Why Let Encryption Ruin Your Enjoyment of the Hobby?

Yesterday I read a post on a scanning related email group that disturbed me. The poster stated that he was selling his BC-396 scanner because the law enforcement agency that he monitored had gone encrypted. Why allow the loss of one monitoring target to ruin your enjoyment of the scanning and monitoring hobby?

There is so much RF floating around out there to tune in to. If one target goes away there is plenty left to listen to, especially with a radio like the BC-396. Aviation signals are always fairly easy to pick up, especially from higher altitude civil flights. If you live near the coast, there is plenty of marine VHF traffic to hear. If you live near military bases or training areas, there is MilCom to monitor. Almost anywhere there are business systems to monitor. If you like public safety monitoring and the PD goes encrypted, pay more attention to EMS or Fire communications (an active fireground is always more interesting to monitor than a PD anyway!) instead.


Too often, I think, we pigeon-hole ourselves into just one type of scanning or monitoring. We forget that there is plenty more to listen to than just our favorite target. As a result we are quick to get discouraged and cry out that the hobby is dying. Tune around other bands and other forms of monitoring every now and then. Enjoy what is out there to listen to. Don't let the loss of one form of monitoring ruin your enjoyment of the radio hobby!

Mac McCormick III, KF4LMT
kf4lmt@comcast.net