Hand held scanner

[wagoneer]

I am looking for a good quality hand held scanner, any recommendations?

 

[John61CT]

For police radio, or barcodes or OBDII or IP packets or computer / document / image scanner?

 

[johnny b]

Uniden is most popular brand.
Depending on what you want to listen to, prices vary by quite a bit.
Analog only are cheapest and good for NASCAR, etc.
Police and other public services have been switching to digital....more expensive.

Here's a couple sites for info:

https://www.scannermaster.com/
http://new.marksscanners.com/

I haven't researched lately, but laws vary by state...this is the one I worried about when going to Indy track for F1 races 2000-2007:
Indiana - (verified 2012) - Use illegal while mobile. Hams exempted. Includes use of a handheld scanner on a pedestrian, as well.

http://www.fireline.org/scanlaws/scanner5.html

My two Unidens always worked well for me...plus they have one button access to the weather frequencies...hits the closest one to your location.

 

[Goshawk]

Get a ham license is trivial. Read a book. Take a test.


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[ToyotaEscaper]

HAM is pretty boring and sucky in the USA and not the topic of the original question. 

Also the Uniden handhelds are pretty crummy these days. Get the Whistler WS1040. I been using one for the past year and it's been a blast and still has superb sensitivity unlike the HP handhelds I tried earlier, plus BNC connection is a lot better for using other antennas. I have a MultiBand old radioshack magmount on the roof and quite a few handheld antennas my favorite being the Austin Condor. I also have a couple portable yagis, small 3 elements for VHF 150Mhz range, one for 460, and another 9 element for the 800 900mhz ranges. The elements pop out so all I have to do is store something the size of a little stick underneath the bed. I been scanning 900MHz a lot lately off the top of a hill with the tripod yagi and have been picking up a lot of interesting stuff. I'm surprised how many cordless phones and baby monitors there are still on that frequency. The other night I was listening to the old Taco Bell drive thru downtown. 

Another great source of listening was the power company and local taxi service on the trunked system in town. Good way to keep up to date on any bad weather or road conditions happening around the area since the TaXi Company is out there first and sees everything and than the lineman are out repairing whatever damage.

 

[Goshawk]

Nice to see you can still listen to interesting activity around town.


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[Weight]

I'm with john. What kind of scanner?

 

[Van Mama Wannabe]

Boy, just shows you what I know! I thought wagoneer was referring to a document scanner.

 

[highdesertranger]

maybe he was. yo Adrian we need clarification. highdesertranger

 

[John61CT]

Cronenburg classic

 

[Goshawk]

He said whistler ws1040 scanner. Is that not a scanner ? Am I reading this wrong ?


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[highdesertranger]

actually the original post tells us nothing,

I am looking for a good quality hand held scanner, any recommendations?

that's it and no follow up. I think he means a radio scanner but I don't know. highdesertranger

 

[Cammalu]

I think he might mean something like this

 

[tx2sturgis]

HAM is pretty boring and sucky in the USA and not the topic of the original question. 

Opinions vary.

I've enjoyed the hobby for over 30 years. I've been able to do fun and interesting things and meet great people that would not have been possible without ham radio.

But as you say, it's not the original topic.

 

[Weight]

Maybe one of those things they use at airport security.