Did Live Scanner Feeds Hurt the Hobby?

12Apr 2022 by Phil No Comments

Do live scanner feeds have hurt the hobby?

There are many different ways to get scanner radios onto the internet, and it’s just a matter of the way of developing or delivering the content.

What you need to know:

Many stream to:

Their own websites
Broadcastify
Twitch
Zello
Private in house systems and applications

Live streams are used by:

News media
Other public safety agencies
Hobby

How can you listen to live feeds?

Host’s website on your computer
Smart phone apps like “Scanner Radio” or “5 0 Radio”
Broadcastify
Zello
Discord Servers

Pros:

Allow you to listen to events outside your coverage area
Can tap into major events
Hear breaking news as it happens

Cons:

Can be used to coordinate civil disobedience
Used as a reason by agencies to push for encryption
Can be used in a negative way if media wants to scrutinize how emergency services responded

Final Thoughts:

Hobby has more attention to it thanks to live feeds and use of live feeds in news reports
It has allowed more to experience a scanner radio over an app, and those may never have understood what a scanner was or can do.
Allowed agencies to realize they can co-exist with scanner radio users

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