[Scan-DC] New topic! First Scanner

Thu Nov 27 18:08:44 EST 2014

My first scanner was a regency D310. l. It was great. The days before 800mhz.  Everything was analog.  It was a great receiver. 
The best catches were VHF inversion broadcasts from NyC here in Fairfax.  
My best night of scanning had to be listening to Fairfax City Pd un UHF. In those days midnight shifts rocked.  The night that the "Beltway Bandit's" robbed two different gas stations was busy.  

     On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 2:28 AM, George via Scan-DC <scan-dc at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

 At age 12, my first radio was a VHF hi band Lafayette handheld receiver which had a dial to tune in the frequency you wanted.  Got it for Christmas, I think Santa Claus got it from a Lafayette store on Connecticut Ave and Porter St., in DC.  It had a metal telescopic antenna; the squelch was always open.  Monitored Alexandria, VA FD 154.43 and PD 155.?  

I would keep it tuned to the PD freq but the FD would bleed over if APD was not talking.  A quick move of the dial would bring in the FD transmission loud and clear.  Remember listening to the May Day Protests in Washington DC on this radio.  

A year or so later I got a Sonar FM VHF three crystal handheld receiver. Metal telescopic antenna but closed squelch.  I would set the tune dial to VHF and select one or the three channels at a time.  Got this radio at a Electronic store across from Dixie Pig BBQ on Powhatan Street in Alexandria.  

Alexandria PD moved to 460.375, within a year or so I got my first "Scanner" a Regency Monitoradio/Executive Scanner 8 Channels UHF/VHFhi.  Then a Radio Shack 4 channel portable VHF scanner rubber plug in antenna; my first portable scanner, AFD was still on 154.43.  Medics were on 460.525.  

Then a Fannon/Courier 4 channel UHF portable scanner.  This Fannon/Courier scanner offered an accessory which you could mount in your vehicle and the radio could be dropped into the device ran off of the vehicle's power, charged your radio, a plug for an external antenna and had a amplified speaker.  I don't have the radio but I still have this accessory.  I modified it for future radios.  

I then got a Tennelec Memoryscan-MS 2 Scanner, my first programmable scanner.  First direct entry scanner BC100 16 channel portable.  From there too many to name.  I wish I had saved all of them but would sell one to upgrade to a better model.  My current radio is the BCD369XT.

I would upgrade to the BCD436HP but the public safety folks in my area of Florida are moving to a new system, within a couple of years, with encryption.  You know for officer safety, yea right.  I would respect them if they would just tell us the truth....they don't want anyone, especially the press, to know what is happening in the community.  It is a control issue not an officer safety issue.

George

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Danes <danesgs1 at gmail.com>
To: Scan-DC <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, Nov 17, 2014 7:14 pm
Subject: [Scan-DC] New topic! First Scanner

Would like to know what radios the members started using in the "dim time"
before SDR and all the stuff we have today. Mine was a RS Patrolman 60. I
was never very much into crystal control radios. Also had a very weird VHF
radio , not sure who made it. Was the size of a mobile CB with a tiny
half-moon tuning dial, squelch and volume, built like a brick. Of course my
dream scanner was back then the Bearcat/Electra 300 with service search. In
those days (1984?) it was considered the top of the line for those wanting
a primo scanner, I later bought 2 off of Ebay and no longer own them but it
was still a "fun" radio to mess with. I have since owned RS PRO-2006's,
Pro-2020, BC-210, Pro-83, Pro-94/97, AOR early model digital's and a few
others. My later pride and joy were the PRO-2006's with the 800 mod, IF tap
and even replacing the back-light was a cool project and needed most of the
time.

KJ4DGE

-- 
"I seek not to know all the answers, but to understand the questions"
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