3.   Don't concerns regarding homeland security mitigate any new publications?

Frankly, no. On the contrary, it seems to me that the long-term pathway to freedom and our way of life in the U.S. is through educated, informed, and responsible citizenry. While some short-term benefits may result from legislation such as the "Patriot Act" (and many debate even that point), a consistent and persistent base of both knowledge and action is the long-term pathway to a better society. Did the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) really ensure privacy? Note that I'm not against measures to improve security and enhance privacy. But I find neither issue to be a compelling justification to limit the publication of frequencies, allocations, and usage. I believe that the FCC has remained silent on the issue, however, all frequencies within their provenance continue to be published on official government web sites each and every day.

4.   Can't one just look up any frequency on the Internet?

Not easily. Yes, a good search engine, such as Google, helps. But the amount of accurate, detailed, and geographically-germane frequency listings available on the Internet is still somewhat limited. This especially true in a radio-intensive region such as Southern California. Assuming many people contribute in small ways, this situation should be able to be corrected, or at least ameliorated, over time. And work with semantic web technologies helps as well.

5.   Can't one just look up any frequency in the FCC listings?

I usually get this question from users who haven't spent much time actually comparing the frequencies listed in the FCC records and the world of reality. While the Internet-accessibility of FCC records is a welcome addition, it is wholefully insufficient for the even the casual listener, much less a serious scanner enthusiast or land-mobile radio professional. Federal frequencies are never listed in FCC records. Add to this the tremendous growth of "unlicensed" frequencies, particularly by small and medium enterprises. Also, the rapid growth of "managed systems" by SMR's and holding companies makes linking radio usage to an FCC record difficult at best. And finally, issues related to usage, tone-coded squelch, coverage footprints, and co-channeling mitigation are not documented well, or at all, in the FCC records.

Just as an historical note, FCC records have always been publically available (I recall quite vividly perusing the microfiche at the Long Beach FCC office in the early-1980's). The central issue has been principally how difficult it was to obtain the records.

6.   Why include all of the business listings (including fast food)?

I didn't see business frequencies documentation very well just about anywhere. "Beyond Police Call" was a start, but as with many other publications, it too has not been updated for some time.

7.   How did you get started in scanning?

My first radio was a portable, multi-band radio. In addition to the traditional bands, the radio tuned 30-50 MHz ("VHS-lo"[w]) and 136-174 MHz ("VHS-hi"[gh]). I purchased the radio for just under $20 in 1974 from the "Zodys" store (no longer in business) at the corner of Sunset and Western in Hollywood. I mostly listened to LA County Fire and LAPD, both on VHF-hi. I did need help finding more local fire calls; in short, I needed help listening to LA City Fire. One day, on a hunch, I walked into LA City Fire Station #52 (it's since moved now) and a sympathetic and gracious station captain called downtown to OCD, wrote down the frequencies for me, and helped me tune into LAFD on [at the time] VHF-lo. At the height of my listening in mid- to late-eighties, I had 17 working scanners at my house.

My uncle, Steve Light, was an LA County firefighter and helped me understand understand the County better and the role of various LACoFD units in protecting the County. It also didn't hurt that Universal's "Emergency" was a popular TV show at the time.

As soon as was old enough, I joined the LAPD Hollywood Area Police Explorer Scouts. This gave me an inside opportunity to learn a great deal about LAPD communication systems, radio equipment, and frequency usage. Explorer scouts provide volunteer support in a variety of areas, primarily within a single geographic area. I also volunteered many hours at LAPD's Dispatch Center located for many years, on the first floor of Parker Center (yes, the same one that is featured in the opening credits of "Adam-12"). Whenever there were tours, the Watch Officer would let me lead them, because I knew everything that was going on and could explain each distinct process clearly.

I made a couple of process innovations during the time I worked in LAPD dispatch, but to my knowledge, none were never adopted formally. First, I implemented a technique of using specially-cut transparency film to slide over a single page in a Thomas Bros. map. During pursuits, which at the time, were managed from central console by a sworn officer, I could use a transparency marker to document the history (streets traveled) of each pursuit. I am not sure if or how this task is automated or routinized today. Second, I offloaded the task of looking-up RD's ("residential districts") for each call. After coordination with the sworn officers answering phone calls (usually on a Friday or Saturday night), I placed myself at the end of the tray that moved the call tickets from the officers on the telephone to the radio dispatchers (called "RTO's). I simply intercepted each ticket, lookuped the proper RD based upon the physical address, and put the ticket back on the tray. At the time, there was a red light on the wall in the room. When the red light was on, it meant that there were calls holding. When I was handling the tedious job of RD lookups, the red light wasn't often on, and I knew that I was freeing up valuable time for the officers to finish one telephone call and get right on the telephone to answer another call (the smile on the face of the watch commander didn't hurt either). This work is largely automated now.