Welcome to E.T.'s Scanner Page

My pages linked from this page:

What's all this, then?

This is a page about VHF/UHF scanning radios, not the things that let you get images and words into computers. Although some people call these things "police scanners," that is not really accurate. Besides, police frequencies make-up a very small portion of the radio spectrum. Granted, listening to law enforcement is one of the most popular uses of scanners, but there is so much more out there to listen to. There are lots of printed and on-line sources of generic scanner information. What I hope to provide here are some things specific to the area around where I live, which is Santa Maria, California.

Where to listen

Most of the frequencies in my lists are for Santa Barbara and/or San Luis Obispo counties. If you already have a radio, (both Radio Shack and Uniden/Bearcat make fine products) the next thing you will need is frequencies. I have a small list, which is about 2 printed pages, of the basics that people seem to want to get started. I also have a big list, with over 800 frequencies that I have heard active. That sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that a plane at 30,000 feet can be heard about 200 miles away. The military air band is a chunk of 175 MHz (225-400) that has about 7000 different frequencies, and they use a lot of them, but not every day.

Hey, they're talking in code!

O.K., so you have the frequencies, but you're having trouble understanding some of what you're hearing. Law enforcement agencies seem to use the most code. You will hear the police officers, sheriff deputies, and highway patrol officers use lots of different types of codes. Some of these are regional. For instance, a code may have different meanings to someone in another state, county, city, or even agency. The lists I have are fairly standard for all of the agencies in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The most popular code people know is, of course, 10-4. This is also one of the few that means pretty much the same thing everywhere you go. There are many more 10-codes and there are 11-codes. There is also another set of codes which includes things like Code 3, which should sound familiar to cop-show fans.

Other codes in use are really the sections of the different legal codes. These include the

These are just some of the more popular code sections. If you would like to view the complete codes, the State has a web site where they are all available. Here are the tables of contents:

You can also search all 29 of California's legal codes.

Sometimes it's confusing when a legal code starts with a 10 or an 11. If you hear ten eight fifty-one, that's not a 10-code (10-851), it's vehicle code section 10851. It is sometimes pronounced ten eight five one, and means a stolen vehicle. There are also many abbreviations in use, again mostly by law enforcement, and phonetic alphabets.

Isn't it illegal to listen to this stuff?

With a few exceptions, namely phones and pagers, no. It is illegal to repeat what you hear, use what you hear for personal gain, or to commit a crime using information you hear on a scanner.

Return to E.T.'s Home Page

Written and copyright (c) 2023 by Eric Treankler
Questions, comments, and suggestions welcome.

Last modified: 22 SEP 2023

https://www.lospadrescounty.net/et/scan.html