Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

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Bogget
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Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Bogget »

What a load of tosh.............our hobby is alive and kicking, there are more two way radios in use today than there have ever been with the exeption of a few you can listen to them all if you keep up with the changes.
Our hobby is not dying its changing you just need to keep apace with it, we have all come a long way since i was using a Jil SX200 http://www.rigpix.com/miscrx/jil_sx200.htm
loved but it had more birdies than flamingoland marineland and zoo.....oh yes thats gone too..... but you know what i mean.
The world has changed so has our hobby, you could probably still use an AR88 but not much on a SX200 to listen to but hey i got a Whistler TRX-2 turned it on and wow thats where they where all hiding DMR...... ok ok its not the answer to everything and they are not cheap but hey are they good.
And now they are offering to upgrade old analog scanners to picup and decode DMR so if you have one of the listed analog scanners you can get it upgraded for around £50 plus postage, sounds good to me.
You dont even have to buy an expencive scanner i have an Ailunce HD1 i carry it with me listen to lots on that yes you need the listening details first but its not fast on scan but if you have 6 or 10 fav freq shopwatch etc.... then its covers it very well for DMR or analog VHF or UHF.
But still lots of services on analog Airband, Marine Band etc..... lots of services have not changed they operate diferently Taxi's for eg. in my area they have GPS car radios so they dont have to call for nearest car they know where it is so just send a message to that car sending it to the nearest job.
So cmon you lot stop spreading doom and gloom scanning is great fun, and you never know what you might hear.

Bogget
Amateur does not have a CH its pronounced "am-a-tore" NOT am-a-chure !
snapey75
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by snapey75 »

The two way industry is now obsessed with PTT over cellular and there are now many things like shopwatches, traffic wardens and wide area communications going over to this. I think scanning will get quieter in the future,

Neil
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Wayzgoosebob »

My prime interest is military air-band so where I live I am spoiled for choice. I have Lakenheath, Mildenhall, STANTA all very productive. A-A with army air corps helicopters, f15’s I am really lucky, for me there is a wealth of activity.
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Bogget
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Bogget »

snapey75 wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 14:28 The two way industry is now obsessed with PTT over cellular and there are now many things like shopwatches, traffic wardens and wide area communications going over to this. I think scanning will get quieter in the future,

Neil
they are only just going to DMR it will be a few years before they change again, they run on a shoe string they cant afford to keep changing and by the time they do i will have my whistler TRX-8 that scans and decodes all celular transmissions DMR teir 6 and anything else they bring out, i remeber someone telling me Nagra 2 was uncrackable as was cable TV and more recently DMR....

I love a challenge dont you..........My scanners have never been so crowded.

Be a detective look in the right places speak to the right people, there its lots to listen to so much i dont have enough hrs in a day.

Bogget
Amateur does not have a CH its pronounced "am-a-tore" NOT am-a-chure !
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Mikel »

For me the heyday of scanning was in the 90's when just about everything was un-encrypted FM or AM, you could listen to mobile and cordless phones and all the emergency services and many organisations were using some form of PMR to keep in touch with drivers etc.

The stuff we used to listen to was incredible and if you tell people these days you can see they are struggling to believe you :lol:

As always times change and many companies have changed to mobile phones to keep in touch with their fleet and digital 2 way radios for local comms.

I do not yet own any digital gear but there is still much to listen to in my area and I never leave the house without a scanner of some description.

Some areas of analogue comms have actually got busier near me, for example the use of of Baofeng BF-888's on the default frequencies with schools, factories, farms, forestry workers, surveillance and general car to car convoy use etc are just a few of the things I hear on an almost daily basis from them, not to mention all the usual air, marine, amateur, PMR446 etc stuff and even my local Storenet is still FM.

This proves there is an advantage to living on a pimple on the backside of civilisation ie South Wales :)

Scanning is far from dead it is just that some areas are not so busy as they once were :thumbup:
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yagiman
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by yagiman »

Allso 449 and 446 megahertz bands are usually bussy aswell
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by scottyboy »

snapey75 wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 14:28 The two way industry is now obsessed with PTT over cellular and there are now many things like shopwatches, traffic wardens and wide area communications going over to this. I think scanning will get quieter in the future,

Neil
To be honest I think the mobile phone manufacturers missed a trick many years ago with this as it could have been implemented well before it was.
The fact the infrastructure is already in place and the low cost of data in a package especially if a company is taking a lot of sims or handsets means it will get more and more popular.
A company isn’t going to spend thousands on a repeater and handsets when they no longer need to for instant group communications.
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Bogget »


To be honest I think the mobile phone manufacturers missed a trick many years ago with this as it could have been implemented well before it was.
The fact the infrastructure is already in place and the low cost of data in a package especially if a company is taking a lot of sims or handsets means it will get more and more popular.
A company isn’t going to spend thousands on a repeater and handsets when they no longer need to for instant group communications.

i understand what your saying but cells are getting full as it is they depend on people not staying on the phone like a 2 way if we all did that in london or leeds you would not get a line in some cells they rely on the fact you only use your mobile for x amount of mins per day.
If we all doubled the amount of time we was talking they could only service half the current users in some areas.

