{"id":1283,"date":"2018-01-19T15:47:18","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T20:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webcommand.net\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2018-01-19T15:47:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T20:47:18","slug":"build-police-scanner-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webcommand.net\/index.php\/2018\/01\/19\/build-police-scanner-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Build Your Own Police Scanner for $20"},"content":{"rendered":"

During my college days I worked in Radio Shack part time to help pay the bills. Its unfortunate Radio Shack has gone extinct, however when you are unable to adapt to the changes in the market only the strong will survive.\u00a0 During my career at The Shack one of the products that fascinated me was the police scanner. I spent hours behind the counter dialing up different frequencies and listing to calls all over New York City.<\/p>\n

It was the dawn of the digital tuner age where a listener could punch up a frequency for police or fire and be right in the action.\u00a0 476.3875 – BOOM.. you’re listening to NYPD! 482.04375 – Fire dispatch on the air! A few more clicks of the keypad and 482.2437 EMS is coming in loud and clear<\/p>\n

Can you still buy a scanner?<\/h4>\n

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You sure can! Uniden, and Whistler are brands that have survived and are still available for purchase at Amazon.<\/p>\n

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This Whistler desktop scanner is available at Amazon for $250.00<\/a><\/strong><\/span> It can pretty much scan and store a ton of frequencies.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>If a hand held unit is more your speed, Uniden has a great scanner for $360.00 also at Amazon.<\/a><\/strong><\/span> This unit boasts over 25,000 dynamically allocated channels. Seems like a lot if you ask me.<\/p>\n

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Save your money and DIY a scanner for $20<\/h4>\n

Digital tuners are everywhere, in our car radios, cable boxes, mobile devices and more. The digital tuner I used in my project is a USB Software Defined Radio I picked up for $20 (Click here to get one)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>These little USB sticks are designed to receive TV broadcasts in Europe (they do not receive\u00a0 US TV signals)\u00a0 However with the correct software they are easily configurable to receive broadcasts from as low as 25mhz all the way to 1.3Ghz. The receive is very broad and will allow the tuning of multiple stations simultaneously.<\/p>\n

It’s very easy to get started, simply plug the device into a USB port and download some companion software to begin tuning to your favorite police band. www.sdr-radio.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 has all the software you need to start your DIY scanner and begin listening to police, fire, ems, etc.<\/p>\n

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SDR-Tuner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few notes and discoveries:<\/h4>\n