Advice for a newbie please.

This is the place to discuss Riverside County scanning related topics. Whether it be something about a particular agency, radios, antennas, or other general scanner related questions, you can talk about it here.
kevinb1988
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:36 pm

Advice for a newbie please.

Post by kevinb1988 »

Hello,

I am new to scanning and want to get into it. I'm looking for purchase advice for my first scanner. I tried to use the forum search and it didn't pull anything up.

What I'm looking for is something portable and has the ability to scan the following departments:

-Murrieta Fire
-Riverside City Fire
-Riverside County Fire
-Los Angeles County Fire
-Los Angeles City Fire
-Palm Springs Fire
-Cathedral City Fire
-Corona Fire

and any police agencies in these areas that aren't encrypted.

I know I won't be able to scan all these departments at the same time due to location. I want something that will work well when I am in these departments area.

The big ones I want are Murrieta and Riverside County as I live in Murrieta. I travel to the other cities for work/friends.

I don't need the best of the best but I don't want to get a lower quality scanner and in a few weeks have buyers regret.

Please point me in the right direction.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply.
-Kevin
cvrules90
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:08 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by cvrules90 »

kevinb1988 wrote:Hello,

I am new to scanning and want to get into it. I'm looking for purchase advice for my first scanner. I tried to use the forum search and it didn't pull anything up.

What I'm looking for is something portable and has the ability to scan the following departments:

-Murrieta Fire
-Riverside City Fire
-Riverside County Fire
-Los Angeles County Fire
-Los Angeles City Fire
-Palm Springs Fire
-Cathedral City Fire
-Corona Fire

and any police agencies in these areas that aren't encrypted.

I know I won't be able to scan all these departments at the same time due to location. I want something that will work well when I am in these departments area.

The big ones I want are Murrieta and Riverside County as I live in Murrieta. I travel to the other cities for work/friends.

I don't need the best of the best but I don't want to get a lower quality scanner and in a few weeks have buyers regret.

Please point me in the right direction.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply.
-Kevin
You are very SOL when it comes to most police forces in Riverside County. First, Beaumont, Cahtedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Indio, and Palm Springs are operating on a P-25 network since 2011 which is encrypted and its transmissions can't be received. Even more recently, RSO abandoned their obsolete EDACS network for the Public Safety Enterprise Communications network which also is mostly encrypted and requires high-end technology to monitor the handful of clear talkgroups it includes.

Pretty much every fire service in RivCo under the sun uses conventional, analog, VHF networks which any scanner wil get you. The only exception being Riverside City Fire which, along with the police, uses a UHF network. All clear Riverside County police forces (Banning, Blythe, Corona, Hemet, Murrieta, and Riverside) use analog VHF systems with the exception of Murrieta which has a conventional 800MHz network.

In LA, LAFD uses a conventional 800MHz radio network. LA County Fire has UHF frequencies for dispatch and command, but they use narrow VHF for tactical operations.

CHP uses a low band (39-46MHz I believe) throughout the whole state, so depending on where you are you could hear Riverside, Temecula, and possibly Los Angeles and Orange County offices.

So what to buy? There' s Uniden's portable BC125AT, but it lacks the 800MHz band, which for certain departments menioned above is essential. That being said, I think your best option would be a RadioShack PRO 164. It's portable, covers all important bands, even supports analog trunked networks (which have dissapeared or are disappearing). I believe it costs about $150-$200 although I don't know if they sell it anymore.

Hope on over hear (radioreference.com). They're good for scanning resources and you can find exactly all that is used in your area(s) of interest. They also have forums where people can answer your questions. They also cover the whole world, but have it divided in regions. I'm also a member of those forums.

I hope this lengthy reply was helpful and insightful. You can PM me if you have any more questions or concerns. Thanks.

