Recieving a Taxi Cab Station

[cabdriver]

I drive a cab for a living. We communicate with a dispatcher by radio to get fares. This is the radio in my taxi: http://www.rmiradio.com/product.cfm?pID=1171

My goal is to be able to listen to dispatch activity while I'm chilling out at my house. That way I'll know if we're busy or not, or if there is a call right in my neighborhood. Basically it allows me to leverage my off-time better. I think this is possible because I've been told Yellow Cab frequently steals our fares using handheld scanners.

We use two different channels on our radios. Channel one will give you a "call point", or a street intersection. When you arrive there you switch to channel two and another operator will give you the specific address to pick up the passenger. Channel one periodically announces, "This is KJE 330 United Cab, etc, etc". I assume that is the frequency I want to tune into. As far as channel two, I don't know if they're on that same frequency or not, but channel two is obviously being scanned by other cab companies (very obvious if you pull up to a house and a Yellow Cab is sitting there. Of course they might have called two cab companies in which case both cabs just leavehttp://www.radioreference.com/forums/images/icons/icon9.gif
Unhappy).

This is about all I have to go on you all. Is that what I need too, a scanner? If so, any recommendations? My dream would be to have a powerfull outdoor antenna pointed to the taxi dispatch station.

 

[bravo14]

Not sure what state or city you are from. If the other cabs have scanners and listen in and steal calls think they can get in trouble. I do not know what band your radio does if you get a scanner you can try to do a search and some cabs are scrambled some other encryption or trunking systems.

 

[cabdriver]

Not sure what state or city you are from. If the other cabs have scanners and listen in and steal calls think they can get in trouble. I do not know what band your radio does if you get a scanner you can try to do a search and some cabs are scrambled some other encryption or trunking systems.

Tampa, Florida. And you're right, if you get busted by the cab commision with a scanner they'll yank your hack license.

 

[bna92]

Well, if I'm reading this right, it's 152.36 and 159.66 for the base station frequencies. Just about any currently produced scanner will receive those.

http://radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&cs=KJE330&action=fcc

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Cab Driver and all,

Right, 152.36 is channel 1 (base) but quite likely a "split channel" so you may have to also listen to the mobile frequency 157.62 as well. Going by the callsign it looks like an old license and according to the old band plan taxis didn't use repeaters on those frequencies, they were paired with the mobiles being on the higher of the two. Channel 2 is simplex 159.66 and that frequency looks like a later modification to that license under the new band plan, originally taxis were only on the lower, paired channels.

BTW I'm quite familiar with Taxi Wars and the competition stealing fares. Once upon a time there was the Mac H family operating a mom and pop service on CB channel 21, a real hole in the wall operation. They tried all sorts of radio schemes over the years and still were at war so they bought out the competition, all but one. Jim was an ornery old cuss who held out to the grave but finally there was peace, a peaceful family monopoly.

About that time another cab company in another city showed up on channel 21 and by odd coincidence was United. I'd listen and laugh at the dispatcher calling in Spanglish, uneye-ee fye, uneye-ee fye... Deja vu?

 

[cabdriver]

Awesome guys, thanks! Well, moving on to scanners then, how is this one?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...=14&x=13&s=A-StorePrice-RSK&parentPage=family
The price is nice, and best of all it has a plug to hook up an auxiliary antenna.

Just curious though, could a CB or shortwave radio pick up the frequencies I need? Hell, with a CB I could bid on calls right from my living room! For that matter why don't scanners have microphone transmitters? How are emergency and police stations able to keep outsiders from disrupting their station?

 

[sjcscanner]

im pretty sure a CB wont pick those up. they just have the 40 allocated channels for citizens band.

 

[W4KRR]

Awesome guys, thanks! Well, moving on to scanners then, how is this one?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...=14&x=13&s=A-StorePrice-RSK&parentPage=family
The price is nice, and best of all it has a plug to hook up an auxiliary antenna.

Just curious though, could a CB or shortwave radio pick up the frequencies I need? Hell, with a CB I could bid on calls right from my living room! For that matter why don't scanners have microphone transmitters? How are emergency and police stations able to keep outsiders from disrupting their station?

No, a CB or shortwave radio will not pick up the frequencies used by your cab company. From previous posts, you need a scanner that will receive the VHF high band, which almost any scanner these days will receive. Yes, the one you linked to should work.

And no, scanners are listening devices only, they cannot transmit, nor can they be "modified" to transmit.

 

[n2mdk]

Before you run out and buy a scanner do a little more research, spending some more money will open up the world of scanning for you something like this has much more to offer.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...nProdsInSession=1&y=14&x=13&parentPage=family
or even this
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...nProdsInSession=1&y=14&x=13&parentPage=family
All scanners can be hooked up to external antennas.

The truth is police and other public saftey can prevent people from interfering with different methods using things like trunking systems and encryption can help. People can and do interfere with these systems as can be read about in this recent thread http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85070&highlight=teen+police

 

[cabdriver]

I went out and bought this scanner this morning:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...=14&x=19&s=A-StorePrice-RSK&parentPage=family
I programmed in those 3 frequencies United Cab uses, into 3 channels on my scanner:
Channel 1: 152.36
Channel 2: 157.62
Channel 3: 159.66

152.36 turned out to be the main dispatch channel, the one that I listen to most of the time in my cab. It comes pretty good, but if I move it outside it comes in real clear. Of course my apartment has corogated metal on the outside. On 157.62 I didn't get much, except a couple times I could make out other cab drivers (we don't hear each other on our cab radios). And I'm not getting anything yet on 159.66.

At the minimum right now at least I can hear how busy we are, and what zones the bids are in. But I'd sure like to hear the other channel (channel 2 on the motorolla). Then I could hear where the specific pickup locations are. Again, I don't want to steal fares but at least I'd know where to hang out at. For instance if everything in zone 23 is the Walmart, I'll start parking my cab there!

 

[W4KRR]

Glad you got something that works for you.

An outside antenna, mounted as high up as you can safely get it, would improve your reception, but if you live in an apartment, you might not be able to mount an outside antenna. If you have an attic or crawl space, you could mount something there, a lot of people do that when they can't have an outside antenna. Also if you have a balcony, that's a good alternative location for an antenna.

 

[kb2vxa]

Also there are indoor antennas with gain and of course mobile antennas that can be easily converted for base operation. In an apartment situation they have the advantage of being smaller than the normal base antenna which makes for easier and less obtrusive mounting. Since mobile antennas use the car body as a ground plane (the other half of the antenna system) you'll need 19" diameter of metal under the antenna to simulate the car body. It may be done by mounting the antenna on a small metal sheet (even a 4" square electrical box cover plate) and fastening 4 stiff wire radials to it. Use your noodle, you'll figure out the details suitable for your situation. Since your primary interest is VHF Hi Band choose the antenna accordingly.

Unless you have a big antenna with a lot of gain way up high like the taxi base don't expect perfect reception of the mobiles. I just thought I'd mention that so you won't be disappointed and blame your new antenna.

Just remember the ham radio motto, "whatever works, build it".