Well, i finally installed a police scanner in my car. Definately worth it. It has saved me twice thus far. I got the Bearcat BCT-7 which has a special feature that picks up the repeaters on state patrol cars and other police vehicles. It alerts the driver to the presence of a patrol car by sounding a high pitched alarm and flashing a special red light. I installed the scanner in my dash under the radio and put an antenna in my trunk. I get great range and pick up police who are well out of the local area. Here are some pics from the install (pics are about 250K each in size) :
http://www.laures.com/pictures/fulls...0-0039_IMG.JPG
http://www.laures.com/pictures/fulls...0-0040_IMG.JPG
http://www.laures.com/pictures/fulls...0-0041_IMG.JPG
http://www.laures.com/pictures/fulls...0-0042_IMG.JPG
http://www.laures.com/pictures/fulls...0-0043_IMG.JPG

All in all I am pretty happy with the scanner and it was worth the $150 (that is including the stuff i had to buy to do the install; cable, dremel tool, etc).

 

sweet, now I'm wondering if it's legal to have one of those in southern cali. hrmmm, I must get one.

 

Go here for state scanner laws:
http://www.fordyce.org/scanning/scan.../scanlaws.html

 

Now I will go get one. Where do I find one of those? Like radio shack or something? Also, when you say range is great, by how much is it rated? 500 yards or greater? thnx, I'm getting one. woo hoo!

 

Good thing it's not illegal in any of the states on the way to GingerMan on Monday...


[Modified by nsxtasy, 5:45 PM 6/27/2001]

 

As long as it's legal in the state that your vehicle is registered in and which you reside, out of state authorities cannot write you a ticket for having one nor can they destroy it. They can however ask you to turn it off. They can't force you to though.

 

He he, I checked in to this Ken. Eurodeseo is right; that is what the Indiana and Michigan attorney generals office told me. I will be leaving the antenna at home and the unit will be turned off however.

VaporSi, I can get a range of about 10-20 miles in terms of police frequencies. In terms of the state patrol alert feature, it's about a 3 mile radius. Best place to buy the scanner in on E-bay; but you can find them at most local scanner/CB/ham radio shops. Radio shack does not carry them. http://www.uniden.com has more info on the model.

 

So does it pick up all cops?!?

 

so did you get a police scanner before or after you saw the fast and the furious???

 

Will this pick up patrol cars that are not using their radar or using it in spurts?

 

thnx onyx for the info, I will get one, but need to figure out where to hide that antenae in the stook. If you say it alerts you to the presence of the patrol cars, then this beats getting a radar detecter. Am I correct?

 

also forgot to ask, it's either this or a valentine one, and if the unit simply notifies me of a patrol car somewhere within my path, I just get the scanner instead of the valentine.

 

jond, it will pick up all frequencies that the cops communicate on, plus the repeaters that highway patrol and some local cops use to keep in touch with their base station.

ActiveAero, this is not reliant on radar at all! The cops don't even have to have a radar gun in their car. It relies solely on their police radios and their communcation with other law enforcement around them (other cop cars, base station, etc.).

JDizzm, I actually have had a scanner since I was 10 years old. Fathers company used to make them and I used to listen in on cordless phone calls (back when there were only 10 channels for cordless phones). I bought this unit after reading the article listed below in this post about it's effectiveness.

Here is a link that explains everything: http://www.radartest.com/archives/AR-020100-NECHD.html

Don't get me wrong here guys, you CANNOT use this in place of a radar detector; you should definately still use a radar detector! It is mostly useful for more rural areas or on highways where state patrol pulls people over. Plus, I can tell if cops are in the area by listening to the radio and if the cops signal is strong and clear i know he is close by.

 

Absolutely. Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, but... this scanner is programmed to pick up the radio frequencies of the state police, but NOT for each different municipality. So if you're driving on local roads, or a so-called "local yokel" happens to be on the highway, you may not pick him up. Also if he's got his radio turned off (it happens), you won't pick him up.

It's a useful tool, don't get me wrong - but a radar detector is still indispensable (although also does not render you invulnerable, either).

 

Chris Now I am thinking of maybe getting one
Now only if i had somewhere to mount it

 

Onyx,

Nice idea - one question though: is the police chatter decipherable?

I'm just wondering if I could understand what they're talking about.

 

did you have to program all the frequencies in? or did it come already to go? awesome find man, i'm gonna sell my handheld and buy one like yours! thanks! nice pics too!

 

They come pre-programmed. I think you just set the state that you're in - right, Chris?

You don't have to understand the police chatter. The important thing is that you know that they're there...

 

Jond - I wouldn't count on it working in Henrico, the police here are on an 800 mhz digital system. I seriously doubt this scanner can pick up those frequencies

 

xjohnx - Thanks. Any idea what the Henrico police and state police are using for radar? I think they're using laser...

 

Im going to go out on a limb and assume these suckers arent legal in Canada? Any Canadians know for sure?

 

Where did you order it from onyx?

 

i'll definetly get one in addition to my valentine one.

ot:99r i love your avatar

 

I still remember the good old days when you could pick up cordless phone conversations on even the bottom of the line scanners, as long as you knew which frequency to tune to.

Actually, even back when I was into scanners (like 8 years ago), they had ones that picked up 800mhz frequencies. I dont know about the digital signal though...so easily encrypted. Remember, before PCS (and the other one), cell phones used to run on 800mhz.

 

To clarify certain aspects: Ken is correct in saying it is not programmed to pick up the local cops. As Ken mentioned, the scanner is pre-programmed to pick up state police. You set your state in the scanner and every 2 seconds it scans the pre-programmed frequencies for your state. My understanding of the technology is that the state police must use repeaters in every car in order to keep in contact over the large area; however, local police have a much smaller area and thus repeaters are not COMMONLY used, although can be used sometimes.

You can however program in up to 200 frequencies total. One nice feature is that you can select on the scanner (police, fire, highway patrol, etc) what you want to listen to and the scanner will simply search the entire band looking to chatter.

Kengs, I don't listen to the police chatter because many times it doesn't help at all (although recently a cop in front of me was talking and I picked him up). The benefit of the scanner is that it picks up the repeaters of the state police and goes off like a radar detector. For example, I can turn the volume ALL THE WAY DOWN, and if the scanner picks up a repeater it will sound an alarm that is independent of the volume control and will flash a red light. This means I don't have to listen to police chatter but I can still utilize the scanners main feature.

Actually, today it saved me on the highway on the way to work. The scanner was going off for about 2 miles and then I saw an unmarked Crown Vic. on the side of the road.

As Ken said, you still definately need a radar detector, but this is a nice addition and worht the money IMO.

As mentioned by a few of you, some police now use 800Mhz trunked systems. This scanner cannot pick up trunked systems (however, state police do not use trunked systems). However, this isn't a problem because you will still hear the police, it's jsut their conversation may jump around from frequency to frequency a little due to the trunking feature. Some trunking systems now are digital and no scanner (to my knowledge) will pick up a trunked digital system.

As a side note if police are using laser, get a license plate cover (check in to legality first) and cover front and rear plates (if you have front and rear). Also, cops like to aim at taillights or headlights with laser. I haven't investigated blocking this but I am sure there is a way to do it. For laser the main idea to protecting yourself is to eliminate as many laser reflective objects as possible. You guys with turbos and intercoolers, have fun, cops love to aim for the radiator or intercooler, perfect reflection source.