Scanner School - Everything you wanted to know about the Scanner Radio Hobby

Ask Scanner School - but with a twist. Today you are a fly on the wall during a consulting session with Tyler Detmers.   If you would like to book a consulting session, please visit www.scannerschool.com/consulting    All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session59   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit  www.sca...

The Uniden SDS200 is set to be released in just a few short weeks. Inside this podcast, I'll tell you why I am excited for this new scanner, what features I am looking for, and what I'll be doing when it arrives.   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session58   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit  www.scanne...

Ham Radio University is an annual event on Long Island.  While most of the topics at the event are centered around Amateur Radio, not all of the forums are strictly geared to the Ham hobby. There are plenty of talks and activities that can be used in the scanner radio hobby as well. Today's podcast is my presentation from HRU 2019.  While some of the presentation is geared to those of us on Long I...

There are three types of trunking under DMR, Connect Plus, Capacity Plus, and Capacity Max. Of these three, only Capacity Max is DMR Tier III compliant.   What are the differences between these three forms of DMR Trunking?  Check out this week's podcast to find out.   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session56   Please...

DMR - Digital Mobile Radio DMR is a pure digital system, meaning there is no analog. DMR uses TDMA to double the amount of data that can be sent on a single frequency Today we'll discuss the theory of DMR and how conventional DMR works   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session55   Please support the Scanner School podc...

Many of you have have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them. If you have a question about scanning, please visit  www.scannerschool.com/ask  and leave us a message via SpeakPipe or the local number on our website.   We'll play your message on next month's #AskScannerSchool If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on  www.scannerschool...

Scanner School has wrapped up our first year! Thank you all for your support and kind words through the last 12 months. Today, we discuss some of the accomplishments from our first year, and also lay out our plans for 2019   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session53   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit ...

Cheap Chinese Radio Reviews They go by many names Baofeng, Pofeng, BTECH, Puxing, Retevis, Rugged Radios, TYT, and Wouxun.... to name a few Cheap Chinese Two Way Radios that have become very popular with the scanner radio crowd. What you need to know These cheap chinese radios are a bargain.   For under $30, you can pick up a two way radio from Amazon that will cover the VHF and UHF spectrum. If y...

Should you buy the G4/G5 or a scanner? Many have asked about the Unication G4 and G5 pagers, and how they compare to today's scanners. If you are looking at the Unication G4 or G5 this episode of Scanner School has all the details you need to make an educated decision.     All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session51   Pl...

A lot of listeners have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them. If you have a question about scanning, please visit  www.scannerschool.com/ask  and leave us a message via SpeakPipe or the local number on our website.   We'll play your message on next month's #AskScannerSchool If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on  www.scannerscho...

The 2018 Holiday Shopping Season has begun! Here are 10 scanners radio accessories  that I would recommend as a gift for the scanner radio listener on your shopping list.   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session49   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit  www.scannerschool.com/support  to see how you can he...

This week starts the holiday shopping season. Here are a the scanners that I would recommend as a gift for the scanner radio listener on your shopping list.   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session48   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit  www.scannerschool.com/support  to see how you can help us.  Some o...

I recently took a family cruise.  It was a great trip and I even got some scanning in. Today, I have 5 tips to help you enjoy scanning on your first (or next) cruise.   All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session47   Please support the Scanner School podcast.  Visit  www.scannerschool.com/support  to see how you can help u...

A lot of listeners have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them. If you have a question about scanning, please visit  www.scannerschool.com/ask  and leave us a message via SpeakPipe or the local number on our website.   We'll play your message on next month's #AskScannerSchool If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on  www.scannerscho...

Encryption - it is the one word that will make any scanner radio listener cringe. Today, we take a brief look at the history of encryption, and also what types of encryption are used today. I also spend a few minutes talking about my thoughts on encryption.  What do you think? All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session45...

NXDN stands for Next Generation Digital Narrowband   For an introduction to NXDN, please see last week's podcast at www.scannerschool.com/session43 NXDN Trunking comes in two classes: NXDN-C and NXDN-D NXDN-C is like most trunking systems.  There is a control channel and a set of voice channels. NXDN-D is similar to LTR Trunking, where you have no dedicated control channel.  Your users are listeni...

NXDN stands for Next Generation Digital Narrowband NXDN was created in 2003 with a joint venture of Kenwood and Icom.   The protocol was announced at IWCE in 2005 and the first units arrived in 2006.  It wasn't until 2017 that NXDN was published by the ITU-R as an international digital land mobile system. NXDN was created to satisfy the 2005 FCC Narrowbanding mandate.  Originally created for busin...

Electrical and RF Grounding - a simple solution for a common problem. RF Grounding is more important in a transmitting environment than a receiving environment, but scanner listeners can still benefit from grounding their station. By Grounding your receive station, you may find that you've increased your scanner's sensitivity and eliminated some RF noise.   In this session we discuss: RF Ground Lo...

A lot of listeners have been submitting their questions via e-mail, and today I am answering some of them. If you have a question about scanning, please visit www.scannerschool.com/ask  and leave us a message via SpeakPipe or the local number on our website.   We'll play your message on next month's #AskScannerSchool If you are a little shy, you can always use the contact form on www.scannerschool...

Batteries - something that are in practically every device we touch. There are many types of batteries out there.  I'm not talking about battery sized, but the chemical composition that makes up a battery.  From one time use to rechargeable - there is a correct type for every application In this session, we discuss: Alkaline Batteries NiCd Batteries NiMH Batteries Li-Ion Batteries Battery Voltages...

There are a few ways that you can bring emergency power into your scanner radio setup.   But there aren't many ways that can be ready to go in the blink of an eye. Generators are good, but you wouldn't want to operate one in the middle of a storm.  Most generator users don't have them ready to go immediately. Computer UPS devices could make a good battery standby unit, but you are effectively taki...

Time is running out..... The 2019 annual budget for NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) decreased by $49 Million USD from the 2018 budget. Due to the decrease in budget, the NIST has decided to pull funding for WWV, WWVB, and WWVH.   This move will save NIST $6.3 Million USD.   WWV is one of the oldest radio stations in continuous use.  They went on the air in 1920 from Washingto...

Every Scanner needs it's own power brick plugged into your wall.  Every other 12 volt device requires it's own wall wart. The worst part about these adapters is the amount of space they take up.  Sometimes they are large enough to cover 2 spaces on your power strip. How do we clean up this mess? Power supplies are the perfect way to deliver power to all of those 12volt devices at your scanner radi...

There are many different types of RF connectors on the market.  F, BNC, PL-259, N, DIN, SMA, MCX, etc ;) Do you know why there are so many connectors on the market and what makes each one different? In this session, we discuss: Common connectors for small diameter coax cables Common connectors for medium diameter coax cables Why we have so many connectors on the market What makes each type of conn...

It is possible to combine antennas to improve your scanner's reception.  The tricky part is doing it correctly In this session, we discuss: Diplexers Duplexers Triplexers Quadplexers The difference between the above and a combiner or splitter How you can share your coax between antennas and save money   All session notes can be found on our website at  www.scannerschool.com/session35   Please supp...