question/help on ma com edacs

[cappy400]

I am in need of some help. My area is Harrisonburg city/Rockingham county Virginia. Years ago they changed to the EDACS PROVOICE. I know that no scanner can monitor this, I understand this. But I was considering buying a Harris p7170 radio with EDACS PROVOICE on it, with NO transmission ability. Only to monitor. Here lies my questions and help needed:
1) in my local area, no talk groups have been submitted. I contacted the head person of the communications department and asked for the talk group list, he stated due to the integrity and security and safety of personnel he would not give out that info. How do I go about getting it? I see a lot of other agencies have talk groups listed. I AM BAFFELED!!! How did those other talkgroups get obtained?
2) Do I need the talkgroups to monitor my local area system? I have all the frequencies, can I listen to them and figure out talkgroups on my own? I know some info on my local agencies, like unit numbers, fire and ems station numbers ect.
I am hoping someone out there can help me and give me some help and direction to go. When I seen the radio and found out what it did I was very excited, but before I do anything I need some questions answered. Thank you so much for your help!!!

 

[DisasterGuy]

Does the system use ESK? If not, use any scanner that can trunktrack EDACS and run the audio into DSDplus.

 

[cappy400]

To my knowledge there is no ESK. It does not state it when looking at it on RR database.