Police scanners

[bandit957]

Anyone else ever listen to a police scanner?

When I was growing up, in the late 1970s or so, my grandfather had one. Each channel had a red light and a push button. When it stopped on a channel, the red light would come on. I don't remember how the push button was used.

When I was about 9, around 1982, my brother got a scanner. It had a green LED display like a Speak & Spell. One of my first memories of it was hearing mobile phone conversations where some guy kept cussing up a storm. There was one other time when a bunch of cops got in a big argument. I also remember the time there was a call about kids going through garbage cans and "throwing trash in the roadway" on a nearby street.

Later, around 1996, I buyed a scanner. One of the first calls I ever heard on it was about a man going into McDonald's who claimed he was Jimi Hendrix and peed all over the floor. I still have this scanny, but now it's useless, because all our local police departments either encrypt their signals now, or they don't use frequencies a scanner can pick up.

It was cool to listen to the ol' scanny!

[Max Rockatansky]

Not explicitly, but the scanners my Dad and I got from a NASCAR race team would pick up police signals.

[jeffandnicole]

Anyone else ever listen to a police scanner?

When I was growing up, in the late 1970s or so, my grandfather had one. Each channel had a red light and a push button. When it stopped on a channel, the red light would come on. I don't remember how the push button was used.

My grandparents had this type of scanner. As a kid, it was entertaining to listen to it.

[tchafe1978]

My in-laws had a scanner and listened to it all the time so they could be nosey with what was going on the in county. My wife and I had one for a while but quit using it when the police calls went encrpyted. It went in the trash a couple years ago. Now instead of listening to the scanner, we have a local Facebook page that posts the scanner calls. I think the begger entertainment now is all the inane comments on each post where everyone has to speculate on their idea of what happened regarding the call or make lame jokes.

There are now apps that you can listen to scanner calls on, but I'm not that nosey to waste my time.

[MikeTheActuary]

or they don't use frequencies a scanner can pick up.

Generally that's just a matter of getting a scanner capable of receiving the frequencies/modes being used (although that still won't help with encryption).  In the US, there are scanners on the market that will receive any frequency used aside from the old analog cellular frequencies (because the law prohibits tuning into those).

(I generally have a scanner on as background noise while in my office at home.)

[mgk920]

Still useful for railroad and NASCAR fans.

Mike

[gonealookin]

There are now apps that you can listen to scanner calls on, but I'm not that nosey to waste my time.

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/

Ad-supported, so after you select your feed you have to listen to 30 seconds or so of that, but then you're good to go.

I only listen when there's something major happening in the county, particularly fires.  The feed is Douglas County (NV) Sheriff and Fire.

[freebrickproductions]

Still useful for railroad and NASCAR fans.

Mike

I have a scanner for railfanning as well, in fact. Recorded plenty of defect detectors on it over the years, among other things.

I know some siren enthusiasts also use scanners to listen to the activation tones for sirens, especially ones controlled via radio.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Some people have developed cult followings tweeting out scanner audio for largely political purposes.

[Molandfreak]

When I worked at a state park, the radios we used to communicate with other park staff would scan the frequencies of each North Shore park, the Two Harbors DNR office, and the police/fire/EMS frequencies in Lake County. There was never enough activity on these frequencies to make it unbearably noisy, but I would imagine parks elsewhere in the state don't have quite an extensive list.

The emergency frequencies were helpful for us to know when an emergency had been reported to 911 operators but not directly to park staff, while the other DNR folks supplied vacancy information in the various first-come, first-serve state forest campgrounds they managed.

[TheCatalyst31]

I'll sometimes look up police scanner streams after major sporting events to see what shenanigans drunk fans are getting up to. The Philadelphia scanner after the last Super Bowl was entertaining.