Police Scanner | Scanner Radio | Radio Scanners

What Exactly, Can I Hear?

People who are new to the idea of scanning often wonder what exactly one can hear with a scanner radio. Since I have been at this for over 30 years and have heard a little bit of everything in that time, I've got a good idea of what can and cannot be heard.

In most cases, people who have become interested in listening to a scanner radio want to hear their local police and fire departments. Other emergency services like ambulances can also be monitored and will help fill in some information that may be missing by listening just to the police or fire department.

For example, in my area there are some dedicated frequencies that are used by ambulances to communicate with hospitals. These frequencies are most often used by ambulances on the way to hospital facilities to alert the hospital personnel regarding the status of the patient being transported. Detailed information on the patient's condition is often passed on these frequencies.

Another public safety agency you can probably monitor is the State Police or Highway Patrol in your area. Their communications will include traffic stops, traffic accidents, high-speed pursuits and other emergencies.

Beyond public safety agencies there are a large number of other two-way radio users you will be able to monitor with a typical scanner radio. Some of these include security at shopping malls, hospitals and businesses as well as delivery drivers, local public works departments, amateur radio operators, aircraft, utility companies, trains, weather broadcasts and much, much more.

One of the hottest trends in scanning in recent years is monitoring NASCAR drivers during a race. NASCAR has became a huge spectator sport recently and fans can often hear drivers communicate with their crew during a race using two-way radios that are easily monitored by scanner radios. That makes me wonder if rival crews ever listen in on the competitions communications in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.

In addition to the various communications you already know you can monitor with a scanner radio, most scanners also have a search feature which enables the radio to search systematically through all the frequencies it is able to receive and look for signals that may be present. This is an excellent way to discover new monitoring opportunities and sometimes even identify "secret" frequencies in use in your area that may not be published in the frequency directories.

Many scanner enthusiasts are specialists in one type of monitoring or another. Some are satisfied with listening to the local police while others prefer to listen only to fire departments, trains or aircraft. I have listened to both trains and aircraft in the past and although I did not care too much for listening to trains, I did find one type of aircraft communications quite interesting and still listen almost every day.

Commercial aircraft monitoring is very interesting to some scanner listeners but I always found it routine and boring. It only became interesting when there was some kind of emergency, and I think just about everyone would agree that the fewer emergencies we have involving aircraft the better off we are.

Military aircraft are another matter. They are involved in things like mid-air refueling, which I hear quite often in my area. They also embark on training missions where wartime conditions are simulated and mock air battles are fought in the skies.

To monitor military aircraft you must make sure you have a scanner that covers the 225 - 400 MHz military band and allows you to receive signals in AM mode. Aircraft normally utilize AM radio signals, unlike the FM signals that are most often used on the other frequency bands scanners normally receive.

Getting into things you will not be able to receive, there are some two-way radio users who use frequencies that you are able to monitor with a scanner but cannot hear. Most of the Federal law enforcement agencies now use scrambling or "voice protection" techniques that prevent scanners from monitoring their communications. In some cases you will hear what sounds like loud bursts of static or "white noise," which is what these types of signals often sound like on a scanner radio.

You can pretty much forget trying to decipher these signals since the technology they use is quite secure. Not to mention the fact that it is illegal to try to decipher these kinds of signals.

In the good old days I would often monitor the activities of Federal Agencies like the FBI, DEA and U.S. Marshals quite regularly, but that is mostly just a memory now, since they are all equipped with the latest scrambling technology.

It is not possible for me to list every possible type of communication you are likely to hear on a scanner radio since there are so many varied users of two-way radios out in the world. Part of the enjoyment of scanning for me has been discovering new and unexpected communications that you did not know you would be able to listen in on. So make sure you use that "Search" button on your scanner if you have a model with that capability.