Can you use this to listen to ems/police/fire?
1466610
No, it doesnt work as a scanner just a cb-radio. It has two emergency channels but not for the purposes of listening to ems/police/fire.
1466611
The only way to hear emergency response is if they are using citizens band.they usually operate on an fm band while the hand held Cobra and all cb is am.
1937027
Yeah it picks up weather alerts, police scanner no does not work for me. it would be good
2075851
Most of the answers to this question are so wrong. I love this product to listen to my local Police, EMS and Fire. But search Amazon for the UV-5r for a cheaper price and it works just as well. Amazon sells it for $25 dollars. Go to google and type in your request for your police department radio frequencies. You will most likely get www.radioreference.com and on this website you should be able to find your local police department and more....I did and it works great for me.
2075850
Although I have not used it to scan police frequencies, the range of this radio does cover the150 and 450 MHz bands that are commonly used. Municipalities are often using other methods rather than FM for communications these days.
227799
I have found that you can speak through the PA feature, however it isn't very loud unless you scream into the remote. what's the point in doing that? If I have to yell into the remote, then I may as well roll down the window? keep in mind, I didn't buy this one for the PA feature. I bought this for the siren for my personal vehicle for responding to fire and medical emergencies. I find that it works very well for that purpose! People hear me coming!
1709836
most police, etc, are on UHF or vhf not covered by these kinds of receivers. you need to research the broadcasts youare interested in (there are books and web sites for that) and then buy a radio made for those bands, more thanlikely a scanner. good luck. there are lots of interesting things on the bands this radio covers.
1475499
As long as you know the URL for the MP3 format or the internet radio station, you can play those. You will need to register that URL through the "Lounge" (now called "Pure Connect"). Some of my favorites are the last news bulletin of certain radio stations. Pretty cool!
1430768
far as I know if you know what frequencies they are. that way you can put it in and listen.
158012
Yes I think so. I bought it for my 74 year old mother to use as a police scanner. She loves listening to what's going on. It works perfect and she loves it.
491840
Yes it is a police scanner, but also fire & ambulance, marine, ham, air, weather scanner, plus AM & FM radio.
2097250
Yes, you can, on Windows Settings, Recording Devices, go to Mic, and click "Listen to this device"
313297
Yes, if you have the frequencies through somewhere such as radio reference, this scanner will receive them. It is a digital scanner and I use it to listen to my local police and county who recently transitioned from analog to digital. It has a learning curve but if you use programming software it is pretty easy.
1773896
Yes, and this particular unit had an AM/FM radio. You can switch between the unit you want to listen too. Enjoy!
2009672
Yes it does. My area police and fire use the same frequencies and I have no problem with picking them up.
2157445
if you can hear it you can communicate with it on this radio. Be careful it may be illegal to transmit there. Jim
859930
Yes, you may use the speakers or ear buds. My motorcycle is so loud that I have to use ear buds to protect my hearing let alone hear the music.
491239
No. 911 is part of the switched telephone network. A cell phone is a specialized radio that communicates with the switched telephone network, so you can reach 911 with it. If you're talking about communicating with the responders to 911 calls, like police and firefighters, the answer is: it depends. Some responders use frequencies the Baofeng can transmit and receive on, but it would be illegal. Many of the responders have gone to something called trunked radio systems, which works something like a private cellular system, and the Baofeng wouldn't do anything useful trying to talk to a trunked system.