Where To Buy A Scanner To Listen To Ships, Planes Etc?

[dutchy124]

I wish to buy a scanner so I can listen to radio transmissions from the above and others, such as the fire service and even security services. These used to be readily available in the UK, but I have not seen them here. Any ideas?

[jsat]

they are restricted import in Thailand but you will find several hand held models in Baan More in Bangkok, if you look hard enough.

[wimpy]

If you are interested in listening to places other than Thailand, you can listen online here... http://www.radioreference.com/

[dutchy124]

Jsat, do you know of any websites that do the same thing? Perhaps a pm would be in order there. I bought a TV system off you a long time ago. Nice to see you are still in the game.

Wimpy. I already listen to those sometimes, but I was hoping to get something closer to home.

Thanks to the both of you for your help.

[Dellboy218]

You wont hear much from the larger ocean going ships anymore as they went to satellite a good many years ago and increasingly they are using satellite based internet due to the costs saving as every Tom, Dick and Harry who makes coffee in the office empire wants a say in the way the ship is run. I cannot remember the last time I was on a ship that used morse/Teletype/RT, there wont be any land stations left to handle Morse and I doubt many that will handle Teletype. If you are on the coast near Sri Racha/MapTha Put you may hear some of the tankers on VHF but if they are on a regular run they are more likely to use a mobile.

[thaipod]

There are places around the area of the Old Siam in China Town that have hand held scanners that will tune what frequency you want or will import desk scanners if you want .

[jsat]

Jsat, do you know of any websites that do the same thing?

Sorry do hot know any of the same sort based in Thailand for commercial radio traffic, but there are plenty of ham based sites which include Thailand. If you are looking for a scanner these links may (or may not) help albeit in Thai (google translate is your friend)

100 Watt Magazine (in most bookshops nation wide) http://www.100watts.com/

These are great guys to deal with and can point you in most directions - http://www.tenmetershop.com/ also based in Baan Moore / Old Siam.

Edited September 6, 2012 by jsat

[dutchy124]

Thanks everyone. My old AR300 has managed to pick up a few phone calls, but nothing else as yet. A trip to BKK seems to be the next step.

[glassdude007]

http://www.scannermaster.com/?Click=65646

good web sight here for scanner research

[endure]

I cannot remember the last time I was on a ship that used morse/Teletype/RT, there wont be any land stations left to handle Morse and I doubt many that will handle Teletype.

Commercial marine HF finished in 1999. It's all satellite now.

[bartender100]

I remember when mobiles first came out, if you had a scanner you could pick up every call around you, don't think that can happen now, can it?

[dutchy124]

I didn't think it was possible to listen to mobile phone calls anymore, but I have picked up a few here recently. Either they are old phones or perhaps cordless phones. I thought mobiles were now digital and cannot be picked up?

[Dellboy218]

I cannot remember the last time I was on a ship that used morse/Teletype/RT, there wont be any land stations left to handle Morse and I doubt many that will handle Teletype.

Commercial marine HF finished in 1999. It's all satellite now.

The move to satellite started late early 80's with Sat A and ships radio rooms were replaced with GMDSS radio equipment in the early 90's. Commercial traffic may have finished in '99, however, various countries /organisations still required ship reporting on HF teletype for some time after that. I wouldn't like to say ''all'' traffic had finished as there will bound to be one oddball somewhere to prove me wrong.

[canman]

Slightly off topic but you may also be interested in marinetraffic dot com which tracks vessels in realtime. Also flightradar24 dot com which tracks airplanes in real time.

[dutchy124]

Thanks Canman,

I have the first, but the second is pretty neat

[astral]

Slightly off topic but you may also be interested in marinetraffic dot com which tracks vessels in realtime. Also flightradar24 dot com which tracks airplanes in real time.

Thanks for those links

[canman]

@astral & dutchy; you're welcome