The Service Search feature allows you to have the scanner search through frequencies that are commonly allocated to specific types of services. While the specific services available can vary by model, typically service searches include:
- Marine -- frequencies used by maritime services.
- Air -- frequencies used by commercial and private aviation
- Amateur Radio (Ham) -- frequencies allocated for use by amateur radio operators.
- Railroad -- frequencies used for railroad operations.
- News -- frequencies commonly used in news-gathering.
- Public Safety -- frequencies allocated for use by public safety agencies (police, fire, ambulance, sheriff).
- CB Radio -- the 40 CB radio frequencies.
- GMRS / FRS / MURS -- the frequencies allocated for these services.
- Racing -- frequencies commonly used by racing teams.
- FM Broadcast -- the 88 - 108 MHz spectrum used for commercial FM broadcasting.
- Special -- a collection of frequencies commonly used by businesses.
- Military Air -- frequencies used for military aircraft and airbase operations.
- TV Broadcast -- frequencies allocated for VHF and UHF TV Broadcasts. Since TV broadcasts are now digital, this service search is not offered on newer models. On older models, you will still see that search, but will not be able to tune to broadcasts. Due to the method used for encoding TV audio it is not currently practical to include digital TV audio decoding in a scanner product.
While some of these services have commonly found frequencies (like FM Broadcast and CB Radio), we devote some research time into building the frequency lists for other services. So, the specific frequencies used for each service search are not available, and these frequencies cannot be changed by the user.
In addition to the service searches, scanners also typically include up to 10 or more custom search ranges that you can define.
For information on using the Service Search for your model, see: