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Letter Re: Communications for Disasters--Are Scanners Useful?
James:
The hot thing in scanners right now is digital trunking. Most public-safety
services use this approach, without scrambling or encryption. Analog
scanners are useless, but the new generation of scanners include
direct support for digital trunking.
I recently bought a Uniden/Bearcat
BCD 396T, which totally restored
my ability to listen to common public-safety traffic where I live.
Some more sensitive government agencies use encryption on top of digital
trunking, but there's no strong survival-oriented motivation to listen
to their transmissions. Unless you're trying to survive an FBI manhunt,
I suppose. In an emergency, being able to monitor fire and police agencies
should be enough for most people, and these new scanners can do that
in most areas. Regards, - PNG
