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Automatic scanning receivers
- under construction
Scanning receivers, or simply scanners, are automatic
electronically controlled receivers that can be used to search a predetermined
set of frequencies (generally identified as channels) or a
predetermined frequency interval (band) for active radio signals.
When a signal is detected, scanning is interrupted and the demodulated audio
is passed to the speaker.
Scanners were very popular between the 1970s and the early 2000s
for interception of the radio traffic of the local police
and other services, which is why they are often called police scanners.
Many were (are) commercially available from a variety of brands, such as
Bearcat (Uniden), Cuna, Handic, Realistic, Yupiteru, Icom and others.
But there were also scanners that were especially built for a specific
purpose. Note that the possession and/or use of a scanner is subject to law.
Strickly speaking, scanners do not belong on this website, but as some of them
have been used for lawful interception of (illegal) radio trafic and in some
cases even for radio direction finding,
they are listed in this section.
The list is far from complete but may be expanded in due course.
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- Alinco
- AOR
- Atron
- Bauer
- Bearcat
- Bobcat
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- Cuna
- Handic
- Icom
- JIL
- Jomaco
- Midland
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- Puma
- Realistic
- Regency
- SBE Optiscan
- Scooper
- Sony
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- Uniden (Bearcat)
- Yaesu
- Yupitery
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One of the first digital programmable scanners,
was the 0016 of the Swedish company Handic. It was suitable for the VHF-L,
VHF-H and UHF bands and had 16 memory positions. It was also capable of
scanning a frequency interval.
The 0016 was not only used by scanner freaks, but also by
law enforcement agencies like the
Dutch Radio Monitoring Service (RCD).
➤ More information
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The American company OAR built a wide range of radio direction finders
that were intended as a navigational aid aboard ships. Special versions,
the so-called 9xx-range, were made for locating clandestine radio stations
(pirates).
The image on the right shows the ADF-940 which has a built-in 40-channel
scanner for the 27 MHz citizens band (CB).
➤ More information
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Kolibrie (hummingbird) was a car phone intercept receiver
developed by the Police Signals Service in The Netherlands
in the early 1990s. It was intended for intercepting
criminal conversations on the early analogue car phone networks,
and follows the hand-over when the subscriber moves from one cell
to the next.
➤ More information
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Scout is a small frequency counter that can record the frequencies of
nearby transmissions and store them in memory, whilst maintating a hit-count
on each of the recorded frequencies.
In addition it can be interfaced to a
CI-V compatible receiver for reaction tuning.
➤ More infomration
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This near-field receiver scans the entire spectrum from 30 MHz to 2 GHz
in less than a second and locks onto the strongest signal in its vicinity.
It then demodulates the signal (FM only).
It also displays the detected frequency on the display and supports
reaction tuning, allowing any CI-V compatible receiver to be automatically
tuned to the detecet frequency.
➤ More information
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Saturday 24 December 2016. Last changed: Saturday, 16 August 2025 - 10:48 CET.
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