On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 16:24:23 GMT, Alan Dye said
in rec.radio.scanner:

What would be the best combination of hardware (scanner) and software to
monitor and eavesdrop on both conventional and trunked scanning and
collect both hits and audio?

Any Uniden scanner that covers the frequencies and modes you want to
monitor for hardware.

For software, the protocol of most Uniden scanners is available, so
why don't you write software that does exactly what you want. Nothing
you find on the web, or buy, will be that close to what you need.

p.s. also any recommendations on process, how you'd go about covering
all 3000 frequencies in the shortest period of time while maintaining
the maximum amount of information collection.

Keep scanning them all and record the hits, without duplicates. (You
could store them to a database, using the frequency as a
non-duplicable key.) You might also want to record the length of time
the scanner stayed on that frequency.