Police scanners

[THAT Gurl]

TMI

We laugh all the time about how if we hadn't had so many people trying to break us up (even though we weren't even dating) we probably wouldn't have ever even started dating, muchless gotten married!

People think I'm making it up but I swear I am not -- when we were walking down the hall to the judge's chambers to get married I told him it wasn't too late and we could just live in sin. My track record with relationships sucked and I was terribly afraid I was about to blow a perfectly good friendship to smithereens!

 

[Fr Mulcahy]

So we went to the movies tonight (a rare occasion). I took the younger two to a different movie which just got out. We walked outside to go wait in the car and there are three city police SUV’s parked blocking in a truck and a guy is outside on the phone. No cops outside so clearly they’ve talked to him. All this backstory to say that I am wildly curious what is the deal. So, are police scanners legal? Can I buy one? What should I get? Quick Google search found this. I know there are very many current and former LEO here so who knows if

Yes, they are legal in Oklahoma. Most law enforcement agencies use digital and not analog, and they use trunking, so you will probably need a digital one like the Uniden SDS100.

The following website may be useful: Choosing The Right Police Scanner | Scanner Master

You will need to program it based upon your location and what you want to listen to. You can usually pay the scanner vendor to program it, or you can use a resource like www.radioreference.com and do it yourself.

I have several. Occasionally, it's interesting, but most of the time is pretty mundane. The most excitement that I can think of happened the night of the Brookside Riot on May 31st, 2020.

There are also archives of online scanners that are available, and I can give you the link for that if you'd like.

 

[Snattlerake]

They are legal but most signals are scrambled now. You can download the app 5-0 Radio Pro and get many channels on your iPhone.

5.0 really sucks because the Fire and EMS crowd the channels like crazy in OKC, not to mention all the pothole fillers and maintenance during the day. All of the OCK Metro area is trunked and digitally encrypted and it is hard to hear and understand because of the garble and you really can't follow a conversation without the encryption keys.

Before they did all this. it was great but you still had the trunking issue.

%.0 radio app sucks in another way. Just as you start to hear something interesting a freaking commercial plays or an ad to a game and won't give you any option to X out of it.

And another thing. 5.0 Radio repeats the transmissions over and over sometimes with about a 30 second delay.

It sucks!

 

[Snattlerake]

Don't buy a scanner for casual use. Read my post above about iPhone app.

If you do, I have a scanner to sell.

Useless around here but it's for sale.

 

[yukonjack]

Scanner feeds on your phone. Free

https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/ctid/2182

 

[Camo]

That’s what I need, more stuff to keep me on my phone… lol

 

[Fyrtwuck]

They're perfectly legal. I have two...that I don't use. One is older and probably not of much use in a metro area due to the types of signals used these days. The other would probably work but I'm not smart enough to program it. There are places that will program them for you to pick up all the police/fire type traffic in your area. But with all the online services now I never wanted to spend the money to have mine programmed since I live in a very rural area and I doubt I'd get much traffic on it anyway.

What kind is it? What does it cost to get it programmed?

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

What kind is it? What does it cost to get it programmed?

It's a Uniden something or other. Nice scanner. Trunking capable, I believe. I'll take a look and let you know. I haven't checked into programming cost for some time so I'm not sure what the going rate is.

 

[Glock 'em down]

When I was a rookie cop, I had a scanner in literally every room of my house, as well as a handheld radio I carried with me everywhere I went, just like it was a newborn baby.

34 years later, I can not stand to listen to that rackety, cackling sonovabitch!

I guess it's interesting to the general public what we cops deal with on a daily basis, but I couldn't care less. But then again, I'm a crotchety old flatfoot, that's so burned out it ain't even funny. I've seen and done way too much in this bizness. More than the average person should ever have to endure.

Sorry...

 

[THAT Gurl]

When I was a rookie cop, I had a scanner in literally every room of my house, as well as a handheld radio I carried with me everywhere I went, just like it was a newborn baby.

34 years later, I can not stand to listen to that rackety, cackling sonovabitch!

I guess it's interesting to the general public what we cops deal with on a daily basis, but I couldn't care less. But then again, I'm a crotchety old flatfoot, that's so burned out it ain't even funny. I've seen and done way too much in this bizness. More than the average person should ever have to endure.

Sorry...

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Can you talk to my old man?? My only guess is that because his dad was a cop and then him that that staticky racket is some kinda while noise to him. Whatever it is "it" has me plotting his demise fairly regularly.