After I retired from the police department about 10 years ago I moved out to Arizona. I had been actively recruited to work for Scanner Master as a sales & support rep for years and finally accepted the job. As I had written a couple scanner guides and worked on other projects for Scanner Master over the prior 20 years or so it seemed like a natural fit. Now that I was retired, I could work from home and talk scanners all day long, getting paid for what I do best.
My work partner for this for several years was Jonathan, he had worked full time for Scanner Master for about 10 years at the time and he taught me how to work the phone system, Point of Sale (POS) system as well as our in-house messaging and email system. Over the next few years, we talked on the phone or Facetime almost every day and became good friends.
Jonathan came across an idea: Do a live video show talking about scanners. People could chime in with questions and show ideas or we could just chat about whatever was happening. “The Scanner Guys” was born!
At first these live shows were done at fairly random times, and only on Facebook Live. Some of the time it was Jonathan doing a few minutes on a topic, sometimes we would both be on, or occasionally I would pop up by myself. Some of the shows would be done on location at an airport or trackside along a railroad track. We were both rabid railfans and I was into plane spotting. These proved to be pretty popular, and we soon developed a devoted audience.
Then along came the SDS100. Both Jonathan and I were (and remain) Uniden Beta testers so we always had the latest scanners and upgrades for testing well ahead of the public. It was just before the SDS100 testing period that “The Scanner Guys” started to gel. After the inadvertent spilling of the beans by a different vender about the SDS100, the Uniden Product Manager, the late, great Paul Opitz, gave the go ahead to a plan developed by Jonathan and I: Dayton’s Hamvention was coming up and both Jonathan and I were planning on going to work the Scanner Master booth. I would fly out to Boston (the world HQ of Scanner Master) and Jonathan and I would drive from there to Dayton with the products we would be selling. In addition, we would be making live videos along the way demonstrating the SDS100. We would stop at the world-famous Horseshoe Curve along the way, as it is really one of the premier railfan spots in the world. Once at Dayton we would allow the public their first chance to see the SDS100 in person, to caress it, play with it and try it out.
Paul agreed to the plan with a couple suggestions and then we presented it to Rich Barnett, the owner of Scanner Master. He too thought it was a great idea and gave his blessing. Jonathan and I started planning the details. I booked my flight from Phoenix to Boston, and we would drive a rented Chevy Suburban full of scanners and booth stuff to Dayton via Altoona PA and Horseshoe Curve. We would do Facebook Live sessions along the way, often while driving. I would hold the phone and the scanner, Jonathan would drive and we both would talk. These shows would demonstrate the SDS100 in various locations with the emphasis on simulcast P25 systems for which the SDS100 was designed. We had a GPS unit for it as well and used the Database for many systems and preprogrammed Favorites Lists for others.
The flight to Boston was uneventful until the final approach. I saw there were some pretty rough weather there, and we were just about to land when all of a sudden, the pilot hit the throttle and pulled up. I could see the runway markings and we were less than a few hundred feet off the ground when he hit the gas. I was able to get in a quick phone call and let Jonathan know that we were probably going to divert due to the weather. I looked at a map and thought that Albany, NY would be the most logical place for us to divert to. That seemed to be the best place for us as well, I figured if I could get off the plane there Jonathan could drive there and pick me up. As it was pretty much on the way where we were going it would work out well.
Thankfully Albany was the diversion airport. As soon as we were landing, I got on the phone again to Jonathan and he was already on the way. As I only had carry-on luggage, I was able to ask the flight crew if I could deplane at Albany instead of waiting for the flight to Boston. The flight attendant was kind of surprised at the request but agreed to let me off the plane.
A couple hours later Jonathan arrived, and we hit the road. We were only a couple hours behind at this point, it could have been a lot worse. Luckily, he was able to get out of Boston with few problems, the notorious Boston traffic was not as bad as it often was.
