Emergency Radio for iPhone and iPod Touch – Review

Currently number 2 on the list of the iTunes App Store’s top paid applications, Emergency Radio allows you easily follow the action of over 900 police, fire, EMS and other emergency frequencies.  Whether you want to keep tabs on what’s going on in your own backyard or listen in to the happenings on the other side of the country Emergency Radio streams a a variety of emergency services feeds right to your iPhone.  Time to put that old Radio Shack scanner on Ebay.

Emergency Radio boasts having over 900 emergency services streams for you to choose from.  And it does.  Searching for content is quite simple though.  You can view a list of all the available streams in alphabetical order or if you know the name of the stream you’re looking for you can simply type it in the search box.

 

Or if you want to search for streams in your area the application will use the iPhone’s location to determine what streams are nearest to you.  You can configure the search parameters based on how far away you want the application to search.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The application then shows you the available streams in order of closest to you to furthest away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you select a stream to play the load time is quite fast.  While the stream is playing Emergency Radio shows you a list of common radio codes to help you follow the chatter.  To help conserve batter life Emergency radio continues to play while the phone is in sleep mode just like the iPod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found a stream you like and want to be able to easily access it in future?  Emergency Radio allows you to keep a list of your favorite streams just like bookmarks in Safari.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a firefighter I was eager to try out this application and thrilled to see my own company’s dispatch had a stream available.  Sure enough the stream plays exactly what’s sent and played on my fire department issued company radio.  I don’t plan on listening to my own company’s feed on my down time, my wife wouldn’t allow it!  But it’s nice to know I can access it anywhere I am just to check in.

Edgerift software, the developer of Emergency Radio is constantly updating their application with new streams.  If you can not find the stream you’re looking for they have a stream request form which you can fill out to request the missing stream be added.  You may view a list of available streams on their web site before you purchase the application.

Emergency Radio is available now in the iTunes App Store for a sale price of .99 cents.

Emergency Radio requires iPhone/iPod Touch software version 2.2.1

M.S.R.P. – .99 cents

What I like – Search available streams by locations, 900+ streams available, can store favorites.

What I don’t like – Not a thing.

 

 

 

This review was first posted on Gear Diary.