You might still be
able to hear something.

Hamilton County, Ohio.

I called Radio Shack...like I said I didnt know who else would sell
them around here. I really dont want to spend much because at this
point it's a mere interest. I saw one for 100 bucks...looked very
basic...but if it worked, it would probably be enough for me...at
least in this stage in the game.

Here's the one I was looking at:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D424

OR this one that also picks up higher frequencies:
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D524

What do you think?

In article ,
says...
Hamilton County, Ohio.

You are going to be in need of a digital radio.
--
-----------
Dwayne
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BC895/

The up and coming BC246T (Looks VERY Promising)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Uniden_BC246T

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScanFindlay/

"Axl" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 16:19:39 GMT, wrote:



Yeah, digital starts at $500. Where exactly are you? You might still be
able to hear something.

Hamilton County, Ohio.

I called Radio Shack...like I said I didnt know who else would sell
them around here. I really dont want to spend much because at this
point it's a mere interest. I saw one for 100 bucks...looked very
basic...but if it worked, it would probably be enough for me...at
least in this stage in the game.

Here's the one I was looking at:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D424

OR this one that also picks up higher frequencies:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D524

What do you think?

Hamilton County is already on 9600 baud digital except for fire dispatch,
which still uses 33.90 mHz. The City of Cininnati is still on UHF, which can
be picked by any scanner. They will soon move to a digital system. They
would have already moved but are delaying the move until they set up a 9600
baud system that's compatible with Hamiltion county. There are still other
cities in Hamilton County like Sharonville, Reading, and Norwood that can be
listened to on a conventional scanner. The PRO 2018 is not completely
worthless in Hamilton County so spending a hundred bucks on that and
listening to what's still available might be a good start to see if you
really like the hobby. If so, at some point you're going to have shell out
for a digital scanner since all of Hamiltion will eventually end up on
digital. If nothing else, the 2018 will always be good for weather alerts.

Regards, Jim

"Axl" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 16:19:39 GMT, wrote:



Yeah, digital starts at $500. Where exactly are you? You might still be
able to hear something.

Hamilton County, Ohio.

I called Radio Shack...like I said I didnt know who else would sell
them around here. I really dont want to spend much because at this
point it's a mere interest. I saw one for 100 bucks...looked very
basic...but if it worked, it would probably be enough for me...at
least in this stage in the game.

Here's the one I was looking at:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D424

OR this one that also picks up higher frequencies:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D524

What do you think?

Hi Axl,
I own a Pro-93 (same as Pro-95, but with less memory) from radio shack, and
absolutely love it. A friend bought a Pro-94 (one of the ones you linked
to), so I programed it for him and taught him how to use it. the Pro-94 is
a good scanner, but it lacks the ability to put text tags on frequencies and
talkgroups, leaving you to have to memorize what you're listening to. It's
a feature I use every day. Just my $.02, but if you're looking at a Pro-94,
look seriously at a Pro-93 (if you can find one) or a Pro-95.

I'd love to buy a Pro-96 (pretty much like my scanner, but with digital
decoding). I just can't justify the price right now either. I'm in
Columbus, and the county (which includes Columbus police and fire) is still
on an analog motorola type II system.

The Ohio Highway Patrol on the other hand has gone digital, so I can't pick
up their coms. As soon as Franklin County goes digital (slated for the next
few years, if I remember right) I'll be forced to upgrade.

-NW

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 23:05:12 GMT, "NetWeasel"
wrote:


The Ohio Highway Patrol on the other hand has gone digital, so I can't pick
up their coms. As soon as Franklin County goes digital (slated for the next
few years, if I remember right) I'll be forced to upgrade.

-NW



Yeah but at least those 2 years or so will allow the price of the
digitals to go down. I think I might pick up a 94 tonight...or maybe
even one of the lower 100 dollar models with like the 200 channels.
I'll see.

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Hamilton County, Ohio.

I called Radio Shack...like I said I didnt know who else would sell
them around here. I really dont want to spend much because at this
point it's a mere interest. I saw one for 100 bucks...looked very
basic...but if it worked, it would probably be enough for me...at
least in this stage in the game.

You have three choices: Pro-96, Uniden BC296D, and a Uniden BC796D. The
original Uniden digital scanners will not worth with Hamilton County's
system.

I use the 296D on Austin's system and it works great.

- --
John Mayson
Austin, Texas, USA

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On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 04:03:09 GMT, wrote:

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You have three choices: Pro-96, Uniden BC296D, and a Uniden BC796D. The
original Uniden digital scanners will not worth with Hamilton County's
system.

I use the 296D on Austin's system and it works great.

I swung by radio shack and got the PRO-95.
(http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=20%2D525)

I havent had much time to mess with it yet, but my friend and I did
manage to get the cincinnati police freqs programed in and we scanned
those tonight.

We used www.cincinnatipolice.com which had the freqs listed and we
also were checking out www.cityfreq.com.

Now I live in a small town called Lockland, and I noticed for theirs,
on this other site, http://home.fuse.net/rwtrue00/Ohio.htm, if you
scroll down just a little bit, you'll see it's one of many dispatched
by hamilton county. There are freqs listed under that and it mentions
theyre on a trunked system. Does that mean the users of those freqs
all share and when they transmit it just uses any one of those open
frequencies? If so, im unsure on how to program this scanner for that,
because on the same page it also mentions talkgroups, and I was
wondering about those too.

We flipped through the manual but it's still a bit confusing.

Any simplified help is appreciated!

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:41:30 -0400, Mark wrote:

That's not a digital scanner. The 96 is. Didn't you say you needed digital
because your county just went digital ??

Well my county, who dispatches for small neighborhoods has...but
cincinnati police and the majority of suburbs havent...so im getting a
lot on it.