30 Years of Scanning - My Radio Journey

September 2026 marks 30 years since I first started in the radio hobby. Three decades is a long time in radio, and when I look back, the hobby I started with is almost unrecognisable compared with what I do today.

What began as an interest in listening to radio transmissions has developed into a much broader fascination with radio systems, frequencies, antennas, digital modes, spectrum hunting, amateur radio and documenting what I hear.

When I first started
I started in the radio hobby in 1996. Back then, radio scanning was a very different hobby to what it is now in 2026. There was no online frequency database, no easy way of looking up a system on the internet, and very little of the information we take for granted today. We did have some printed books, which I purchased from my local Dick Smith store but these only painted some of the picture.

A lot of the fun was discovering things for yourself. You would find a frequency, listen, try to work out who was using it and write it down. Back then, before the Internet, forums and other online resources had really taken off, other enthusiasts and word of mouth were important sources of information.

Those early experiences were enough to turn radio from something I was simply interested in into a hobby that has stayed with me for three decades.

The first things I monitored
My early interest was primarily in listening to local two way radio communications and trying to understand what was happening around me through the radio spectrum. The first frequency I logged was a local construction / delivery company in the VHF high band, 30 years later, they are still on the same frequency.

The attraction was never simply hearing a voice. It was working out what I was hearing.

Who was transmitting?
Where were they?
What frequency were they using?
What was the purpose of the transmission?

That curiosity has probably been one of the constants throughout my entire time in the hobby.

Early antennas
Like for many scanner enthusists, the antenna became an important part of the hobby.

There is something particularly satisfying about improving an antenna and suddenly hearing stations that were previously weak, noisy or completely absent. I used various discones for many years and have recently been focusing mostly on the VHF airband and high band, so have found a VHF Marine band aerial, mounted on our second story roof is the best I can get for my monitoring needs. The antenna is still one of the most important parts of a monitoring station and it is often overlooked.

My first amateur radio experiences
Amateur radio eventually became another important part of my relationship with radio. I started in 2006 with getting my foundation licnece (VK7FPGB). In 2025, I changed to my new callsign of VK7AAL, this has become closely associated with my radio activities, and amateur radio gave me another perspective on the spectrum.

Radio scanning and amateur radio overlap, but they are also quite different. Radio scanning is often about discovering what other people are doing. Amateur radio gives you the opportunity to actually participate. Over the years, that combination of listening, experimenting and transmitting has helped shape the way I approach radio.

Equipment I've owned
My equipment has changed dramatically over the years. My first scanner was a Pro 25, which was a 100 channel VHF / UHF scanner, it cost me $100 from our lcoal second hand dealer. One of the most significant developments has been the move from conventional analogue scanners to modern receivers capable of handling a much wider variety of digital systems.

Over the years I have owned and used a large mix of equipment, both scanners and wide band recivers. The Icom R8500 was the centre piece of my monitoring station for a while. I also foudn the AOR 8600mkii to be useful, if very complex to use. I have been a fan of the Uniden range, I imported a BCD396T from the USA, prior to the Australian UBCD396T being released. One thing I have found is that the equipment is only part of the puzzle, knowing how to use it to get the most out of it is also very important.

Today my equipment includes receivers such as the Uniden BCD325P2, which has become particularly useful for portable monitoring and Close Call work.

I've also increasingly used computers alongside my radios. Radio monitoring is no longer just about having a scanner sitting on the desk. It can involve databases, logging software, programming files, digital systems and custom tools that I have developed myself. That has led to projects such as my own radio databases, frequency management tools and scanning software. RadioFreakDB has become the centre piece of my monitoring record keeping and it now runs on both my laptop and phone, giving me access to my loggings and other information no matter where I am.

It is difficult to pick a single favourite because different radios have served different purposes. The BCD325P2 is particularly useful for the way I monitor today. Its portability makes it ideal for getting out of the shack and taking the radio to where the signals actually are.

That is important because some of the most interesting monitoring I have done recently hasn't happened sitting at home.

For example, I have taken the BCD325P2 on drives around Tasmania, including a trip to Deloraine, running it in Close Call mode and seeing what signals appeared around me. That style of monitoring, taking the receiver to the signal rather than simply waiting for signals to come to me, has become a major part of my hobby. I often make sure I have this with me in one of the Auto Store modes, so I can review what is received later.

The Icom R20 was also a favorite of mine and I made good use of the audio recorder. I would often leave it setup and recording, espically on unkown frequencies, to review the recording later, this helped me with being able to ID a number of frequencies over the years.

How scanning has changed over 30 years
This is probably the biggest change of all. When I started, scanning was predominantly about analogue voice communications, FM on the buisness bands and AM for aircraft. Today the spectrum contains an enormous mixture of:

• Analogue FM
• P25
• DMR
• NXDN
• Data transmissions
• Telemetry
• Paging and other signalling

Some services have disappeared completely. Others have moved to digital systems. Some systems are now encrypted, making them effectively unavailable to the hobbyist listener.

In Tasmania, the TASGRN system is a good example of how things have changed. Large communications networks have become increasingly sophisticated, while encryption has also changed what can realistically be monitored.

The challenge today isn't necessarily finding a signal. It's understanding what the signal is.

How my interests have evolved
This is where my hobby has probably changed the most. I started as someone who wanted to listen to radio. Over time, I became interested in finding radio signals, then identifying them, then documenting them. Now I am increasingly interested in understanding the technology behind them.

I've also become interested in creating resources for other enthusiasts, including FreeScan configuration files and databases.

I enjoy the process of taking something I have personally discovered and turning it into something useful that somebody else can use.

For me, it is now less about the content and more about what frequencies are in use, where, when and by who.

What I'm monitoring today
Today my main focus is UHF band monitoring, searching for new users and signals and documenting this, Rather than simply programming a list of known frequencies and leaving the scanner running, I enjoy getting out and actively hunting for signals.

I'll take a portable scanner into an area, listen to the spectrum, watch for signals, investigate frequencies and then try to work out exactly what I've found. That might be UHF CB, a data transmission, a digital signal, a TASGRN control channel or something completely unexpected.

And that's still what makes scanning exciting after 30 years. You never quite know what the radio is going to find.

Where I think the hobby is heading
I don't think scanning is disappearing. I do think it is changing. The traditional idea of sitting beside a scanner listening to analogue conversations is becoming less representative of modern monitoring.

The future is likely to involve more digital systems, more data, more encryption, software-defined radio, computer-assisted analysis and increasingly sophisticated methods of identifying unknown signals.

The moment when you discover a signal you've never heard before is still just as exciting as it was when I started 30 years ago.

Looking back, I find it remarkable that something I started in 1997 has remained such a significant part of my life. Radio has gone from being something I listened to into something I research, document, write about, develop software for and actively hunt.

My interests have changed enormously, but the underlying curiosity that first got me started hasn't.

Photo Dump

Since the early 2000's I have keep a large number of radio related photos. Below are some, that show my journey over this time.