Indeed, a good trunked radio costs some coin here, but it isn't outrageous (~$500). Most enthusiasts are happy to cough up the money for it. Casual folks genera

Indeed, a good trunked radio costs some coin here, but it isn't outrageous (~$500). Most enthusiasts are happy to cough up the money for it. Casual folks generally just get a phone app, that then has a stream from one of the previously mentioned enthusiasts. Listening to the scanner isn't illegal here, so long as it isn't in the commission of a crime, but the ones that are encrypted obviously would be illegal to listen into without explicit authorization. A lot of agencies want to keep their transmissions open, but with how easy it is to turn on encryption on their existing equipment, it only takes one incident for them to suddenly decide to encrypt. It was disappointing when I moved from an area that had all but tactical channels in the clear, to one that encrypts everything. Apparently it even caused the state agencies to say they would not respond within the jurisdiction, for a period of time, as they were locked out of being able to talk to that jurisdiction's dispatch. Ultimately they were given encrypted access.