We drove thru the night, finally finding a motel along the way. The next morning (Wednesday) we arrived in Altoona and went to Horseshoe Curve where we did a live shot. After we had lunch at the world’s best pizza place (Vito’s Pizza in Cresson, PA, not far from Altoona) we hit the road headed for Dayton. Along the way we did several more live shots. The next day (Thursday) we did a couple more as we were setting up the booth at Hamvention and then went railfanning for the afternoon. That evening we did a longer show from the motel.
Friday morning was the opening of Hamvention. We did several live shots and demonstrated the scanner during these shows as well as to the hundreds of people lining up at the booth. As we had the only 2 SDS100’s available for public viewing, they were lining up to see it. Other scanner venders were among them as well; Whistler Wendy and her crew stopped by among reps from Icom and other companies. Jonathon did a presentation in one of the breakout rooms about the radio as well.
For all 3 days at Dayton we had a constant stream of curious scanner enthusiasts clamoring to see the SDS100’s. We did several live streams each day and a longer one each night. We had several offers from people wanting to purchase the SDS100’s from us as they would be several months before they would be available to the public. Some offers were pretty tempting, over a thousand dollars, but of course we could not sell them. They were the property of Uniden, and we had to agree to return them upon demand. Eventually we did return these beta units when we got our production units as part of the beta process.
One night Jonathan and I stopped for dinner at a restaurant halfway between Xenia (where HamVention was staged) and Springfield (where our hotel was). We got there just as a humongous thunderstorm hit and so we politely declined the offer of outside seating.
We did some more live shots on the trip back to Boston and a couple more in Boston before I flew back to Phoenix. After I got home, we would do some random live shows here and there, including from an airport or if one of us was railfanning someplace.
By then Jonathan had started using some specialty software to produce the shows and they started gaining in production values. This software included advanced streaming features as well as slideshow creation akin to PowerPoint. This really made for more professional shows. We started doing scheduled shows, eventually settling on Wednesday nights. We also started doing YouTube shows, first in concert with Facebook. This proved to be a great thing as YouTube was a much better venue for these types of shows. For a while we simulcast on both platforms but eventually switched to YouTube as the only platform. It was better suited for our shows and then they could be watched again later, increasing the audience.
For a couple years we did shows almost every Wednesday night on YouTube. It was a lot more work for Jonathan than people realize. Not only did he create the slideshows he also coordinated the YouTube activity, promotions and merchandise creation and selling. It got to be a lot of work, especially considering he had a fulltime job and family to attend to. Jonathan was going thru changes in his life as well. He moved from Boston with a new career in the Carolina’s and then to Cincinnati. Jonathan also started a new channel called “Train Aficionado”. While that was more of a “Jonathan” thing I also did some co-hosting duties from time to time. This eventually morphed into two Wednesdays a month for “The Scanner Guys” and two for “Train Aficionado”.
The YouTube shows were very successful but eventually life intervened again. I retired from Scanner Master, and we had family move in with us. This made the Wednesday evening shows problematic as I was sharing my office with the son, and he couldn’t always get away from his work in time for me to appear on the show. I decided to retire from The Scanner Guys as well. Jonathan kept on with the shows, with an occasional guest co-host. I try to watch the shows when I can but often find myself engrossed in other things when I realized the show was on.
I know the shows were a lot more work for Jonathan than they were for me. He had to produce the slide shows, handle the production during the show, set up schedules and promotions as well as merchandising. I pretty much showed up for the show, did some editing of the slideshows and provided the eye candy.
Occasionally I hear from some of the fans of the shows. I would be at a hamfest and someone will come up and say hi, recognizing me from the show. I am pretty sure that happens to Jonathan as well. While we aren’t exactly famous, we have been pretty successful, especially considering that scanning and railfanning are such small niche hobbies.
I am at the point in my life now that my schedule revolve around doctors’ appointments for the wife and I more than anything else. Not having to work around a regular show schedule has reduced the stress factor in my life. I am sure that working full time and producing/hosting shows are taking a toll on Jonathan. I never learned to edit videos, but I do know it is a lot of work, even more so than live shows. Jonathan still does both the Scanner Guys and Train Aficionado, albeit on reduced schedules.
