Scanner recommendation

[Guest Loraine]

Was looking to buy a scanner to listen to the local traffic and see if I might be interested in getting a license for me and my family. I read on this forum that the scanning feature on the radio is a poor substitute for a dedicated scanner. Any information or recommendations would be appreciated.Thank you for your time and patience

[Over2U]

If you are considering only GMRS, any cheap GMRS radio should be able to scan the 22 available channels well enough for you to decide whether or not to purchase a license in order to use the transmitter function.

[SteveShannon]

55 minutes ago, Guest Loraine said:

Was looking to buy a scanner to listen to the local traffic and see if I might be interested in getting a license for me and my family. I read on this forum that the scanning feature on the radio is a poor substitute for a dedicated scanner. Any information or recommendations would be appreciated.Thank you for your time and patience

If you’re looking for a receiver that scans extremely quickly through all of the GMRS channels as well as fire, police, ham radio, etc, a dedicated scanner is better suited for that purpose. However, a GMRS radio might only be 1/5 to 1/10 the price and might be good enough if all you want to do is determine if there’s local GMRS traffic. 

[WRUE951]

although there are some HT's that do pretty good at scanning nothing can beat a dedicated wide frequencies scanner..  The scanning speed and scanning features will never stand up against any HT..   Scanning is fun,  I would pick up a nice Bearcat and let the fun begin. 

[OffRoaderX]

• Uniden SDS200 for scanning everything..
• Any $30 GMRS radio for (slowly) scanning just the GMRS channels..
• An SDR dongle for scanning everything if you dont mind tinkering and futzing around.

[HHD1]

Uniden SDS100... if you wanna take it with you.

[WRUE951]

On 11/16/2025 at 6:48 PM, OffRoaderX said:

• Uniden SDS200 for scanning everything..
• Any $30 GMRS radio for (slowly) scanning just the GMRS channels..
• An SDR dongle for scanning everything if you dont mind tinkering and futzing around.

SDR Dongles are pretty cool and some software pretty powerful.   You ought to do in ‘in depth’ video on a few

[WRUE951]

6 minutes ago, HHD1 said:

Uniden SDS100... if you wanna take it with you.

the one i have. I love it.