Berkeley Copwatch Has a Police Scanner!
Hey so we finally got ourselves a fancy new police scanner over at Berkeley Copwatch! Although we haven’t yet connected it to a computer in order to load the exhaustive list of departments in the area, we are currently getting most of the East Bay communications including Berkeley PD, UCPD, Oakland PD, Emeryville PD, and the Alameda Co. Sheriff.
For now, here are the instructions for using the scanner:
Press and hold the power button for ~2 seconds to turn on the scanner
The keypad is mostly locked for the time being, so there’s very little chance to mess up the settings
In order to change the volume, you press down on the knob at the top of the scanner and then release it. Then you can turn the knob in order to change the volume
The power button is also a light button. You can press it to turn on the backlight for a few seconds
Currently, the only two departments that will be listed by name are the Berkeley PD and UCPD. If the person talking isn’t from one of those departments, what will be displayed is a 5 digit number. In order to find out who is talking, you have to look them up here: www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=5317
When you’re finished with the scanner, hold down the power button for two seconds and check that it is off. Re-connect the scanner to the charger
Here’s to more effective copwatching!