Bogget
Amateur does not have a CH its pronounced "am-a-tore" NOT am-a-chure !
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by scottyboy »

Bogget wrote: 22 Apr 2021, 09:30
To be honest I think the mobile phone manufacturers missed a trick many years ago with this as it could have been implemented well before it was.
The fact the infrastructure is already in place and the low cost of data in a package especially if a company is taking a lot of sims or handsets means it will get more and more popular.
A company isn’t going to spend thousands on a repeater and handsets when they no longer need to for instant group communications.
i understand what your saying but cells are getting full as it is they depend on people not staying on the phone like a 2 way if we all did that in london or leeds you would not get a line in some cells they rely on the fact you only use your mobile for x amount of mins per day.
If we all doubled the amount of time we was talking they could only service half the current users in some areas.

Bogget

Definitely agree with that, even more so with EE who is going to be hosting the new ESN when the emergency services leave Airwave. That will put EE users at an even greater disadvantage as the ESN sims will have priority over the public.
In 1 hand the providers throw a great deal at you to get your money each month with unlimited data and minutes etc. But on the other they don’t want you hogging the cells using it.
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Werthers »

447 MHz is often busy.

Here is what I got this morning, all analog FM.

447.5900 MHz
457.4450 MHz
467.2700 MHz - BBC Radio Master Control Room
447.5810 MHz
454.7560 MHz
461.8870 MHz
447.5875 MHz
447.9125 MHz
446.2875 MHz
446.3000 MHz
446.3500 MHz
156.7000 MHz - River Thames in London
140.9950 MHz - Clean Feed Ident ITN MCR
160.0100 MHz
442.4375 MHz Clean Feed Ident
442.2750 MHz - Very interesting people rehearsing. BBC TV Microphones. There in the Commons.


I'll edit and add more as I scan for more.
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by mattdcooley »

Scanning really is quite dead if you take the true meaning of the word and aren't a fan of air/marine band. By true meaning I mean having a bunch of frequencies programmed into a basic receiver and hitting scan expecting to hear voice only upon activity.

If you are into locating and identifying signals, working out inputs to unpublished repeaters, logging talkgroups in use on digital systems whether they be encrypted or not then you are more of a searcher and that will live for long. The simple fact is the hobby has extended on so many levels in the last couple of decades. A true enthusiast hears digital on analogue scanner, puts their digital radio into monitor mode to find a colour code then works out if the system is encrypted or on RAS. Or are they just transmitting data 24/7 but voice is so sparce you lock it out? 1 talkgroup is encrypted so you ignore (doesn't mean they are all encrypted though) etc....

At the bare minimum correct steps and CTCSS/DCS and colour codes are needed for proper identification. Ofcom more and more are placing neighbouring users on the same frequencies because they only ask for a very small protection area. Local to me there are 2 licenced users within 1 mile of each other on same freq both using repeaters. One uses a DMR site link repeater to another site on another frequency and the other analogue repeater CTCSS. Both are oblivious to each other. The analogue user notices occassionally that when over one side of the extended site (they only asked for coverage of the buildings) the audio drops out occasionally but I guarantee anyone locally with a analogue only scanner has locked that frequency out. Scanning never died, the game just got a lot more complicated and refused to run on the old Windows 3.1 machine anymore :)
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by mattdcooley »

scottyboy wrote: 25 Apr 2021, 09:08 Definitely agree with that, even more so with EE who is going to be hosting the new ESN when the emergency services leave Airwave. That will put EE users at an even greater disadvantage as the ESN sims will have priority over the public.
In 1 hand the providers throw a great deal at you to get your money each month with unlimited data and minutes etc. But on the other they don’t want you hogging the cells using it.
What you smoking? The ESN uses a totally seperate network. Take any 4G mobile phone and run a manual network scan. You will find 2xEE 4G networks one using MNC 23430 (public) the other using 23432 (ESN). The backhaul from the cellsite might be shared however nobodys phone will get kicked off the network due to priority from the ESN! Heck you are obviously too young to remember GSM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACCOLC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTPAS

They have ALWAYS had priority :crazy: ESN changes NOTHING!
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by Broken_Antenna »

I have just signed up today after being years out of the hobby.

