So which scanner should you buy?

Let's say your starting out for the first time and you are looking for a good do-everything scanner at a keen price. The answer to this is naturally very wide, because it really does depend on what your listening interests are. If they extend beyond VHF and UHF, which means HF (short wave) then I would really recommend a separate HF receiver, and not a wide range scanner. Even something like a Matsui or Samson world band portable costing less than £100 will, in my mind be money better spent than a further £100 for additional HF coverage on a scanner. If you want continuous coverage, rather than banded coverage (i.e. Frequency bands with gaps in between) and a mode-limited scanner (i.e. only FM) why not look out for a second hand scanner from AOR, Icom, etc. Or many specialized scanner dealers have constantly changing stock and buying from a dealer gives you the benefit of good advice, as well as a guarantee. It may seem an obvious statement, but there's little use in looking around for a receiver with the widest coverage possible and plenty of modes if your only interested in say, the VHF and UHF airband ranges together with ground support ranges, and you've no interest in HF, or the 900MHz range to listen to analogue cell phones (which is being phased out), but then the 1000 - 2000 MHz range could become more and more interesting in the near future. Decide what your current interests are, and if you're just starting out id advice against spending a fortune on the latest hyper-expensive receiver with it's equally complicated controls.

In general, although there are some exceptions, the more you pay for the receiver the more freatures your likely to get as well as hopefully a better technical performance. But if you buy a budget handheld and connect this to a rooftop aerial, particularly an amplified type, don't be suprised that it falls over with breakthrough from unwanted strong signals on other frequencies while your trying to listen to a wanted signal. A higher price usually gets you a higher number of memory channels, several search banks, auto-storage of active frequencies, a swichable attenuator and maybe multi mode reception to include SSB, LSB, USB and CW. Few VHF/UHF commercial services use these modes, although if your interested in listening to amateur radio DX (long distance) stations and contests, it can open up a specialized new world of listening.

Portable or Base ?

A handheld portable scanner is very useful in the fact that it can double for use at home or outdoors, and will often cost less than a base receiver having similar frequency coverage can. A handheld will invariably have a set top BNC antenna connector so that you can, if you wish, use the receiver at home or out mobile with an external antenna connected in place of the set top helical. Base scanners are, however usually easier to operate as there more room on the front panel for additional buttons and controls, together with a larger frequency and channel display, and often but not always in the case of budget models, give better technical performance than a handheld in terms of their ability to pick up weaker signals and more importantly reject unwanted signals. Many people use a handheld for general listening, using this in the car as well as the home, but a common limitation of using a handheld scanner in a car, when traveling at speed, is usually the low available audio output. Even if an extension speaker is plugged in, you may find there just isn't enough. But here's a tip, most cars have a radio / cassette player. A readily available accessory is a portable CD / cassette adapter, which allows you to play a portable CD player through your cars existing radio / cassette system. Using one of these adapters, with the earphone input lead connected instead to your handheld scanner audio output socket, gives you plenty of audio - Evan with front/rear fading if your system has this!

If you don't want to miss a thing, these are the types to go for, and in a number of cases you may find your not paying a premium. The small icom IC-R2 for example is a compact wideband model but with a price tag actually less than a number of banded scanners. What your find normally find however is that extra facilities, such as a band - scope, alpha tagging of memory channels, and the inclusion of SSB, increases the price accordingly. If your choosing a sophisticated model as your first set, ensure you're happy in knowing how to use it, preferably in the shop with a " hands on test ", before parting with your money.

Although the majority of scanners cover the civil airband, many of them offer performance, which is something of a compromise. Airband transmissions are AM mode and the ideal circuitry for AM differs to that for FM. Although the majority of dual or multi-mode scanners offer adequate performance on airband , they rarely achieve the same level of performance as dedicated airband scanners such as the Sony, WIN or signal models where the RF , IF and AGC circuits are optimized for the band and mode . The IF bandwidth particularly needs to be wide enough to accommodate offset carriers which are sometimes encountered on the civil airband range.

Buying used equipment