Have you ever wanted to know about the news in your area right when it happened? Sometimes there is a time delay between when events occur and when they get reported on the news. Advances in technology have helped to decrease the delay over the years, but sometimes I see dangerous weather conditions or even a local fire that has not been reported yet on the local news. There are many different devices that we can use, however, that will keep us up-to-date with the current events in our areas including crime, weather, fire, or even military related events. Home patrol scanners are devices that pick up and transmit the same communications systems that are used by our public safety, aircraft, military and weather spotters. When there are significant happenings in your area, you can know about them firsthand as they are reported.

The devices themselves are fairly easy to program and use. Each of these home scanners can be specifically programmed to pick up the transmissions in your area. Simply use your zip code for accurate information. If you would like, you can program a scanner to pick up only police and fire transmission or if you live in an area that has a lot of dangerous weather like tornados or floods, you may instead choose to set your scanner to specific weather reports in your area. Many devices have even additional programming choices that you can add depending on what you will be using your scanner for.

There are many home patrol scanners available to choose from, but I would find one that would be easy to program and operate. Some of the devices I have seen are designed with a touch screen so operating the scanner is very simple. Just a few taps of your finger and you are ready to listen to up-to-date radio transmissions. Some other features I have seen on home scanners include instant replay so you can replay something you might have misheard and some can also record transmissions to be replayed in the future.

These home patrol scanners are just one type of device that could make it possible for me to get news faster. I am interested in anything that will make it easy for me to stay current with the events in my city so that I am aware of accidents, fires, dangerous weather conditions, and even local crimes. A home patrol scanner helps inform me of what our weather spotters and public safety workers are seeing.