I've inherited a ...

Dragging this (very) old thread up as couldn't find anything else on here scanning radio related.

Dug out an old scanner this week. Used to adore using it back in the late 90s to listen to mobile phones (old style ones) etc.

Gave it a go today and there is literally zilch to hear besides generic ATC chatter. Sadly, I think the days of scanning radios are long gone. Anyone know of anything I might still be able to pick up?
 
They do now I think yeah. Definitely police at least. Back in the day I remember fun times could be had tuning into 450mhz. But seems like dead air now.
 
There's plenty to listen to but a half decent aerial is essential. You won't get the police any more though but of course, the AM airband is even fuller than it ever used to be.
 
There's plenty to listen to but a half decent aerial is essential. You won't get the police any more though but of course, the AM airband is even fuller than it ever used to be.

Thanks feek. The scanner I have is an AOR 2700 (if that means anything?). It's handheld and the aerial is the original one it came with, which just attaches to it. Wondering what frequency ranges might be active and worth exploring? It can do 500khz to 1300mhz I think and can do AM, WFM or NFM (although not sure how to set the band!).
 
You should hear plenty of high level air traffic with that between 108 and 137MHz AM. I can't get excited about scanners though, they don't have a microphone socket ;)
 
You should hear plenty of high level air traffic with that between 108 and 137MHz AM. I can't get excited about scanners though, they don't have a microphone socket ;)

Sadly I think it must be broken as I tried that range (ensuring I was on AM) and got nothing! Think the aerial is probably busted.
 
Sadly I think it must be broken as I tried that range (ensuring I was on AM) and got nothing! Think the aerial is probably busted.

108.00MHz to 117.95MHz are radio nav-aids, you wont get squat from them apart from a morse ident code. 118.00MHz to 136.975MHz are ATC voice frequencies. VHF range works as line of sight, so don't expect to hear ATC, unless you're close to an aerial, but you'll hear the aircraft call back from around 200 miles away if in the cruise, or 80 or so miles if in the terminal area.

Depending on where you are in the country it's quite easy to find frequencies that are interesting, but I would implore that you only listen rather than ever attempt to transmit, for obvious reasons.
 
108.00MHz to 117.95MHz are radio nav-aids, you wont get squat from them apart from a morse ident code. 118.00MHz to 136.975MHz are ATC voice frequencies. VHF range works as line of sight, so don't expect to hear ATC, unless you're close to an aerial, but you'll hear the aircraft call back from around 200 miles away if in the cruise, or 80 or so miles if in the terminal area.

Depending on where you are in the country it's quite easy to find frequencies that are interesting, but I would implore that you only listen rather than ever attempt to transmit, for obvious reasons.

Don't think I'd be able to transmit anyway. Is it even possible to reverse engineer it to do that?
 
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