What’s a Portable Radio Scanner, and How Do You Use It?
A portable radio scanner can be something you use to listen to emergency services, either because you are simply interested in doing that or because you’re trying to find out what’s going on in your community. However, you can listen to other types of transmissions on a radio scanner, too, simply as a hobby; if you’re in the profession of journalism or our investigator, radio scanners can also be very helpful because they can give you tips or leads, and they can simply help you stay up on what’s going on in your community.
A lot of people call these radio scanners, police scanners; but they don’t just pick up on frequencies from the police. They pick up other frequencies, too, so that you can listen to a variety of goings-on, whether they be from ambulance and fire services, air traffic control, racing teams, police transmissions, and a lot more.
Most popular of the portable radio scanner models are the Uniden radio scanners, especially the model called the Bearcat. This has a basic model with a hundred channels, and the Bearcat can go all the way up to 25,000 channels — or any number of channels in between.
Microelectronics and microprocessors control modern scanners, and these scanners are now very portable and lightweight, so that you can carry them with you. They first came out in the 1970s, but they were heavy back then because the technology wasn’t there to make them lighter. Today, you can also buy radio scanners that you can use at home, somewhat larger in size than a portable scanner but with additional features the portable radio scanner can’t usually support because it’s so much smaller.
Today, you can buy a portable radio scanner with thousands of channels, and you can monitor your scanner on the fly with hundreds of channels per second possible. Today, radio scanners are meant to scan and monitor local UHF and VHF RF frequency bands. They can also handle WFM, AM, and FM modulation.
Which of the radio scanners should you choose?
If you’re just starting out in the hobby of listening to radio scanners, you can choose a handheld portable radio scanner with just a hundred channels. As you continue in this hobby, you can opt for more sophisticated models with up to 25,000 channels. Most scanners pick up transmissions that are up to 40 miles distant, depending on how powerful the antenna being used is. Usually, these scanners can handle a vast range of frequencies, between 29 MHz and 512 MHz.
A portable radio scanner isn’t that complicated, and is simply a receiver that can automatically tune into at least two frequencies simultaneously. The squelch setting can be adjusted so that signals can be filtered to be less or more sensitive to interference or transitions that you don’t want to be tuned into.
Kamagra />Author Bio: At RadarDetectorsPro we strive to offer a great selection of radar detectors, radio scanners and CBs, with honest and clear pricing. We do a great deal of research on our products and suppliers to be sure our customers are getting a quality product at a fair price and in a timely manner.
Category: Technology/Electronics
Keywords: portable radio scanner,radio scanners,handheld radio scanner,cb radio scanner