| Your First Digital Radio Scanner |
| Written by Andy Zain |
| Monday, 14 December 2009 08:54 |
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The features and functions available in digital radio scanners can make the selection process seem complicated. Sales people can easily detect an absolute novice in search of high tech devices. Sales commissions can cloud the morals of some sales people and you can leave with some high-priced overly complicated scanner that leaves you feeling lost. Do some research and you will keep the salesperson more honest. If you are purchasing online, research is even more important.
The features and functions available in digital radio scanners can make the selection process seem complicated. Sales people can easily detect an absolute novice in search of high tech devices. Sales commissions can cloud the morals of some sales people and you can leave with some high-priced overly complicated scanner that leaves you feeling lost. Do some research and you will keep the salesperson more honest. If you are purchasing online, research is even more important. The first step in researching digital radio scanners is to learn the basics. Digital radio scanners are designed to receive and process digitally encoded signals transmitted between various two-way radio systems in public use. The use of digital signals, unlike the recent mandated changeover of television to digital, is voluntary. Both older analog signals and newer digital transmissions are in use. All currently available scanners still receive the analog signals. You will probably encounter the term "APCO P-25" as you look at digital radio scanners. This is the formal specification for the unencrypted digital format all digital radio scanners support. There are encrypted transmissions that no scanner can process. Since 1994 all scanners have been "Cellular frequency Deleted (Blocked)" by law. This means they cannot intercept cell phone messages and cannot be modified to do so. There is no federal law against owning and using a scanner (the scanner must be FCC approved of course). Some states and localities have regulations in place against using scanners in automobiles or in conjunction with a criminal act. There is a clause in the regulations against using a scanner to "break an existing law" so checking local regulations is advised. Do not rely on the information presented here as Legal Advice. The basic functions of digital radio scanners are quite uniform over the many brands and models available. Buying a high-priced scanner will not mean better reception and a low-priced scanner will have as good (possibly better) reception. Price differences are often based on special features or additional band coverage. One common complicated-sounding technical term is trunked signals. A trunk is a pool of frequencies (channels) shared by multiple users and departments. The advantage is that all frequencies share the load. No one frequency carries almost all the transmissions while others remain unused. Communication can be over any of the trunked frequencies at any time - making following the communication with a scanner almost impossible. Digital radio scanners with trunk support have built-in technology to make use of some of the many versions of trunk lines. A couple other terms you will encounter are PL and DPL. Some digital radio frequencies are shared by two or more departments. Each department's transmissions begin with a PL tone that specifies the department. Digital radio scanners with the feature can be set to ignore or accept transmissions from specified departments. Digital radio scanners can be an enjoyable pastime. Do your homework and your experience will be better. |
