Overview Of The Mobile Radio Scanner

By Andy Zain

There are many reasons that a person will want a mobile radio scanner. Some individuals find it interesting to follow the transmission of police and emergency vehicle responses in their community. Other individual are traveling and find that a mobile radio scanner is very beneficial in avoiding weather or road hazards. Still other individuals find that having a mobile radio scanner with an emergency beacon embedded can be a life saving advantage when they are stranded in an area where there is no electricity of phone service.

Mobile radio scanners are available in many styles and designs that fit the individual needs of their users. Some scanners are manufactured with the built-in capability to send an emergency signal to police and emergency services departments. Other scanners are designed to be used both in a vehicle or as a base station in a home.

On average a mobile scanner will pick up a frequency up to 40 miles from the location of the scanner. This depends on the type of antenna and location of the individual. A magnetic antenna which uses the vehicle as the ground for the antenna often has a greater receiving capacity and clearer audio than other antennas. In addition, this antenna can easily be transferred to a home base unit to increase the capacity of a home antenna.

The glass antenna used with a mobile radio scanner is permanently installed on the glass of a car. Some of these antennas can be removed from the base unit that holds them. However, most of the antennas are in place solidly and cannot be easily removed from the vehicle.

Depending on the scanner selected, a mobile radio scanner is capable of monitoring hundreds of channels between 30Mhz and 3Ghz. VHF monitoring falls within 30Mhz and 300Mhz, This frequency is used primarily by the military, police, air traffic controllers, etc. The VHF to UHF is between 300Mhz and 3Ghz and is used by public service agencies with their two-way radios.

The scanners store thousands of channels and can scan hundreds of frequencies per second. Some of the scanners can follow trunked systems and the APCO-Project 25 digital radio frequencies used by federal, state, and local public agencies. Since the increase in terrorism and need for more secure communication, a mobile radio scanner cannot receive encrypted transmissions legally.

A mobile radio scanner is very beneficial to an individual who is traveling or living in an area that has severe and rapid climate changes. One can listen to weather reports as they are happening and follow police transmissions to avoid any road hazards. It is very easy to avoid time consuming problems on the road when one has a mobile radio scanner. - 30538

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