Legality of a Scanner in my truck ?

I have not heard of this jumping, unless maybe it's used to refer to a Trunking System.
But the RR DB isn't showing any PS Trunking System in your area.
Looks like most of everything is Conventional VHF Still.
Mostly Analog and a few places are P25 Digital.

 

Quote "My local police station jumps around channels so you can't hear what their saying with a scanner. " quote.

It sounds like they are using a scrambler of sorts. Army and other services are doing that. Some Army transmitters does it 60 times a second . Many police Depts use several freqs. Car to car. district to district. Car to base. Base to car. It can get confusing

 

Loved mine back in the 90s. Nothing like eves dropping on cordless phone conversations.

 

I don't know how it works but both the fire department and police have the same thing so you can't listen on a scanner anymore. They put in a code at both the base and mobile for the day, week or month then change it. My friend is a cop and many cities have gone to this when it's time to upgrade. It prevents people from rushing to a scene and getting in the way.

I also have an old Radio Shack scanner that picks up peoples phones. I'm not sure if their cell phones or what but I can put it into scan mode then lock on. It's pretty funny.

 

It's completely legal to have a scanner in your truck. You can even listen to the trunked ones with a good scanner that supports it. If you have xmit ability on those freqs.... then it becomes a problem.

 

I had cops climb in my trucks at scales in both ky and nc, looking at my radios and asking if they were scanners.
It is illegal in some states to have a scanner capable of receiving police frequencies in a vehicle.
I am a licensed ham, also.
Yes, the cops checking my radios did do this 15 or 20 years ago. I doubt the laws have changed, but more likely its not so easy to use scanners now with the trunking and frequency hopping as it was years ago, and they're not so worried about it.

 

You was not nobody in the 90's unless you had a Sony cordless phone. I remember when we replaced our 50 ft corded phone

 

Many Cops/Firemen have NO clue whatsoever as to what they have.

Kinda of like the majority of Truck Drivers have no clue
Channel 19 = 27.185 MHz
Once places started going to Trunking and Digital or maybe conventional digital, many people believe(d) it's no longer possible to listen.

 

WRONG.

Making a blanket statement such as this is not correct.

Each state has its own laws as to what is and isn't legal.

Almost all states are lenient with regards to at home or base scanners.

There are several states that require either an FCC license or permission, especially when it comes to having one in a motor vehicle.

And in almost every state, if you do, it's illegal.

It's what most larger departments are now using as the standard known as APCO or Project 25, that uses frequency hopping and encryption to block monitoring.