HT as a scanner?

[7echo]

I think I want to check out the ham world.

Can the cheap Bao Feng HTs be used as a scanner? And will they receive weather alerts?

I want to get something that I can use to listen with and see whats on the air waves in my area. If it seems active and interesting I will pursue the ham stuff for family communications.

I am thinking about getting the UV82-HP.

Comments are appreciated.

 

[Dazrin]

The Baofeng's can scan but they scan very slowly at only about 3 channels per second. So if you have more than a few channels you want to scan you may miss significant portions of conversations.

They can receive weather channels but don't have a weather alert alarm or anything.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Most HT can scan memories or frequencies, but like Dazrin says fairly slow. If you want a scanner, you should get a scanner. But if you just want to monitor then an HT will work fine. The Yaesu HTs (FT-60, VX-6, VX-7, etc.) mostly are able to do NOAA WX Alert, not sure about other brands.

 

[Airmapper]

It's a nice little radio but as already stated scans too slow to cover much. It will let you listen in though so I wouldn't dismiss it for that, just don't get overzealous with how many channels you want to scan.

My mobile unit scans a lot better, but I will say this if you program in 10 frequencies you are lucky if 1 is actually active. You are better off picking like your 2-3 nearest repeaters and see which ones get used.


For family comms, I say if your area is not active or interesting it would be better for you really. Get all your people licenses, and enjoy high quality comms with little to no interruptions. I wish I could get my dad to get his, I find little to no reason to interact with the local hams outside exchanging pleasantries from time to time, but if others in the family would use it, it would come in very handy.

Seems like some hams feel it's their duty to chew fat with anyone that keys up no matter what for. I monitored one conversation, this guy was passing through town and wanted to know a good place to eat, the guy that answered him just would not take a hint the guy was hungry, had his family with him, and didn't want to chat for a while, but rather just requested some local info. This guy practically said as much in a polite a way as he could, but that other dude once he keyed down was not coming up for air anytime soon going on and on way outside what was requested.

And then there are these nerds that don't seem to understand manners. I listened in this week to some guys chewing a guy out for being too formal (he was saying "over," that's all) on an "informal" repeater. I'm thinking, is not the definition of informal not being a nitpick? But the apparent purpose for the rudeness was to stress how informal and nice they are, okay. While I was not involved in the conversation, they disrupted the conversation I was having, and made me not want to use their repeaters anymore which they already complain about not being active enough.

But that is not typical behavior, there are a ton of really nice guys on there, just like any community you got your good ones and bad ones, but the majority are somewhere in the middle.

There is an awkwardness on ham, and I think it revolves around most of these people on it have no real reason to be there and are trying to figure out what to say to one another. If you got family on there, talking about some activity you are involved in, then there will be a reason for using it. Despite what anyone tells you it will be a much more productive use of the airwaves than whatever the regulars on there are doing.

 

[DaveInDenver]

There is an awkwardness on ham, and I think it revolves around most of these people on it have no real reason to be there and are trying to figure out what to say to one another. If you got family on there, talking about some activity you are involved in, then there will be a reason for using it. Despite what anyone tells you it will be a much more productive use of the airwaves than whatever the regulars on there are doing.

There is sometimes a solution in search of a problem with it. Most of us are hams because we're into the technology but it's really about the content, like anything really. The Internet is a vastly complex marvel that largely is kitty cat videos and pirated MP3s. Commercial broadcast TV and radio? A wasteland of mind numbing garbage mostly. So don't let a few socially awkward geeks define what ham radio is to you. Make it and use it however you see fit. I don't mean make it into a free-for-all like CB, be polite and respect tradition, but don't ever feel bad for making it yours.