Analogue scanning in North East - anything to scan still ?

[icom]

Been out of the hobby for around 10 years and considering getting back into it but strikes me that there's not much left to scan ?

- emergency services are digital/scrambled ?
- taxi firms going digital ?
- CB radio all but dead ?

I'm 3 miles North of Durham City in a rural area. Will I be able to pickup Newcastle airport comms ?

I had an Icom ic-r2 back in the day and I see the ic-r5 looks pretty good - tempted, but only if I can pick something up...

All advice welcome.

Ta.

[gmham]

A lot wont agrea with me here but in all honesty mate for what is left to actually listen to these days would personally not spend much on a scanner, try have a listen on one first as I think you will be very dissapointed with whats left to actually monitor unless airband listening is your thing ??

the final nail in the coffin for me anyway was the local shopwatch / pubwatch going digital, there is very little left which holds my attention so much so that I can count on one hand how many times I have used my scanner this year !!

[icom]

No-one going to disagree with gmham ?

Perhaps it's easier if I ask what's left to scan ?

- cb radio
- taxi's
- ham radio
- air band
- military air

?

Is that it ? Anything else ?

Ta.

[user8666]

cordless phones
baby moniters
taxis
airband
break down recovery
security
coastgaurd
cb
ham
pmr 446

[Andrew]

Rail (196-207)
446's
449's

[jaybranch]

Don't forget, if you've got the right type of scanner, have a pop down the lower bands 0-30Mhz in SSB... there's a whole host of offerings down there.

If the VHF/UHF bands are quiet, HF will keep you amused!

[icom]

jaybranch, could u expand pleez.

Ic-r5 ebay bargain winging it's way to me

[wind in the antenna]

Band III Trunking
On-Site Industrial / Research / PharmaChemical / Educational

Digital PBR is not the end of the road either and no informed person would say that (in un-encrypted form ) it cannot be listened to.

I define scanner users as falling in two camps, there are maybe various shades of grey in-between.

The first is your voyeur scanner user who really doesn't give a hoot about how he is able to hear the signal as long as a real life drama is being played out before his ears

The other is the scanner user who enjoys the technical challenge of receiving out-of-area signals and perhaps an interest in how other work tasks are performed and the team dynamics behind the operation.

He (or by some remote possibility she) would be fired by the intrigue of tackling an emerging technology such as digital PBR just as we were by embracing computer control, computer programming, CTCSS and DCS, narrow bandwidth, MPT1327 decoding, Pocsag and FSK decoding etc etc.

I had a lot of fun with my Q7. It and the R2 were advanced receivers in their day.

The current Unidens are the absolute business in terms of facilities and are not shamed by their RF achievement either.