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

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting  www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.    Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Dan has a Bearcat BCD 536HP and has an issu...

Garrett Farwell returns to the podcast today to talk about scanning in California, where he lives. He will break down the systems that he monitors, including a couple of counties like San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda counties in California and what he has learned about each County's trunk system using a scanner. What You Need To Know Garrett will talk about three simulcast systems in the San...

What happens when a trunk system fails? Where do the radio users go? How do they communicate? In this session, we'll go over how trunk systems are supposed to work, what happens when they fail, and what can happen if an administrator plans for failure. What You Need To Know I was able to watch our new P25 system fail several months after it was populated with radios and users These users were part...

Business band frequencies.... what can we find when we search these ranges? These frequencies are used in places like department stores, home centers, nurseries or garden centers, schools, etc. Building a scan list of these frequencies will strange results that may surprise you. What You Need To Know "Business Band" is an unofficial name to common frequencies used by businesses In the past, busine...

GMRS is a personal radio service that you and your family can use or you. It's a great time to get your license if you haven't gotten one already because the FCC last month has dropped the price to $35 for a 10-year license. What You Need To Know GMRS is a family Radio service The license covers you and your family, and you can use a single license to talk to each other. General Mobile Radio servi...

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting  www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.    Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Wayne has a few questions about CTCSS and P...

Have we reached the end of the scanner radio hobby? I know many feel this way due to encryption and a lack of new scanner radio models being released. However, this hobby has been around for decades and there is no reason why we can't enjoy this hobby in some form or another for decades to come. Some Feel / Think: Live feeds are killing the hobby Many agencies will be going encrypted to keep peopl...

In today's podcast, we are going to talk with our special guest Esteban Reyes. Esteban is a Tik Tok creator who helps people with scanner radio hobby, and he is here today to talk about how social media and scanning go together. You can find Eteban on TikTok under the username 626HawkEye What You Need To Know Social media is an important tool when it comes to bringing people together online. It gi...

Do live scanner feeds have hurt the hobby? There are many different ways to get scanner radios onto the internet, and it's just a matter of the way of developing or delivering the content. What You Need To Know Many stream to: Their own websites Broadcastify Twitch Zello Private in house systems and applications Live streams are used by: News media Other public safety agencies Hobby How can you li...

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting  www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.    Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Ed needs help with accessing GMRS repeaters...

This week we are talking about Bill Cheek, a huge pioneer in the scanner radio world If he was still alive today and saw what is available in the scanner radio market, he would probably lose his mind Maybe he would have realized his life goal and would have built a scanner that would completely turn the market on its head. What You Need To Know If you were active in the scanner radio hobby in the...

Today, we discuss optimizing your scanner for multiple sites in a trunk system. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about setting up your scanner and optimizing it for a typical scan list, but today we will dive into this topic a little bit deeper. What You Need To Know When discussing Trunked systems, a site may not be one specific location or one particular transmitter. Instead, it may be one tower...

Chris Parris returns to the podcast to talk about the biggest football game of the year.   Chris was last on the podcast to talk about Federal Scanning.   Chris writes a monthly column for the spectrum monitor, an online digital magazine dedicated to the radio monitoring hobby, including scanning and shortwave listening.   Chris's column, "The Fed Files", has been a favorite of mine since he was w...

Here is a question that I get asked from time to time:   "How do I optimize the scanning lists in my scanner?"   This is an important question, because when our scanners are scanning, we can miss transmissions elsewhere.  So it is important to be as efficient as possible when setting up your scan lists.     Now, the answer may not be as straight forward as you might think, so here is my thought pr...

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting  www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.    Click here to Subscribe! Questions from this month Joe has a question about receiving the Connecticut Land Mob...

Joe Curtis returns to the podcast this week to share how he uses multiple scanner radios. We also discuss a recent national event that happened outside his door. What You Need To Know Joe uses a Unication G4 to listen to public safety He also uses a SDS 100 as his go-to scanner The SDS100 makes a great do-all scanner since it covers 25Mhz to 1.3Ghz The SDS also supports analog, P25, and multiple t...

Today's podcast episode is all about the KISS Principle.   Everybody has a different way or thought process on how things should be done.   If you are just getting started with the hobby, or you have been in a hobby for a very long time and trying to learn about something new or trying to clean up something you have done, you can get lost in the woods.   Today's podcast gives you permission to tak...

T Today we have got a great guest on the podcast. I am happy to introduce you guys all to Dave Kalahar. Dave is not only a full-time RV, but he is also a retired commander in the Civil Air Patrol or CAP in the United States. Dave spent about 45 years in broadcasting and you are all in for a great podcast episode.   What You Need To Know Like many people, Dave's interest in radio started with a sma...

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions from this month: Lloyd asks where he can find the show notes for the podcast...

The RadioShack brand is making a comeback. They are getting into the crypto game and are enterin the market with their own coin, $RADIO.   What You Need To Know RadioShack was started in 1921 by two brothers who wanted to provide the ham radio market equipment. They started with one physical store and a mail order store in downtown Boston. In 1962, Tandy was looking for a hobby-related business, s...

What features would you like to see in the next Flagship Scanner Radio by Uniden, Whistler, or someone else? I have my own wishlist and I think many of these features are overdue in today's scanner radio market.  In fact, many of my requests are already available on other radios, including radios like Baofeng and TYT to name a few. Some of what I'd like to see on a Flagship Radio: Radio Reference...

On today's episode, I will go through my slides on my presentation for Ham Radio University, which I normally do every year. This is my practice run for the presentation that I gave at HRU on January 8, 2022.  If HRU publishes the presentation, we will follow up with a link. This presentation is for those who are new to the scanner radio hobby, or need a quick reset and want to have a bit of a ref...

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions I answer this month: DSM Central Iowa from Twitter Asks how to setup weather...

Kenneth Fowler, a past guest several times over, is today's guest on the podcast. Kenneth and I discuss how encryption has changed his scanning habits. His local police and fire have encrypted, but this has not stopped Kenneth from enjoying the scanner radio hobby. Today, Kenneth shares how he is scanning other agencies to gather the same information he would have received if he was listening to p...

Looking at things from multiple angles may help you think about whether it is time for you to consider upgrading a scanner.   Do you want a new scanner because it's time to buy something new, or is it needed to keep up with changes to your local systems? What You Need To Know There are things outside of our control dictating whether or not we need to upgrade our scanners. For example, when rebandi...