I am told that I may not be able to pick the police on any police radio because of the system they use.

Question

I live in Thunder Bay Ontario Canada p7e5k1. How can I find out for sure before I buy one? Thank You

Answer 1

     If you buy a good tracking scanner like a Bearcat you shouldn't have to many problems. A lot of police units that are on a crime whether in the US or Canada use a encryption type signal, called scrambling, a low form of scrambling is usually called inversion audio, there is also frequency hopping and DES considered the best for civilian use. These are the ones that you won't hear. I would ask at one of the stores that sells scanners in your area they would know for sure. Radio Shack stateside sells them not sure about canadian Radio Shack. Gearbox is on the rigrt track try his sites also.

http://www.unidendirect.com/contact.cfm

Answer 2

According to my research, the town police are out in the open meaning they can be heard with a normal scanner, however OPP and others use a modified digital system in that if you pony up the $600 or so for the scanner, you can listen to them, but the price tag is due to the fact that the radio has to listen for 1s and 0s instead of talk to decipher.

It's still perfectly legal to listen in on as long as it isn't encrypted. Most encryption setups cost money so are usually only left for covert special ops such as SWAT

Answer 3

some Law enforcement is going digital now like everything else.  So you might need a new type of scanner... a digital one.

Answer 4

yea there close or private i think like there got there own frequency