You know how you see the police talk into the radios they have clipped on to their belt or that sits in their car? Is that a CB or a Ham Radio? Or is it something else? I would appreciate it if you could answer if you have the law enforcement experience or are related to somebody who is law enforcement.
Police use everything from old vhf or 150 mhz to 800 mhz trunk systems. The handheld models are just 5 watt versions of the ones in the cars. Ham and CB aren’t for law enforcement, but are unlicenced frequencies that anybody can use. Law enforcement always use licenced frequencies that only they can talk on.
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:31 am
These police radios are neither CB nor ham rigs, but rather a high frequency radio with bands set aside for emergency use, and different cities use different frequencies to avoid interference with each other.
Most of these units that are carried on the individual are short range units that work through the radio in the car, or local repeaters.
Nomadd:
Just a little correction regarding one of your statements. When you say both CB and Ham are unlicensed frequencies, the CB is not, but the ham radio frequencies do require an FCC license to operate, and the type or class or license is the factor that decides which frequencies are legal for each operator.
I am a licensed amateur (ham) radio operator for the last 35 years, and also use the CB once in a while.
The CB also used to be controlled and licensed by the FCC until about the 1970’s, but some FCC rules are still enforced.
1992 dodg….
For a guy that claims to be a ham oprator, I’m surprised at the answer where you state that police can talk on ham frequencies, which is totally wrong. The can. like any citizen, listen to ham, but are not allowed to talk unless the proper license for that particular frequency is in their possesion, and under their name of the name of the control operator.
1992: You are right about the use of some ham frequencies during an emergeency, but not as a general rule, and had you specified that in your original answer I would not have bothered with any form of correction. But only during an emergency !
And I am in the United States to the other person, and I have also done many field contests and also work QRP.
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April 23rd, 2010 at 1:15 am
Police use everything from old vhf or 150 mhz to 800 mhz trunk systems. The handheld models are just 5 watt versions of the ones in the cars. Ham and CB aren’t for law enforcement, but are unlicenced frequencies that anybody can use. Law enforcement always use licenced frequencies that only they can talk on.
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April 23rd, 2010 at 1:28 am
There are many types of radios but they all still work off of the same spectrum. CB or Citizen band radios are for unlicensed users. Ham Radio is for hobbyists and they must have a license. One thing about radios that you should know is that within the the spectrum there are bandwidths that are dedicated by the FCC for specific duty’s. The police radios run on many different bandwidths and these bandwidths can be right next to ham and CB bandwidths.
A CB operator can only listen and talk to CB bandwidths or frequency. Ham radio operator can listen to all frequency depending on the specs of there hardware in there radios. But there only allowed to talk on other ham radio frequency’s. Police can listen and talk to all CB, Ham, and municipal type of frequency’s. I say municipal because your school bus driver, snow plows, city truck, and cops work off the same frequency’s.
Unless you are authorized no one is allowed to have a radio that can transmit on police frequency’s. Most of these frequency’s are digitally encrypted so you need a special radio to listen to them. Cop scanners can only listen to analog police chatter but not digital.
Botsy: Apparently you don’t do to much emergency communications. I was in new Orleans after Katrina. I have three tornadoes around my belt and all four situations I was talking to police officers which are called third party’s. They needed to speak to weather spotters as well as us who were volunteering for the red cross.
The real question is what country are you from? Because America is hugely different when it comes to ham radios from other country’s. You stated how police frequency’s are high in the spectrum well it sounds like this is a different country because we have police frequency’s right next to ours. Or you were just saying that they are in the Ultra High Frequency range. which our 2 meter and 6 meter is at.
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Ham Radio operator, electronics engineer.
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:35 am
Police use commercial grade radios on frequencies they are licensed to transmit on by the FCC. Frequencies can range from the VHF, UHF, 700/800/900MHz , trunking or digital frequencies. some of the frequencies are encrypted which means they can’t be heard or you may hear a scrambled voices which you would not be able to Monitor. As for police transmitting on the Ham band 144-148MHz or 440MHZ. In a disaster or in a countywide or statewide emergency any person can transmit on frequencies they are not authorized to including civilians/police/fire/ems. As for CB communications, any person can transmit on a CB radio. hence the word CB "citizen band". Although rules do apply to the CB band, most of it is not enforced such as people not exceeding the 4 watt maximum limit on a radio. In most interstates or thruways Highway patrol police or state police do transmit and monitor CB radio ch 9 (emergency channel) & CB radio ch 19 (truckers/travel channel).
As for police scanners. A device used to listen to police/fire/ems/ham/business/weather and other communications. Which is not illegal at your home but other states do have laws against having a scanner in a car or on your person in public. Also is illegal to listen to phone calls and encrypted radio traffic. Also illegal in a commission of a crime. A scanner can be able to listen to Radio traffic that is digital or trunked but a digital/trunking capable scanner must be in use. A scanner can be easily bought at radioshack or wallmart. But be aware a lot of cops are not scanner friendly when you are listening to their communications.
http://www.afn.org/~afn09444/scanlaws/
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GMRS Operator, Former Reserve Police Officer
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:54 am
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100309171522AAkr4W1
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