City policing in Merced County is wide open; county policing is not. Merced Police, Los Banos Police and Dos Palos Police all dispatch in plain analog FM, and fire, EMS and mutual-aid command are analog countywide. The Merced County Sheriff, however, works on a trunked system that a conventional handheld cannot follow. Full frequency list below, and you can check your exact zip code here.
The analog scorecard for Merced County
~88%of listed conventional emergency channels are analog FM
4 / 4Merced City PD channels receivable on a hand-programmed scanner
Trunkedcounty Sheriff — not receivable on a conventional scanner
290Kresidents in the coverage area
Every Merced County frequency, city by city
The full conventional law enforcement, fire, EMS and mutual-aid list. Anything marked Analog FM is receivable on a hand-programmed scanner; everything else is flagged.
Compiled from the public conventional frequency record for Merced County, reviewed July 2026. The 800 MHz entries are analog but sit outside the coverage of a VHF/UHF handheld. Listening only — transmitting on any of these frequencies without a licence is illegal.
The Sheriff situation, stated plainly
The Merced County Sheriff and Atwater Police operate on a Motorola Type II trunked system. Trunking means transmissions hop across a pool of channels under computer control rather than sitting on one fixed frequency. A conventional scanner can land on a channel mid-conversation but cannot follow the conversation as it moves. In practice the Sheriff is not usefully listenable on this class of radio.
So the honest summary: if you live in Merced, Los Banos, Dos Palos or Livingston, you get your city police plus all the fire, EMS and mutual-aid traffic. If you live out in the unincorporated county and the Sheriff is the only thing you want, this will not do it.
Why people here listen
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Highway 99 and Pacheco Pass. Tule fog pileups and Highway 152 closures show up on fire and EMS dispatch well before any traffic app catches up.
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Mutual aid during big incidents. The three regional interop command channels are analog and open, and they carry the coordination traffic during anything large.
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Flood and reservoir season. The west side has a long history of levee and canal problems. Emergency traffic and NOAA river alerts both come through on a battery-powered radio.
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Grid outages and heat. When power and cell go down in a Valley heat event, over-the-air is what still works.
Which scanner covers this list
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Baofeng UV-5R — covers the VHF and UHF bands where Merced PD, Los Banos and all county fire and EMS sit.
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UV-5R Mini — same coverage, pocket-sized, USB-C.
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K5 Plus — adds airband and 1.25M plus a bigger battery, useful for air ambulance and Castle Airport traffic.
We program every radio by hand before it ships, using the list above. If you would rather program it yourself, the CSV has everything you need.
See the scanners →
Merced County scanner questions
Can I hear Merced Police on a scanner?
Yes. Merced Police Department dispatches in analog FM on VHF, with dispatch, secondary, tactical and EOD channels all in the clear.
Can I hear the Merced County Sheriff?
Not usefully. The Sheriff operates on a Motorola Type II trunked system. Conventional scanners cannot follow a trunked conversation as it moves between channels.
Is Los Banos police still analog?
Yes. Los Banos PD dispatch is analog FM, and Los Banos Fire has analog dispatch, command and three tactical channels.
What can I hear if I live outside the cities?
County fire command and tac, county EMS and AMR dispatch, the three regional mutual-aid command links, CAL FIRE's Mariposa unit traffic, and NOAA weather are all analog and countywide. What you lose outside the cities is the Sheriff.
Is it legal to own a police scanner in California?
Yes. Owning and listening is legal. California law restricts using a radio in a vehicle to intercept police transmissions with intent to commit a crime or evade arrest. This is general information, not legal advice.
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