Also be wary that all the police forces in Riverside County that are still clear have the potential to go to the PSEC, which, if it happened, would more than likely mean that you won't be able to monitor them any longer.
sp1989
Posts: 1017
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:08 pm

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by sp1989 »

Look on Ebay for a good used Pro 97 scanner. It has trunking, 800 mhz for L.A. City Fire. You can get them in the range of $75 to $100.
cvrules90
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:08 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by cvrules90 »

sp1989 wrote:Look on Ebay for a good used Pro 97 scanner. It has trunking, 800 mhz for L.A. City Fire. You can get them in the range of $75 to $100.
Yeah I'm not too familiar w/the old gen scanners. I forgot about that one. I think the BC245XLT is also a good choice and may be found on eBay or Amazon.com.
sp1989
Posts: 1017
Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 4:08 pm

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by sp1989 »

If you re just starting out, get a used scanner. That way if you hate it, you are only out $100 max, don't start out with a top of the line digital scanner, because all the new ones a bitch to program without buying additional software and cables, unless you get a zip code type, but those are way expensive, too.
cvrules90
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:08 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by cvrules90 »

sp1989 wrote:If you re just starting out, get a used scanner. That way if you hate it, you are only out $100 max, don't start out with a top of the line digital scanner, because all the new ones a bitch to program without buying additional software and cables, unless you get a zip code type, but those are way expensive, too.
They sure as hell are expensive which is why I hesitate when buying a new scanner. besides with used you never know if it'll work right. Uniden sells their scanners Like New for a fraction of the brand new price but with some missing components. Example, I purchased my BC340CRS but didn't get the manual with it.
retiredFD07
Posts: 165
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:53 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by retiredFD07 »

kevinb1988 wrote:Hello,

I am new to scanning and want to get into it. I'm looking for purchase advice for my first scanner. I tried to use the forum search and it didn't pull anything up.

What I'm looking for is something portable and has the ability to scan the following departments:

-Murrieta Fire
-Riverside City Fire
-Riverside County Fire
-Los Angeles County Fire
-Los Angeles City Fire
-Palm Springs Fire
-Cathedral City Fire
-Corona Fire

and any police agencies in these areas that aren't encrypted.

I know I won't be able to scan all these departments at the same time due to location. I want something that will work well when I am in these departments area.

The big ones I want are Murrieta and Riverside County as I live in Murrieta. I travel to the other cities for work/friends.

I don't need the best of the best but I don't want to get a lower quality scanner and in a few weeks have buyers regret.

Please point me in the right direction.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read and reply.
-Kevin
Hello Kevin,

It sounds like, by your original post, that you're not interested in trying to monitor digital or encrypted systems. I'm in the same boat. Although I'd like to be able to monitor digital systems, it seems as though the whole thing is getting very complicated, and I'm not a technology person.

For what you want to do, I'd recommend a used Pro-97 if you can find one, for various reasons:
- Although RS no longer services these radios, there is a place in the bay area that does. I recently sent three of my 97's there for service and was very pleased with their work. This is important if you're going to use an older scanner.
- The 97 has ten banks of 100 channels per bank - more than enough for what you want. You can program each bank for each area that you want to monitor.
- It receives VHF Low and High bands, UHF, 800 and 900 MHZ, and VHF & UHF air bands.
- It trunks the older Motorola, EDACS, and LTR systems.
- It will search for and identify the PL code being used.
- It has a signal-stalker search feature to find nearby transmitters.
- It's easy to program, but tedious if you do it by hand. For $25 I believe you can still download the WIN 97 program. It's not really a program, it's a Word-type template that you simply fill in the info on your computer, save it, then download it to your scanner. Very simple to use. You can fill out and save as many templates as you want to, then download whichever one you want to use that day. Great for programming your scanner for different areas. I make annual trips to different parts of the country and find WIN 97 the perfect way to instantly program my scanners for where I'm going.

Good luck in finding what you're looking for, and welcome to the hobby.

<>< Mike
cvrules90
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:08 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by cvrules90 »

Not many analog trunked systems left to monitor so go ahead and take your pick The BC125AT is also good like I said, but I don't believe it can do 800MHz.
kevinb1988
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:36 pm

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by kevinb1988 »

Thank you everyone for the replies. It has helped me tremendously in what to look for.

Thank you again
-Kevin
cvrules90
Posts: 1393
Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:08 am

Re: Advice for a newbie please.

Post by cvrules90 »

kevinb1988 wrote:Thank you everyone for the replies. It has helped me tremendously in what to look for.

Thank you again
-Kevin
You are very welcome. All the best and thank YOU for utilizing this forum. Please feel free to post other questions you may have.
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