L.A. Fire Department helps you listen in with your scanner

This photo of a cool vintage Bearcat scanner is only here because it looks so damn cool. If you want to listen to public-service radio traffic today, you'll probably want/need a modern radio with modern digital features.

Via L.A. Observed, I saw a great link from the Los Angeles Fire Department's equally great blog with tips and links on how to set up your scanner radio to receive fire radio traffic.

The meat of the LAFD entry (thanks Brian Humphrey!) is the list of LAFD radio frequencies and the CTCSS codes needed to open up the squelch on your scanner so you can hear the traffic. The list even goes so far as to link to Wikipedia's Squelch page so you can learn more about how all of this works. They should have linked to the CTCSS page, but since you can get there from here, everybody wins.