Fire nearby - Best freeware Police/Fire Scanner (which do YO

[Savageduck]

On 2016-09-27 16:55:00 +0000, Horace Algier <horatio@horatio.net> said:

On Mon, 26 Sep 2016 21:53:43 -0700, Savageduck wrote:

The $3.99 edition of 5-0 Radio Pro works just fine and has no ads. For
me with our local fires it has proven to be invaluable. It lets me
monitor these guys:
https://db.tt/Zf2Jmaf9
https://db.tt/VcTsX4yQ
https://db.tt/toKTw9em
https://db.tt/kgPt0QIA
https://db.tt/sC8CkVFG

Interesting set of copters and cargo jets (and trucks).

Here's the view, last night, from near Jeff's Liebermann's house in SC:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-fire-0927-101.jpg

Here is a CalFire S2 tanker flying over the scene & dumping retardant:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mch-l-lomafire-0927-112.jpg?w=810
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mch-l-lomafire-0927-121.jpg

Here

is the night status of that antenna farm shown yesterday in daylight:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-lomafire-0927-021.jpg

Here's the mushroom cloud around 3pm from the Silicon Vally looking west:
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtUAvagUEAA7Arx.jpg

Here is a chopper they're using on that fire last afternoon:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-sjfire-0927-008.jpg
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mch-l-lomafire-0927-141.jpg

Here

are the trucks they're using in the Loma Fire yesterday afternoon:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-sjfire-0927-001.jpg
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-sjfire-0927-002.jpg
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mch-l-lomafire-0927-22.jpg

Here

is a pic of a house burning in the afternoon & evening:
http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mch-l-lomafire-0927-17.jpg
www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/sjm-lomafire-0927-022.jpg

Here

is a screenshot of the evacaultion area (I'm on a fringe):
http://i1.wp.com/mountainbulletin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2016-09-26_Loma-Fire_Map2-1.jpg

This
>
is the area our fire effected:
<https://db.tt/dYLtMWwL>
<https://db.tt/OeguZPHN>

This has been a rough fire season, along with our large fire we have
had five others which have disrupted life out here.
<https://db.tt/ZTyXttpZ>

Needless to say, at the height of the fire our air quality sucked.
https://db.tt/9WibzROZ

That looks pretty smoky.

I smell like a campfire right now, and I haven't yet been evacuated (and
probably won't be evacuated if the fire continues the way it's been).

Back on topic, any decent free scanner *must*:
a. Have no ads or have unobtrusive ads
b. Work in the background
c. Work with the screen off
d. Not ask for permissions it doesn't need (or run with them turned off)
e. Have your local fire and police stations
http://i.cubeupload.com/bXAxbE.png

As I have said, I get what I need for my location and more, but I did
pay $3.99.

On Android, I found a good one (and a whole slew of horrid ones!), so I
need to find a good one on iOS next (haven't tried yet).
http://i.cubeupload.com/6Gg14Y.png

Yup! That is also available for iOS, but I haven't tried it.
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scanner-radio-deluxe/id498405045?mt=8>


--
Regards,

Savageduck

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2016 19:02:38 -0000 (UTC), Horace Algier
<horatio@horatio.net> wrote:

Honorable mention goes to "Police Scanner +" which meets the original 4
requirements plus adds two features:
- It records the output
- It can start and stop on a timer

Note that Broadcastify archives recordings. You can download these
recordings for later playback. That became very useful when trying to
piece together what happened when two local fire departments couldn't
find a fire location[1]. However, you do need to pay for a premium
account:
<http://www.radioreference.com/apps/subscription/>
I don't need to download scanner sessions very often, so I just pay
when I need a download.



[1] To be uncharacteristically fair, just about everyone involved
screwed up in some manner. Summed together, the result was a mess.
The RP (reporting part) was in such a state of panic they she was
screaming into her iphone 4 at the 911 dispatcher, rendering her
speech unintelligible. She wouldn't stop to listen to the dispatchers
instructions. The dispatcher didn't tell her to not yell into the
mic, but told her to slow down, which did nothing useful. Meanwhile,
the street was on the border between two jurisdictions, both of whom
arrived in force, creating a huge traffic jam. There was also a
street/road with the same name nearby. The dispatcher guessed which
street, and guessed wrong. Plenty of other scrweups, all nicely
recorded by Broadcastify.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

 

[Horace Algier]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2016 21:20:04 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Note that Broadcastify archives recordings. You can download these
recordings for later playback. That became very useful when trying to
piece together what happened when two local fire departments couldn't
find a fire location[1]. However, you do need to pay for a premium
account:
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/subscription/
I don't need to download scanner sessions very often, so I just pay
when I need a download.

