Hi, a popular scanner is the PSR282 which is available from Maplin (there’s one on the Mancunian way?) I bought one of these a few years back and it works well for me. I think most military stuff is now UHF and I’m told that some may be encrypted too so can’t help there.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35695&criteria=scanner&doy=23m3