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Where can I get a cheap scanner?

First off decide what you want to monitor: airplanes, military air, Police/Fire/EMS, trains, whatever. These various communications usually occur in bands. If you want to monitor airplane comms you'll need a scanner that covers the air band.

If you want to listen to "trunked" traffic, you're probably going to have to pony up at least $150 for some reasonably modern equipment. If you want to listen to conventional traffic you can get by with older, cheaper stuff.

The more channels your scanner has, the more frequencies you can monitor at one time. If you live in a rural area or have very focused interest (only ambulances, or PD or FD or something), you might be happy with an old 10-channel programmable you might get for $30 off eBay. 30 or 50 channels is nicer, and 100 is really great (modern scanners have hundreds of channels).

You'll want to read some FAQs before you plunk down your money.

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