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Boston Scanner Info |
When I first put this site together, I couldn't find a single scanner site for Boston. There were Eastern Mass pages, but none for Boston proper. SO, I made this site to fill the gap and connect with other Boston scanner operators.
In the meantime another person has put together a much better site at ScanBoston.Com. Please go there for the best Boston Scanning page around.
Since InsideTheWeb.com went out of business, the message board for this site has been inoperative.
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the new, better resources that others have made available.
Keith D. Tyler
PS: Because I was so impressed with his site, I have given the owner of scanboston.com permission to use the logo I made for this site.
My Scanner
I own an RCA RP-6100 handheld scanner. ($100 or so from Fingerhut) It has
limited frequency range -- 30-54, 137-170, 380-512 -- and has only 20 storage
channels. Its a modest unit but hasnt given me any problems.
Boston area
Boston, especially my area in the Back Bay, is notorious for its congestion of
radio signals. The FM radio band is especially crowded, so much that the FCC
will reportedly not approve any new high-power stations on the dial. This
makes it a generally good place for picking up signals.
What's available?
An idea of what broadcasters are available in the Boston area...
My searching
Frequency searching turns up a lot of odd stuff. I've posted a recent copy
of my scanning log here. The columns are
frequency, assumed usage, and possible source/owner. The freqs I can
figure out solely from the Boston freq list below dont get
logged.
My Boston channel set up
Check the Boston list below for signals that will interest you. I am
obviously at NU; most other schools will have available signals for
their campus police and operations.
| Ch | Freq | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 460.350 | Police - Major Emergencies/Events |
| 2 | 460.500 | Police - District 4 |
| 3 | 460.300 | Police - Unit-to-unit |
| 4 | 460.075 | Police - Detectives |
| 5 | 460.125 | Police - Info |
| 6 | 460.250 | Police - Command |
| 7 | 460.050 | Police - Special Ops |
| 8 | 156.800 | Marine Ch. 16 - Hailing/Distress |
| 9 | 464.975 | NU - Police 1 |
| 10 | 464.125 | NU - Police 2 |
| Ch | Freq | Usage |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | 464.925 | NU - Patrol |
| 12 | 464.675 | NU - Operations |
| 13 | 483.162 | Fire - Operations |
| 14 | 483.187 | Fire - Fireground 1 |
| 15 | 483.212 | Fire - FG 2 |
| 16 | 483.237 | Fire - Alarms / FG 3 |
| 17 | 470.637 | MBTA - Green Line |
| 18 | 470.662 | MBTA - Police 1 |
| 19 | 483.562 | MBTA - Police 2 |
| 20 | 162.475 | NOAA Weather - Boston (l/o) |
02 - Area D-4 is the name for the Back Bay area police district. The districts and the localities they cover are listed on the Boston Police home page. The frequencies for the districts seem to be shared, e.g. the D-4 frequency is the same as the district 14 frequency.
04 - Boston Detectives freqency can be very good listening. I have heard drug sting operations communicating on this frequency.
09-12 - If you are a university student, finding your school's
Public Safety frequency is a must, especially when you see officers
walking into your residence hall, or cars with their lights flashing and
speeding down Huntington or Hemenway. Of course, it probably also
has lots of boring traffic from escort vans.
The Operations
freqency isnt probably that intersting unless you get a kick out of
hearing about clogged toilets. (As a heavily involved student, all these
frequencies are simply a must for me -- keeping tabs on how the school
operates.)
17 - This is the frequency that Green Line train operators and supervisors communicate on. Since the subway system is a) mostly underground and b) uses the overhead wires to boost the signal, reception on this frequency seems to be best when actually riding a train.
16 - From my location (especially my building), Marine
Ch. 16
is only good for hearing the high-power USCG broadcasts, which are usually
reports about either high gale warnings, hazards, or faulty bouys. Nearer
the coast I could get more interesting signals from boaters, including
Marine Operator phone calls.
Boston Area Frequencies - From Jim Fordyce's Long Island Area scanning page.
Strong Signals - large scanner tips page. Much info for beginners.
Stupid Scanner Tricks - possibly abandoned, but a good source for info on more sordid scanner uses.
RadioScanner - online monitoring magazine.
alt.radio.scanner and rec.radio.scanner - scanning newsgroups.
scan-mass-east
- Mailing list for Eastern Mass. Seems like mostly 'burb talk, not much
Boston traffic. (I experienced major problems with this list which were
never resolved.)
Massachusetts RACES/SKYWARN
frequencies - Weather and civil alert volunteer network.
stupidscannertricks
- the email list for the SST site above. Much more active than the page
itself.
WX-Sat - decodes NOAA weather satellite image signals, as well as High Frequency Fax audio.
POC32 - supposedly can decode pager signals.
MRP37 - Morse code decoder. Not very useful if not registered...!
Links
Contribute to the message board:
Best Boston area freq list on the web, though a bit old. Also has lists for many Northeast areas.
Has the definintive scanner model comparison chart, and the owner has a ridiculously large scanner collection -- and the pictures to prove it.
Software
RecAll - level-activated (VOX) wave recorder. Has variable level control, and ability to time-stamp individual recording segments.
More
This page is run by Keith T. Email about new links for
freqrencies or software, and check out the Message Board.