i know this is not part of the ford truck itself, but i just got pulled over last night in my town for doing 81 in a 55. i know i should not speed and all that crap. but what is a good scanner to have? i'm a college student which means that i dont have alot of money laying around. anyway can i have model #'s and names of the best places to buy them.

 

I got a Bearcat model number bc350a scanner in my truck I bought it at Walmart for $99.00 plus tax. hope this helps.

 

Ref. the scanner...
Before I was a cop I bought a Bearcat BCT-7 scanner because of the Highway Patrol ALERT feature. The radio is advertised as being able to detect Highway Patrol by their police radio transmissions. Basically the radio claims that if a Highway Patrolman keys up to talk in about a 5 mile radius, the radio would sense this, and an alarm would go off; indicating that a HP trooper/cop was nearby.

Anyways, when I got the radio I was disappointed as I sat down near my local police station, which is also where the Highway Patrol is located, and never once did the radio go off in over 1 hour! As I was driving home the radio went off, and I was also listening to the scanner so I heard the officer that set it off. The officer was 6 miles away in an adjacent county, and I personally knew that officer did not have radar--as it was an outdated radio that set the scanner alarm off (thats how the radio works).

However, when I investigated further, I leanerd that the "ALARM" is set to key on low band HF frequencys (around 39 mhz). The way to tell if a PD car has a low band radio is by the antenna. If the antenna on the back of the PD car is over 6 ft long, then it is the type that will activate the radio--as the radio has a mobile extender (basically a radio 'repeater' that takes in a low watt (power) radio signal, and re-broadcasts the signal at a much higher power for increased radio distance). As you may or may not know, only a handful of Highway Patrols, Sheriff's, and PDs still have low band (39mhz) radios anymore. Now most are very high band UHF (900+ mhz) frequencys, which the scanner does not pickup.

Thus, don't waste your $ on a scanner as it will not work for detecting cops nearby. However, if you want to get into ham radio, or listening to your local cops; then buy a scanenr. Keep in mind though that NO cops ever go over the radio to their dispatcher to tell the dispatcher where they are clocking radar--it is just not needed info.

OK, next subject--radar detectors. Probably what you would need is a RADAR/LASER etector for your car. HOWEVER....... : since having become a cop, I have leaned alot about radar and laser. Radar and laser is detected by a radar detector. However, and this is important--the radar detector will only go off if the cop has his radar gun ON, and is driving down the road or is stationary writing a report/clocking radar. No cop that I know of clocking radar just sits with his radar gun on, pointed dow nthe road; for this would be like the cop saying to a person with a radar detector "here I am, slow down as I am 900 ft down the road"----it would be the equivenant of a burglar wearing flourescent yellow clothes, shouting aloud that he/she is a burglar, and wearing a hat with a bright stobe light atop--it just doesnt happen!! Thus, Most cops only switch the radar or laser on for just a split second when they see the car/truck going down the road. By the time your radar or laser detector goes off, the cop already has your speed locked and you are busted.

So, a radar detector is virtually useless too unless it is only one of those 3% of cops who leave their radar gun on the whole time, as apposed to intermittedly.

Lastly, I had to learn the hard way (I got a ticket just before becoming a cop) so learn from me and my $200 mistake. Instead, drive the speed limit, or 5 MPH over MAX . Alas, remember the old cop addage, WHICH NOT ALL COPS ADHERE TO, which is "9 mph over your fine, 10 mph over YOU'RE MINE" (does not apply to all cops)

Hope this helps !!

 

check your state penal law... it is probably illegal to have a police scanner in your vehicle. it is in the state i live in. i'm surprised the cop who replied didn't know that. be careful, instead of a ticket, you could end up in jail. good luck

 

It's perfectly legal to have a scanner in every state I've ever lived in (but you have to have an FCC license if it TRANSMITS), and many new scanners WILL scan the 900MHz bands. (My cheapo Radio Shack one does.) One of the radar detector mfrs. even makes a unit that looks like a radar detector, but is actually an alarm like firecop described - only it works.

Radar detectors work fine when the cop shoots the guy ahead of you.

 

I've been a dispatcher for 12 years. As far as I am aware it is not illegal to have a scanner in your vehicle.

I agree with firecop that having a scanner won't keep you from getting tickets. The only way a scanner would help is if you heard the same officer making several car stops in one location. However, an officer rarely sits in the same spot over and over and makes traffic stops. They usually look for "targets of opportunity" (like people that go 81 in a 55). Not to slam you too hard but there's no way you'd get off with a verbal warning on that one!

My wife drives a 99 Mercury Cougar and the radar detector we have in that car has saved me several times. The other point firecop made is also true, most officers have the radar off until the point when they see a speeding vehicle, then they turn it on. You have less than 2 seconds to react when that happens. Most radar training schools teach that in order to write a solid ticket they should have the target and good "tone" on the radar for 2 seconds.

So, the officer turns the radar on, your detector goes off, you jam on the brakes. More than likely you'll still get stopped. You *might* end up getting out of a ticket but don't quote me on that!

The times where I've been saved is when the officer is shooting radar at another car up the road and it sets off my detector.

If you like to hear what the cops, firefighters and EMT's are doing in your area, get a scanner. If you're looking to avoid those costly speeding tickets, I'd recommend you check Ebay for a good radar detector.

