New to scanner radio? Never used Rdio Scanner before? No worries — this guide walks you through everything from the blinking lights to searching past calls.
Listening to PA Scanners requires nothing more than a modern web browser. Here's how to get up and running in under a minute:
The Rdio Scanner interface shows you real-time information about what's transmitting. Here's what each part of the screen means:
System: The radio system being received — for example, a county name refers to that area's P25 trunked radio system.
Talkgroup: Think of this like a channel. "Fire Dispatch" is one talkgroup, "EMS North" is another. Each department or function has its own talkgroup.
Frequency: The actual radio frequency in MHz being decoded. Displayed in large digits in the center of the screen.
Call History: The list of recent transmissions below the main display. You can click any past call to replay it.
The colored LED dots in the top-left corner of the scanner tell you the status of the current transmission at a glance.
A transmission is actively being received and played. Someone is talking right now.
The scanner is live and monitoring — waiting for the next transmission.
A call is paused, on hold, or the talkgroup has been temporarily muted.
The talkgroup is marked as avoided/skipped — this call is being ignored.
Typically indicates a system or talkgroup being held (locked) on that channel.
The buttons across the bottom of the scanner control how it behaves. Here's what each one does:
| Button | What It Does |
|---|---|
| LIVE FEED | Jumps back to the live stream if you've been browsing past calls. Think of it as the "go back to now" button. |
| HOLD SYS | Locks the scanner onto the current system only. Good for focusing on a single county or agency group. |
| HOLD TG | Locks onto the current talkgroup only. Use this to follow just Fire Dispatch, or just EMS, without flipping around. |
| REPLAY | Replays the current or most recent transmission from the beginning. Handy when you caught only part of a call. |
| AVOID | Skips the current talkgroup. If a certain channel is too noisy or you're not interested, this mutes it temporarily. |
| SEARCH | Opens a search bar so you can look through call history by talkgroup name, system, or keyword. |
| PAUSE | Pauses playback. The scanner keeps buffering in the background — unpause to catch up. |
| SELECT TG | Opens a list of all talkgroups. Use this to jump directly to a specific department or channel. |
One of the most useful features is the ability to search and replay recent transmissions. Here's how:
PA Scanners works great on phones and tablets. A few things to keep in mind on mobile devices:
The interface is fully responsive and touchscreen-friendly. Swipe through the call history, tap buttons to control playback, and pinch-zoom if you need a closer look at talkgroup info.
For the best experience on mobile, keep your screen from auto-locking while listening — or try using the browser's "Add to Home Screen" feature to launch PA Scanners like an app from your phone's home screen.