Upcoming changes to Iowa radio systems

[moonstruck]

I am planning on purchasing a scanner (not a portable) for home use only. What would be a but Igood (relatively inexpensive) model for me to get that will pick up police/fire/ems? I think Black Hawk is trunked - I know litlte to nothing about scanners. Thanks for your help.

[John_Jensen]

Hi, I live in Reinbeck and monitor both Black Hawk and Grundy Counties. You are correct that Black Hawk is trunked, so you'll want a scanner that follows this. I use a Radio Shack Pro 164 (portable - the home equiv. is Pro 163) that I purchased at the RS there, and they were more than willing to clone the frequencies from the scanner they had.

If you prefer to do it yourself, I highly recommend getting a programming cable (about another $20) and software (I use Win97 and it works great). If you have problems, send me a personal message and I'd be willing to get in touch with you and help.

You will hear a lot over there - enough that I usually have the scanner set to only pick up fire and EMS alarms off the Cedar Falls Racom tower unless there is something specific I want to hear. Black Hawk County is decently covered by the Racom system, with towers at Waterloo and CF, as well as Independence and Vinton if you live near the county lines.

[JIMisHEREtoo]

Hello I monitor Decatur county in south central iowa that seems to have switched to some type of digital format. I have a P25 scanner that will pick up other P25 and will tell me if it's even encrypted but the format that both the sheriff's dept. and the county roads dept. Isn't even activating the P25 it just sounds like a jack hammer sound. Was wondering what type of digital format this might be?

Thanks
Jim

[NZ0J]

Originally Posted by JIMisHEREtoo

Hello I monitor Decatur county in south central iowa that seems to have switched to some type of digital format. I have a P25 scanner that will pick up other P25 and will tell me if it's even encrypted but the format that both the sheriff's dept. and the county roads dept. Isn't even activating the P25 it just sounds like a jack hammer sound. Was wondering what type of digital format this might be?

Thanks
Jim

Looks like the emission on the license is for Mototrbo.

[timkilbride]

Originally Posted by JIMisHEREtoo

Hello I monitor Decatur county in south central iowa that seems to have switched to some type of digital format. I have a P25 scanner that will pick up other P25 and will tell me if it's even encrypted but the format that both the sheriff's dept. and the county roads dept. Isn't even activating the P25 it just sounds like a jack hammer sound. Was wondering what type of digital format this might be?

Thanks
Jim

I checked the license, they do indeed have their license setup for MotoTRBO. Which frequencies are you hearing this on?

Tim K.

[JIMisHEREtoo]

Sorry took this long to get back to you been very sick as of late. The freq they use is 153.9800 for sheriff ans city PD and 156.1200 for the county hiway dept. Thanks for all the help
Jim

[JIMisHEREtoo]

Sorry took this long to get back to you been very sick as of late. The freq they use is 153.9800 for sheriff and city PD and 156.1200 for the county hiway dept. Thanks for all the help
Jim

[timkilbride]

Thanks Jim.

Tim

[iachaser]

Hey all,

Long time lurker, but thought I'd hop in with some information for those that monitor things around the Des Moines Metro area.

1) LINC is being phased out and will be replaced with the Metro Interop Communication System. Kevin Sanders has the write up about it here: Des Moines Metro Interoperability Communications System (MICS) plan

2) Polk County Fire Departments are being switched to the Racom Edacs system. The dates keep getting pushed back, but as of right now the switch looks to happen about Mid-February. I'll post more info as it becomes available. There will still be a vhf paging channel, but all response traffic, etc will be on Edacs.

3) Norwalk (NW Warren Co) is now being dispatched by Westcom. Again I don't have any ID info, but if I find it, I'll post it. This covers both the FD and PD.

Mike

[puzzleriddle]

Is being phased out completely by 2015 Harris PSPC | P25(IP)