Community Chat

[SharkE]

me too.  So many good stores have went belly up

Hate that. Amarillo, lost that popular kitchen store, but, we're getting a HomeGoods store soon. So, I'm looking forward to that.

All Amarillo is , is gas stations and banks on every

corner. Can't stand in the kitchen and twirl a cat without hitting a gas station.

[They CallMe MRWILKES]

Working in downtown Manhattan, I purchased most of my electronics at J&R on Park Row near City Hall.

Occasionally some things from Crazy Eddie.

Those were the days!

[On It]

@Susan345 @Happy2BHere I tried Broadcastify. It offers the county service and the village fire department, but it does not have the police. Police is our most important source of information.

[Bookplate]

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@SharkE wrote:

me too.  So many good stores have went belly up

Hate that. Amarillo, lost that popular kitchen store, but, we're getting a HomeGoods store soon. So, I'm looking forward to that.

All Amarillo is , is gas stations and banks on every

corner. Can't stand in the kitchen and twirl a cat without hitting a gas station.

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That's funny!  In NYC its nail salons and banks on every block.  

[Desertdi]

[Carmie]

A lot of police and medical emergency departments are now using encryption especially since the 9/11 attacks for safety and privacy.

You cannot buy a scanners to hear those calls.  In time, all callers will be encrypted. ( some radio nuts have figured out the key codes, though)

Scanners are still available for non encrypted calls. I don't think they are difficult to hook up.

[Susan345]

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@Happy2BHere wrote:

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@Susan345 wrote:

@On It

My Uncle had tons of radios and scanners from Radio Shack.  

These days I listen to my local fire dispatch on my computer at Broadcastify .com

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Another vote for Broadcastify from an old Radio Shack scanner user (my DH). During hurricane conditions my DH uses it for local PD/Fire/EMS/Emergency Operations on his iPad or laptop - it's a great service. 7000+ live audio scanner streams from across the country.

Choose your area/zip and choose which you want to hear from the list that comes up then click on Listen to start.

It's free unless you want the Premium (ability to listen to archives, no ads, etc.). BTW ad-wise when it connects there is only a short blurb about something, but that's it, and since he doesn't want to go back and listen to a call again, he says Free is fine for him.

I pay for the Premium because I don't like ads on anything.  When I first started listening there wew no ads. 

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[On It]

@Susan345 We are struggling because we must have access to the police. We heard all agencies until our scanner quit working. The village fire coverage offered by Broadcastify is not enough, but it may be all we have in the short term. The emphasis of Broadcastify is on our county services which do not typically respond inside the village and are mostly irrelevant. The county is huge and widespread. 

What I miss is the service that was provided by Radio Shack. They had everything working when I left the building.

[Susan345]

@On It

Most Police depts here have gone stealth.  But there are some that still let you listen.  Broadcastify does have some Police Depts. in different area of the country.

[timeless]

Try Scanner Master.  Their website has a button near the top that says "Programming" and if you click on it, it takes you to options that include sending it in or getting help doing it yourself from home.

My family has a HAM radio background and I recall going to Radio Shack with my dad in the 1970's and 1980's.

As an electronics engineer, he'd visit them for parts to make his own radios and that department slowly dwindled to nothing. 

He said the store went to hell in a handbasket when they started selling radio-controlled cars and cell phones!