On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 13:14:13 +0000 (UTC), Golan Klinger
wrote:

The Other Guy wrote:

Uniden BCD396XT, without a doubt.

I always get nervous when someone uses a phrase like, "without a doubt"
when discussing a subjective matter. The BCD396XT is a cracking scanner,
I'm sure we'd all agree, but the OP said he listens to cellular and he
won't be able to do that with a Uniden. So, I respectfully counter with
the Icom IC-R20 (unblocked) and/or the AOR AR-8200 Mark III. They are
worthy of a look by anyone who wants to buy a serious scanner.
My Realistic Pro 2006 used to pull in so many cellular call ten or so
years ago that I couldn't keep up with the conversations. There used
to be 30 or 40 mimimun going at one time; plus regular cordless.

Now I hear nothing on cellular, and very little on cordless. :-(

After that congressman got caught saying things on his cell phone that
he shouldn't have said, they quickly passed a law forbidding people
from monitoring cellular.

So that was the end of a fascinating period where I could really hear
what people thought about celebrities, and neighbors without them
knowing it.

Needless to say some of what I heard was astounding!

Now the frequencies are so high, and they change so rapidly, it is
impossible to hear MOST phone calls. :-(

I miss all of those arguments between boyfriends and girlfriends,
husbands and wives, lovers, conversations about how they felt about
OJ, Michael J, Clinton, Bush 1, and 2, and of course my neighbors.

I even heard some savage in my neighborhood, tell a beautiful woman
who had been coming by to see that he wanted to kill me. That was back
in 1993, and I haven't been able to figure out yet who that was. It
was a cordless call so the person must have lived within a few blocks
of me.

The woman never came by anymore so I figured he scared her away. Then
a couple of years ago another female friend of mine told me one day
that she was telling her sister who now lives in Texas about me, and
her sister interrupted her saying she knew me well, and thought I was
a great guy. I was amazed by that. So before I knew it, I had Debra's
phone number and email address. I called her and we chatted happily.
She told me she had left and moved to Montana, and a few other places
before getting married and going to Texas.

After a few fun calls, I mentioned to her that I had heard her talking
to this guy and he had threathened to call me. I asked her since we
were supposed to be friends why she didn't warn me of what this person
was saying instead of never contacting me again. She immediately
denied that she had been in a conversation like that. I'm 90% sure it
was here because I listened for a half hour or so and heard her
telling him things only someone who had been in my home would know.

I have looked all over for the tape of the conversation, but have been
unable to find it since I never thought I would see her again. She
stopped calling and emailing me after I brought it up. That is fine by
me, because I now know she was not a true friend and apparently had
other motives for making my acaquaintance. There is no way that if I
oveheard strangers talking about killing a close friend of mine that I
would not at least immediately notify him/her of what I had heard.
After that it would be up to them to decide what to do about it.

I had hoped to hear some criminals stashing large sums of money
someplace nearby so I could get it before it was picked up. In 30
years of scanning I have still not heard that kind of call. I also
heard several adults who were having affairs with 12-14 year old girls
arguing with the girls to not turn them in. One of them did get turned
in and is probably still in jail for jumping such young tail.
And of course there were the millions of calls about race. Listening
to what we actually think about colored people, and hearing how much
they hate us was frightening. My friend tell me I need to write a book
in my decades of listening to scanner conversations. :-)
If I can find enough notes, maybe I will do that.


I looked at the 396XT last night. It is a pretty scanner. I'll read up
on the Icom and AOR today.

My Bearcat 895XLT and Pro-2006 still work fine as desktops though.

And so it goes.