You can view current and past shows at
The Scanner Guys
and
Train Aficionado
My work partner for this for several years was Jonathan, he had worked full time for Scanner Master for about 10 years at the time and he taught me how to work the phone system, Point of Sale (POS) system as well as our in-house messaging and email system. Over the next few years, we talked on the phone or Facetime almost every day and became good friends.
Jonathan came across an idea: Do a live video show talking about scanners. People could chime in with questions and show ideas or we could just chat about whatever was happening. “The Scanner Guys” was born!
At first these live shows were done at fairly random times, and only on Facebook Live. Some of the time it was Jonathan doing a few minutes on a topic, sometimes we would both be on, or occasionally I would pop up by myself. Some of the shows would be done on location at an airport or trackside along a railroad track. We were both rabid railfans and I was into plane spotting. These proved to be pretty popular, and we soon developed a devoted audience.
Then along came the SDS100. Both Jonathan and I were (and remain) Uniden Beta testers so we always had the latest scanners and upgrades for testing well ahead of the public. It was just before the SDS100 testing period that “The Scanner Guys” started to gel. After the inadvertent spilling of the beans by a different vender about the SDS100, the Uniden Product Manager, the late, great Paul Opitz, gave the go ahead to a plan developed by Jonathan and I: Dayton’s Hamvention was coming up and both Jonathan and I were planning on going to work the Scanner Master booth. I would fly out to Boston (the world HQ of Scanner Master) and Jonathan and I would drive from there to Dayton with the products we would be selling. In addition, we would be making live videos along the way demonstrating the SDS100. We would stop at the world-famous Horseshoe Curve along the way, as it is really one of the premier railfan spots in the world. Once at Dayton we would allow the public their first chance to see the SDS100 in person, to caress it, play with it and try it out.
Paul agreed to the plan with a couple suggestions and then we presented it to Rich Barnett, the owner of Scanner Master. He too thought it was a great idea and gave his blessing. Jonathan and I started planning the details. I booked my flight from Phoenix to Boston, and we would drive a rented Chevy Suburban full of scanners and booth stuff to Dayton via Altoona PA and Horseshoe Curve. We would do Facebook Live sessions along the way, often while driving. I would hold the phone and the scanner, Jonathan would drive and we both would talk. These shows would demonstrate the SDS100 in various locations with the emphasis on simulcast P25 systems for which the SDS100 was designed. We had a GPS unit for it as well and used the Database for many systems and preprogrammed Favorites Lists for others.
The flight to Boston was uneventful until the final approach. I saw there were some pretty rough weather there, and we were just about to land when all of a sudden, the pilot hit the throttle and pulled up. I could see the runway markings and we were less than a few hundred feet off the ground when he hit the gas. I was able to get in a quick phone call and let Jonathan know that we were probably going to divert due to the weather. I looked at a map and thought that Albany, NY would be the most logical place for us to divert to. That seemed to be the best place for us as well, I figured if I could get off the plane there Jonathan could drive there and pick me up. As it was pretty much on the way where we were going it would work out well.
Thankfully Albany was the diversion airport. As soon as we were landing, I got on the phone again to Jonathan and he was already on the way. As I only had carry-on luggage, I was able to ask the flight crew if I could deplane at Albany instead of waiting for the flight to Boston. The flight attendant was kind of surprised at the request but agreed to let me off the plane.
A couple hours later Jonathan arrived, and we hit the road. We were only a couple hours behind at this point, it could have been a lot worse. Luckily, he was able to get out of Boston with few problems, the notorious Boston traffic was not as bad as it often was.
We drove thru the night, finally finding a motel along the way. The next morning (Wednesday) we arrived in Altoona and went to Horseshoe Curve where we did a live shot. After we had lunch at the world’s best pizza place (Vito’s Pizza in Cresson, PA, not far from Altoona) we hit the road headed for Dayton. Along the way we did several more live shots. The next day (Thursday) we did a couple more as we were setting up the booth at Hamvention and then went railfanning for the afternoon. That evening we did a longer show from the motel.