 

Your best bet is the Valentine One Radar/Laser detector. It has been top rated for years. It has excellentt range as well as directional arrows to tell you where the radar is coming from. Also, it will tell you how many signals it is picking up. Both these features are very useful in weeding out false alarms. The unit is about $300, but if it saves you just one ticket, it pays for itself in saved fines/insurance penalties. They have ads in all the car mags, and I'm sure if you run a search you will find their website, I don't have the name on hand. Hope this helps.

 

http://www.valentine1.com/home.asp

 

equipping a motor vehicle with a police scanner most certainly is illegal in new york state and most likely in almost, if not all other states in the union, unless licensed by the fcc or a police officer acting pursuant to his duties.
i would not have posted my response if i was not sure. just offering some advise to hopefully keep a fellow ford fan out of trouble.
for all you dispatchers and lawyers out there, in new york you can read up on it in the new york state vehicle and traffic law in section 397 - eqipping motor vehicles with radio receiving sets capable of receiving signals on the frequencies allocated for police use.
basicly, it states that you can't do it...6 months in jail and $1000 fine is max punishment.
i suspect most states have similar statutes...you just have to know where to look. no offense intended toward anyone

 

I think USOnline has lots of state laws available for browsing, so you might find it there, but every Radio Shack sells scanners that catch the 900MHz bands. I think the discrepancy between your law & what I've observed is that not EVERY police department wants to spend the money to use "the frequencies allocated for police use". They just use 900MHz radios but they use open frequencies because they don't want to pay for FCC licensing, so the regular Radio Shack scanners WILL pick them up, but don't violate any laws.

 

steve83
i think you are missing the original point...it is illegal in some states ( probably all states ) to equip a motor vehicle with a police scanner. this is not to say that scanning police frequencies is illegal. its not, just being able to do so from a motor vehicle is.

also, the police don't just choose a frequency at random, the frequencies they operate on are specifically assigned to them by the fcc . they are licensed to use them.

remember, just because an item is legal to buy and own doesn't mean its legal to use it however you want to. i have a 4x4 truck but that doesn't mean i can legally go four-wheeling in my neighbors garden.

 

Well, actually, the original point was "what scanner should I buy?" .

What I'm saying is that not all police departments use the channels the FCC has set aside for them - they still have to buy the equipment & license it, and it's cheaper to use equipment that operates on unregulated frequencies, so some of them do. The city I used to live in and all the ones around it (soutwest Louisiana) used frequencies that any handheld, base, or mobile scanner can legally receive. Radio Shack doesn't sell consumer electronics that aren't legal to use where they're sold, and the instructions with my scanner covered this topic in depth.

I don't think I'm disagreeing with you - I'm just pointing out some exceptions to what you've said. It's perfectly legal to receive police transmissions that are made on frequencies that are legal to receive with an unmodified consumer-grade scanner.

 

All this talk about scanners and detectors is nice, but what's the legalitly of a radar scrambler? Saw an article sometime back about a company that manufactures a radar jammer. Would this fall into the same category as radar/laser detectors?

 

Jammers fall in 3 categories:

1) You actively broadcast an X, K, Ka band to saturate the receiver, using amplifiers, etc. these are illeagel via FCC rulings, as they count as broadcasting devices.

2) You reflect all X, K, Ka signals back to create noise, as sort of a "superreflector". I read about this in one of these threads. I would imagine it wouldn't work too well, as the broadcasts weaken with the square of the distance traveled ( if it travels twice as far(cop->you->cop), it's 4 times as weak, etc.). You could try to focus it at a point, but since the distance the radar signal travels changes (as you get closer/farther from the cop) the focal length changes. Not to mention you'd have to know where he was to calculate the distance in the first place

3) You can broadcast excessive background noise, or "white noise". This is a general emission across a wide variedy of wavelengths to avoid FCC rulings in #1. My impression (opinion) is that newer radar units are real good at filtering out this noise so it doesn't help much with the newer units.

Also note that #1 and in some cases #3 WILL set off everyone else's radar detector, and cause traffic to move slower anyway, thus slowing you down.

 

Cops can be on 50meg, 400meg, 800meg, 900meg. They can be on all over the place, including typing into their laptops. I'm sure there are places in this country where the cops use CB radio and FSR..lol.

The FCC allots freq. bands for public service. Within those bands you have to pay for the right to use a certain freq. There are a lot of freq/bands to choose from, but they have to be co-ordinated or it can cause a bunch of problems.

Not all states have veh scanner laws. One interesting development I was reading a while back was this: The FCC was thinking of giving local police in all states the authority to enforce federal citizens band laws. I don't know if it's in effect yet, but think about it-If you have a high watt CB antenna on your truck, that could give a cop probable cause to pull you over and check your system out. Then you could try to explain to them, that's not a linear under the seat. It's a high power, all band, 100% duty cycle police jammer. Works real well, except it blows out the ECU in every veh. in the area and makes peoples pacemakers stop. That's why I was speeding by the hospital.

If you really want the ultimate, for about $30,000 you can buy a software radio that will scan/receive/transmit all the bands/tones, at the same time. You can use it as an all band repeater. So say someone on a CB wants to talk to someone on 800meg, it will do it.

Or, you could just slow down a little..