2 Responses to “Make a CB Radio pick up Police and Fire frequencies”

1. Fleury29 says:

   August 14, 2009 at 07:21

   NO,i own 2 cb’s and 2 scanners,1 is a portable scanner and the other scanner is a desktop.you can pick a good scanner up off of amazon.com for about $100 or less.there is no way to pick the frequencies on the cb.go to radioreference.com to get your local hometown frequncies.
2. Admin says:

   August 15, 2009 at 13:56

   Fleury is quite correct. Your CB radio receives signals from the 27 MHz shortwave band (HF band) with voice audio attached to the transmission signal in AM (amplitude modulation) mode or method.

   Your local police and fire channels are NOT on 27 MHz, or anywhere close, and they will be transmitted and received in FM (frequency modulation) mode, or even using digital radio signals.

   The agencies you want to listen to are usually on VHF (very high frequency, from anywhere from 30 MHz up to 300 MHz) or on UHF (anywhere from 300 to 3000 MHz). However, in the USA it is most likely to be VHF Low (30-50 MHz), VHF High (150-175 MHz) or UHF 450-512 MHz.

   There are also newer UHF bands in the 800 MHz and 900 MHz range as well.

   In Europe, Australia and some other countries, there is also an old VHF mid-band (from 66-88 MHz.)

   So you can see, there is a vast range of thousands of channels these emergency services and public service agencies may have been assigned to. And every town and state is different.

   Who uses what channels is controlled by the FCC in the USA, while other countries have their own radio communications authorities who manage the radio frequency spectrum, sell channels to businesses and charge for radio licences.

   Once you have found out what radio channels / frequencies you want to monitor, you can buy a radio scanner or scanning receiver to listen to them. This is legal in most of the USA, but is quite illegal in many other countries. So don’t break the law.

   Listening to the police, fire and ambulance and other government or emergency services…

   Listening may be okay as long as you do not act on what you just heard. If you do take action on what you just heard, like phoning up a friend and telling them, or jumping in your car to go and take a look at an auto wreck (traffic accident) or an armed robbery. You can expect the boys in blue to be very annoyed at you, and you may regret having acted so impulsively.

   That said, I have listened to the police for more than 30 years – in several countries; and I always loved ‘being in the know’ about what went on behind the scenes. However, the police in Australia have gone digital and encrypted in all our major cities, including Sydney, where I live. I think its is a real shame the Aussie public isn’t allowed to know what’s happening any more. The cops are very smug about it, too. Now very few people know about it when they make mistakes… And boy, have I heard a few choice ones over the years!

   And as for your question, Can you use a cb radio to pickup police band chatter? No way. You need a proper vhf/uhf radio scanner… Something that was built for the purpose.

   Regards,
   David.