Questions about VHF radios?

[a4d]

Are Vhf radios capable of being police scanners also? I was looking at stuff on bass pro shops and was wondering if they could also pick up police signals, ems, and fire signals also.

Maybe something like this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Or this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Or even this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Or even if you find another one on that website that would be nice.

If it's from another shop i'd rather it be cheaper. I have a gift card for bass pro shops thats why.

[65535]

I'm going to say no because emergency services operate on their own channels that require a service issued radio to access the channel, therefore you couldn't send mixed signals or interfere with their signals. I may be wrong, but that answer makes sense to me.

[a4d]

What about CB radios? can you hear those stations mentioned above on a CB?

[Norm]

Short answer No.
Long answer.
Looks like all the radios you've linked to are fixed channel radios so you wouldn't be able to dial up the required frequency for police etc., here in Australia a lot of our police and emergency services are using digital radios and you may find the same in your area, if that's the case you would need a digital radio to listen to those services even then it may be coded and you still couldn't listen to them.

[a4d]

Alright thanks. What Scanner do you reccomend? Portable is a must. I would like to keep it as cheap as i can. I don't know really know all to much about scanners so please try to keep the terms easy. thanks.

[jrmcferren]

Usually only Amateur transceivers, and scanners have the capability to receive police and fire transmissions. There are exceptions, but those would also let you transmit illegally on those channels and I won't mention those here. I'm an amateur radio operator and I am glad to say that I am one. Just a warning to those looking into amateur (ham) radio, ham radio is a more expensive hobby than being a flashaholic.

[The-David]

Are Vhf radios capable of being police scanners also? I was looking at stuff on bass pro shops and was wondering if they could also pick up police signals, ems, and fire signals also.

Maybe something like this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Or this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Or even this one: http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/st...001000_200-1-5

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Or even if you find another one on that website that would be nice.

If it's from another shop i'd rather it be cheaper. I have a gift card for bass pro shops thats why.

First things first, if your really interested in monitoring your local police then you need to find out what system they operate on. I use Intercept northwest is a grate page. But be forewarned there is no ligament reason to own a radio that is set up to transmit on police frequencies. I have both the imput and out put programmed for the local LEO frequencies that are not trucked, I just program my input one step up so that I could reprogram my radio to transmit in the field easy enough. If you local system is trunked / digital your out of luck endless you know someone at the local radio shop. You can lissen but that’s about it. Secondly you need to figure out what else you want to do with the radio (GMRS, Ham, 2m, 70cm extra). If I were you the cheep scanner for lissing to the police works much better than the $$$ ham radio gear set up to do something it’s not really meant to do. Get the scanner and a GMRS/FRS and call it good. Just an FYI if your intent is to “harass” the local LEO, there are lost and lost of ham radio operators out there that volunteer to help track people like that down, check out a APRS.

[Radio]

a4d, This site is the CPF of the Scanner world, all the information and more that you will need is there as well as frequency databases and software to program and run your scanner from your computer. There are also many links to on-line scanner "feeds". If you are in or near a major city someone is probably already feeding/serving it out over the net. Happy Scanning!