I got a Uniden BC72XLT NASCAR scanner (it was probably extremely overpriced, but the local store only had two models and I was desperate) and so far I'm pretty disapointed with it, but I'm probably doing something wrong. I scanned the whole frequency range in the local mall to get some security walkie talkie stuff but had no luck and I can't even get the police regularily though I did one time. Any suggestions from the 1337 scanner folks for a n00b?
Which range did you scan? 0mhz - 899mhz?
Your mallcops will likely be in the VHF or UHF business band (130mhz-175mhz and 430mhz-475mhz or nearby, I think).
Around here, at least, the business stuff tends to be in the 150mhz and 450mhz range.
They need to actually be talking for you to hear it, so you might have scanned over the frequency when it was dead.
You might try looking here:
wireless.fcc.gov/uls
Click Licenses, then click "Advanced License Search".
Select "IG" and "IK" under service group, and then enter the name, city and state of the entity you're looking for. Try being a bit general on the name - for example, the local mall here is "Heritage Mall Shopping Centers" or some such crap. In this case, you'd just search "Heritage".
Leave the rest of the search options as they are.
If it finds a record (or records), it'll list them. Click on the Callsign link, and then click the Frequencies tab. That'll display what they're licensed (or what they were licensed) for.
You can also do the same thing to search for local drive-thru frequencies, but that's a bit more hit-or-miss. Sometimes they're licensed under the franchisee name instead of the restaurant name, and sometimes they're licensed under a different location.
The ULS search is by where the license is held, not where the transmission location is, so if you've got a larger franchise, the licenses might be in another state.
