Police Scanners for Non-Nerds; A Brief Introduction

By Shawn Hughes

So;

You work somewhere that gives you a radio, but won't let you add any channels. Maybe you're always curious about the sirens you hear off in the distance. Could be, you're a volunteer for the Fire Department, or the Ambulance Service, or the Emergency Management Agency, but they don't give you a radio, and you can't afford the THREE GRAND for a radio that works on the new regional system. Maybe your kid’s been pestering you for a radio for Civil Air Patrol or the Explorers, and you don't want Junior in trouble. Maybe you do NASCAR, and you want to hear what's going on down there on Pit Road.

All of you have something in common: you need a radio frequency scanning communications receiver, affectionately referred to as a 'scanner'.

I am betting based on experience, most of you have another thing in common... you could care less about the technical end of it. You would just like to listen to whatever you want, and not know how to solder, or program codeplugs, or whatever it is you have to do to make them work.

I wrote this book for you.

This book was also written for someone who doesn't like to read. So, while it would make you smarter on the subject to do so, all you really have to do is skim and read the sections that interest you.

In addition, I also haven’t put a bunch of other information (filler) in here. Maybe you don’t want to further your communications hobby. Maybe you just need a jumping off point. I kept it out of here for you. (Should you develop an interest, or just want to know more gory details, there is a companion book I wrote you are welcome to look into. There’s a ton of data there.)

Oh, by the way, if your car looks like a porcupine, or your house has a 90 foot tower bolted to it, or you have multiple radio licenses, or a lifetime membership to radioreference.com; ah, dude, this book isn't for you. At all. There's going to be a lot of oversimplifications, and generalizations. Crawl before you walk, and all that. Save your hate mail.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawn Hughes
• Release date: May 2, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458058041

Shawn Hughes

Shawn HughesShawn Hughes is an admitted card-carrying nerd. Shawn’s spent the majority of his life in dogged devotion to Public Safety. He’s held the majority of the positions in a Law Enforcement and / or Security agency starting at age 18. He has been a Full Time State Certified Police Officer, Patrol Supervisor, Bomb Technician, Entry Team Assaulter, Crime Scene Technician and Field Training Officer. He managed to include his love for radios and electronics into Public Safety, serving as a Technical Surveillance Officer conducting surveillance and counter surveillance for multiple entities; local, State and Federal. As a Licensed Armed Security Officer, he has protected high risk / high consequence facilities, provided executive protection, and been responsible for securing a military base and another large facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.Outside of direct Public Safety work, Shawn has been a prolific writer, authoring several books and paid magazine articles for major periodicals such as the peer reviewed Jane’s Police, the Detonator (International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators), the Tactical Edge (National Tactical Officers’ Association), and familiar places such as the Police Marksman, Calibre Press, S.W.A.T, Police, and many, many others. He was a featured writer at PoliceOne.com, arguably the largest presence for law enforcement on the web, and the sole explosives / WMD expert at allexperts.com.Shawn also has conducted training across the country and consulted with many agencies and corporations. He wrote the improvised explosive device training module for a Federal Police Department. His additions, amplifications and corrections were implemented in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers’ explosives distance learning courses and the US Department of Homeland Security’s National Response Plan for Radiological Dispersion Device & Improvised Nuclear Device Incidents. His model Standard Operating Procedure for response to suspicious packages was a handout at the Anniston Center for Domestic Preparedness.As a radio guy, Shawn has helped build two commercial broadcast radio stations, repaired and maintained hundreds of radios, taught people regarding them, and holds multiple Federal licenses.Shawn lives near Oak Ridge, Tennessee and is available for training, lectures, and appearances.

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