Thanks Jeff for that hint that Broadcastify also *records* transmissions.

I would love to re-listen to that communication yesterday where clearly a
leader chastised a crew for allowing other crews to go back to San Jose
without telling the leader.

To answer the original question, it seems that Broadcastify is really the
way to go.
a. It is usable as a simple browser desktop link
b. The free apps seem to use it anyway
c. It archives for you (which I didn't know)

Given that a scanner for emergencies needs to be KISS, I love the link in
my emergency folder to your suggested site.

BTW, today I called the Cal Fire folks and they told me it's about 2K
acres, with about 100 trucks and 50 teams, a score each of choppers,
dozers, and tankers, and about 1,000 fire personnel.

Is that big or small in terms for this area?
(I missed the huge pre-earthquake fires so I've only seen little ones in
the interim.)

Plenty of other scrweups, all nicely
recorded by Broadcastify.

Nice to know there are recordings on Broadcastify.

I think broadcastify directly, or an app that uses broadcastify, is the
canonical way to go for a KISS emergency fire scanner in the desktop
emergency folder.

I haven't tried to make a link on iOS from the browser, but that should be
easily doable for the iOS users.

 

[Horace Algier]

On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 11:03:46 -0700, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

Broadcastify MIGHT work, but there's a problem. Many of the scanners
reflected by Broadcastify over multiple channels. There's no
guarantee that any particular scanner will be listening to a frequency
of interest. That causes big problems when there are two or more
channels with active incidents. At the time when I made the recording
that I mentioned, there was a local only scanner for SLV (San Lorenzo
Valley) area fire. It's now gone.

Good point in that any one "feed" on broadcastify can be made up of
multiple channels, not all of which are recorded (nor are both sides
necessarily recorded).

You might try doing your own recording:
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Recording_Software_and_Tips
The difference between these recorders, and the common music
recorders, is that scanner recorders stop recording when there's no
audio. All the dead air gaps disappear. Most also have a real time
marker system, so you know when something was heard.

I've always wanted a recorder on the mobile device which skips over dead
space.

As you can tell from my desktop screenshots, I use "Easy Voice Recorder"
freeware, but it doesn't skip over dead space AFAIK.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-voice-recording-app-android/

Looking for a free sound recorder on the mobile device which starts and
stops when the sound level is high enough, I find this:

Auto Recorder by Giuseppe Romano
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aiuspaktyn.spyrecorder

The settings have a few options, such as the file type and size, and the
pro version adds other options such as whether to start automatically or
wait for your command, or even whether to start from a text message.

It doesn't have a setting to change its default storage location, but I can
easily enough use a freeware file redirector to automagically move it from
the local storage to the flash drive.

If folks know of a better freeware audio recorder that will stop and start
based on volume for either iOS or Android, that would be useful.

For fire, you might want to also try:
http://www.firescan.net
which has recordings of fire dispatches. The recordings are for
dispatches and callouts, and are not intended for archiving the entire
incident. Using the RSS feeds are the best way to follow the
dispatches.

Interesting, they seem to have 30-second and 90-second and 30-minute
snippets recorded at various qualities. Seems like they could do with a
single recording, at a single quality, but I guess that they want to do it
right.

 

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 16:00:02 -0000 (UTC), Horace Algier
<horatio@horatio.net> wrote:

I would love to re-listen to that communication yesterday where clearly a
leader chastised a crew for allowing other crews to go back to San Jose
without telling the leader.

Broadcastify MIGHT work, but there's a problem. Many of the scanners
reflected by Broadcastify over multiple channels. There's no
guarantee that any particular scanner will be listening to a frequency
of interest. That causes big problems when there are two or more
channels with active incidents. At the time when I made the recording
that I mentioned, there was a local only scanner for SLV (San Lorenzo
Valley) area fire. It's now gone.

You might try doing your own recording:
<http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Recording_Software_and_Tips>
The difference between these recorders, and the common music
recorders, is that scanner recorders stop recording when there's no
audio. All the dead air gaps disappear. Most also have a real time
marker system, so you know when something was heard.

For fire, you might want to also try:
<http://www.firescan.net>
which has recordings of fire dispatches. The recordings are for
dispatches and callouts, and are not intended for archiving the entire
incident. Using the RSS feeds are the best way to follow the
dispatches.

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558