I have a 500-channel scanner and have programmed in several frequencies in my area only to get a few that produce anything. Some local and state agencies re-band every now and then, so it seems the inputs are no long valid. I am tempted to clear all the channels and start over but it is a painstaking process, it is a good winter project. There is a lot of info online if you type in your city name and the words “scanner frequencies” and do a search. I like the idea of using the car battery, I have one of those adapters you plug into the cigarette lighter and the adapter that goes into the wall outlet.

While I was snowed in last month I started programming new frequencies into my hand held portable scanner, just for something to do. I was amazed at all the voice traffic from the different agencies with the local sheriff's dept being the most active. I found some air frequencies and can now listen in on commercial flights talking to the airport towers in Portland Oregon and up in Seattle. These aircraft are flying up and down the coast which is 45 miles from my house but I can still hear them. Yesterday I heard a report on the sheriff frequency of a mountain lion attacking and eating a goat that was tied to a tree. After sunset I start picking up more activity from farther distances like the CHP talking on the other side of the Ca /Or border as well as ships at sea. This particuler scanner has adaptors to plug into a 12 volt cigarette lighter in a vehicle and also works on standard wall current as well as from 6 AA batteries. For emergency power I have screwed a cigarette lighter receptical into a standard plastic light switch box and attached a black ground wire and a red- hot wire to the cig lighter with alligator clips on the opposite ends of the wires to clip onto a 12 volt car battery. With this device I can power the scanner from a 12 volt car battery using the scanners automobile plug in adapter. Scanners are a nice tool to have for keeping informed during emergency situations. They can give you information on where the road blocks may be set up when its bug out time so you can avoid those areas in any natural disasters or other calamities.