I remember back in the day it was so active my radio scanner from Tandy was constantly alive with everything including Emergency services, telephones, utilitilties companies such as gas, electricty, water, skips. Then there was Airband, Marine, BBC mics, CB, Amateur radio etc. I don't hear any of the utilities companies anymore which takes away another 30 frequencies to start with. I am closer to the docks now than I was back in the 90's and I haven't heard any Marine activity at all.

I bought myself a TRX-1 and had to start form scratch and in the 6 weeks I've had it, I have found various security companies, 1 skip company, 2 councils with 2 different channels 1 for bin collection and 1 for recycling collection, Debenhams in Uk shut down yesterday so i've lost those forever. But it is not anywhere near as alive as it was back in the 90's I have lost about 6 taxi companies and I don't even hear taxis anymore. Skips?? who wants to listen to someone dropping off a skip?
I have 2 Amateur Radio stations I can hear.

All in all I have about 20-25 frequencies with only about 6 really active and the council frequencies just do not stop all day, but knowing that number 23 made up street has contaminated their recycling with food isn't interesting to me.. I have a better set up now than I did back then. Everything seems to be going to mobile phones or going encrypted. A few security companies know that people are still listening in around where I live because for sensitive information they'll request a phone call or they'll say I don't really want to say this over the radio and the convo ends there. I think the hobby will eventually end unless you are someone who likes to use an SDR and track down some sattelites, track down your local phone mast that you are connected to or just decode some pager messages.

But I honestly think the hobby will be reduced to absolutely nothing in the not to distant future.
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by scottyboy »

mattdcooley wrote: 12 May 2021, 00:34
scottyboy wrote: 25 Apr 2021, 09:08 Definitely agree with that, even more so with EE who is going to be hosting the new ESN when the emergency services leave Airwave. That will put EE users at an even greater disadvantage as the ESN sims will have priority over the public.
In 1 hand the providers throw a great deal at you to get your money each month with unlimited data and minutes etc. But on the other they don’t want you hogging the cells using it.
What you smoking? The ESN uses a totally seperate network. Take any 4G mobile phone and run a manual network scan. You will find 2xEE 4G networks one using MNC 23430 (public) the other using 23432 (ESN). The backhaul from the cellsite might be shared however nobodys phone will get kicked off the network due to priority from the ESN! Heck you are obviously too young to remember GSM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACCOLC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTPAS

They have ALWAYS had priority :crazy: ESN changes NOTHING!
Wynd you neck in with the what you smoking comment.
From what I have read it would prioritise the ESN over public but that may not be the case then.
I’ve never bothered to do a network scan as had no reason to do so.
Yea I’m that young I remember sitting with my scanner listening to analog mobiles prior to gsm
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Re: Scanning is dead, nothing to listen to, the end is nigh.....

Post by mattdcooley »

scottyboy wrote: 16 May 2021, 20:09 Wynd you neck in with the what you smoking comment.
From what I have read it would prioritise the ESN over public but that may not be the case then.
I’ve never bothered to do a network scan as had no reason to do so.
Yea I’m that young I remember sitting with my scanner listening to analog mobiles prior to gsm
Fair enough if you didn't know. I just remember reading the same inaccuracy about 3 years ago over on a mobile phone group with people moaning about EE customers stealth paying for the ESN yet getting a lesser service as a result. The reality is ESN has (at all taxpayers expense) allowed EE to cover more remote areas with masts and customers will benefit, in fact everyone will because emergency calls can be made cross-network so anywhere with EE signal any phone can make a 999 call (think extreme rural areas with ZERO coverage previously). The relatively small bandwidth demands of the emergency services is hardly going to swamp a cell 4G cell. The public will also have fallback to 2G/3G for the time being which ESN won't so the 4G side of things has got to improve first its unclear though whether some new cells will be 4G only at 800MHz.

I usually do a manual network scan in poor coverage areas just to see what it's like on others. If you are on EE it's easy to see which is which is which although home network is always listed at the top on Android anyway. If you are on another network it lists other networks in order of strength. The ESN sometimes shows up as 23432, Virgin Mobile or even ASDA depending on SIM card! But it's quite obvious and comes up top of the list everywhere I have checked including the middle of the Standedge tunnel. It doesn't appear to be a leaky feeder system just a couple of cells either end of the tunnel.
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