Friday morning was the opening of Hamvention. We did several live shots and demonstrated the scanner during these shows as well as to the hundreds of people lining up at the booth. As we had the only 2 SDS100’s available for public viewing, they were lining up to see it. Other scanner venders were among them as well; Whistler Wendy and her crew stopped by among reps from Icom and other companies. Jonathon did a presentation in one of the breakout rooms about the radio as well.
For all 3 days at Dayton we had a constant stream of curious scanner enthusiasts clamoring to see the SDS100’s. We did several live streams each day and a longer one each night. We had several offers from people wanting to purchase the SDS100’s from us as they would be several months before they would be available to the public. Some offers were pretty tempting, over a thousand dollars, but of course we could not sell them. They were the property of Uniden, and we had to agree to return them upon demand. Eventually we did return these beta units when we got our production units as part of the beta process.
One night Jonathan and I stopped for dinner at a restaurant halfway between Xenia (where HamVention was staged) and Springfield (where our hotel was). We got there just as a humongous thunderstorm hit and so we politely declined the offer of outside seating.
We did some more live shots on the trip back to Boston and a couple more in Boston before I flew back to Phoenix. After I got home, we would do some random live shows here and there, including from an airport or if one of us was railfanning someplace.
By then Jonathan had started using some specialty software to produce the shows and they started gaining in production values. This software included advanced streaming features as well as slideshow creation akin to PowerPoint. This really made for more professional shows. We started doing scheduled shows, eventually settling on Wednesday nights. We also started doing YouTube shows, first in concert with Facebook. This proved to be a great thing as YouTube was a much better venue for these types of shows. For a while we simulcast on both platforms but eventually switched to YouTube as the only platform. It was better suited for our shows and then they could be watched again later, increasing the audience.
For a couple years we did shows almost every Wednesday night on YouTube. It was a lot more work for Jonathan than people realize. Not only did he create the slideshows he also coordinated the YouTube activity, promotions and merchandise creation and selling. It got to be a lot of work, especially considering he had a fulltime job and family to attend to. Jonathan was going thru changes in his life as well. He moved from Boston with a new career in the Carolina’s and then to Cincinnati. Jonathan also started a new channel called “Train Aficionado”. While that was more of a “Jonathan” thing I also did some co-hosting duties from time to time. This eventually morphed into two Wednesdays a month for “The Scanner Guys” and two for “Train Aficionado”.
The YouTube shows were very successful but eventually life intervened again. I retired from Scanner Master, and we had family move in with us. This made the Wednesday evening shows problematic as I was sharing my office with the son, and he couldn’t always get away from his work in time for me to appear on the show. I decided to retire from The Scanner Guys as well. Jonathan kept on with the shows, with an occasional guest co-host. I try to watch the shows when I can but often find myself engrossed in other things when I realized the show was on.
I know the shows were a lot more work for Jonathan than they were for me. He had to produce the slide shows, handle the production during the show, set up schedules and promotions as well as merchandising. I pretty much showed up for the show, did some editing of the slideshows and provided the eye candy.
Occasionally I hear from some of the fans of the shows. I would be at a hamfest and someone will come up and say hi, recognizing me from the show. I am pretty sure that happens to Jonathan as well. While we aren’t exactly famous, we have been pretty successful, especially considering that scanning and railfanning are such small niche hobbies.
I am at the point in my life now that my schedule revolve around doctors’ appointments for the wife and I more than anything else. Not having to work around a regular show schedule has reduced the stress factor in my life. I am sure that working full time and producing/hosting shows are taking a toll on Jonathan. I never learned to edit videos, but I do know it is a lot of work, even more so than live shows. Jonathan still does both the Scanner Guys and Train Aficionado, albeit on reduced schedules.
You can view current and past shows at
The Scanner Guys
and
Train Aficionado
