Prince George County

[Gasman315]

Hi Group
I will be staying in Maryland in Price George County for couple months. Actually Andrews Air Force Base. Does it pay to bring the scanner to listen to Police and Fire in the area? The county look like it only has one channel with only vice and car theft on it. Any suggestions as to who I can monitor from this location. Looks like some fire in the 490 band is this correct. Thanks
Nate

 

[TinEar]

Nate, take another look at the database for Prince George's County.
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=1204
There are several police and fire freqs in the 495 range. It's also an extemely busy county for police and fire with a high crime rate driving the activity. There are also two EDACS systems for vice/narcotics in the county. In addition, you've got all the surrounding counties, along with DC and Northern Virginia that are within listening range from Andrews. Also, Andrews has a full trunked system that's fairly active, to say nothing of all the air traffic going and coming from the base.

Prince George's is one of the few remaining counties in this area that is not on a trunked system. You didn't mention your scanner model type but this area has gone heavily digital trunked.

Alan

 

[ka3jjz]

Nate, I took the liberty of looking up your state in the RRDB, and I see you have a APCO P-25 statewide system, with quite a mix of LTR, EDACS and Moto systems (and even some very rare MPT1327 types). I'm going to hazard a guess that you use a BC296, 796, PRO96 or 2096.

If you happen to use ARC250 or Win96, take a look at the file pages linked from the Capitol Hill Monitors website;

Capitol Hill Monitors

You can get starter files for Prince George's (commonly referred to as PG) county. Depending on where you are in PG county, you may also be able to get Montgomery, Howard and/or DC Police/fire, all of which are digital.

If you're not using a digital trunker, or don't have either of those 2 programs, fear not; I can reconstruct .csv files that many popular programs can either import directly, or you can use Excel to copy/paste.
Let us know what it is you will be bringing, and what (if any) program(s) you are using. Likely as not we'll be able to at least save you some typing.

(Besides, I kinda owe the folks from MARE.... )

73s Mike

 

[TinEar]

Mike, if you want to make up a file for him, he's using a PRO-95.

 

[Gasman315]

Mike
I use Don Stars win 95 program for my Pro 95. If you have Police Fire freqs for the area adjacent to Andrews AFB and wish to take to time to send them,it would be sincerly appreciated
Nate

 

[ka3jjz]

Oh I think we can do a bit better than just PG fire/police/Andrews. I'll prepare a series of csv files for you that should keep you busy for some time. I should have them ready by tomorrow; I just need to dump out the ARC250 files I have into csv format and move a few columns around.

Do you have Excel or Microsoft Works? If you do, it should be very easy for you to read the files.

73s Mike

 

[Gasman315]

Files

Mike
I have excel and run Don Stars win 95 software with can copy and paste into excel. Again Thank You
Nate

 

[ka3jjz]

Nate check your email for a file. 73s Mike

 

[Gasman315]

Mike
I have the frquencies loaded and hopefully will be scannin the Maryland tomorrow. Thanks to the board for thehelp

 

[ka3jjz]

Not a problem Nate. Be sure to jump back in here if you have further questions or needs. We've got quite a cadre of knowledgable folks here, likely as not we can get whatever info you need. 73s Mike

 

[Gasman315]

Morningside pd

Morningside PD seems to be the jurisdiction I will temporariliy call home. I am unable to find their freq. Is it per chance a shared dispatch from Sherifff?
Nate

 

[TinEar]

Nate, maybe you can educate us (well, me) when you arrive. The problem is that there are lots of little police departments operating within Prince George's County. Some of them operate independently on their own frequencies (Laurel, Riverdale, Hyattsville, Greenbelt, Bladensburg) while others seem to operate on County frequencies. I don't have a good handle on departments like Morningside and where they operate. If you should be able to get that info while you're there, it would be much appreciated. All I know about Morningside is that it's right next to D.C. in the war zone.

By the way, the sheriff's department operates mainly on 155.58 but that freq is also simulcast almost always with Prince George's County channel 10, the Beltsville district so you'll get it in both places. I get much better reception on the 155.58 freq than the Beltsville freq of 495.2125.

By the way, you're going to be right next to the Forrestville State Police barrack so you should have that one (39.30) in a prominent place in the scanner.
Have a good trip.

Alan

 

[Dank]

PG County freqs

Hi Nate,
You will find plenty of action on the PG county fire and police freqs. That are of the county from Landover, through Baldensburg and Seat Pleasant has many fires. More so in the winter. The Seat Plesant channel, on the police side is also very busy. There is always alot of action along the PG county line with the SE side of Washington, DC.

Enjoy,
Dan

 

[ka3jjz]

Just for the heck of it, I looked up Morningside on the US Census Bureau website. The last census had their population as less that 2000, so I would tend to think that the County would be patrolling there. It's probably much too small to have their own force, as does Bladensburg or Greenbelt which evidently are much larger.

73s Mike

 

[Dank]

Sorry about the confusion. I meant to indicate the PG county police freq for the Seat Plesant district. Although I do have the Laurel and Greenbelt city frreqs programmed in my 296, I usually fdon't monitor them alot. I usually find noise complaints, parking violations and traffice stops (all routine items). All the excitement (shootings and chases) occur on the county freqs.

 

[TinEar]

Little bitty old Morningside MD does have a police force - and even a police chief. Check this Washington Post site for lots of little PG police departments:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/usersguides/princegeorge/MuniPD.html

Today, while I was out and about, I saw a Cheverly police car for the first time. It was an odd color scheme of white, black and red. Now I'm wondering if they have a frequency somewhere too. Perhaps Nate can give us some insight once he gets here and settled.

 

[baybum]

Al, if memory serves me correctly, which I have no reason to believe it
should at this point.
Some small towns in Ye 'Ole PG County have small police forces that use PG radios. They are identified as "zebra" units.
Other municipalities, as you know, have their own radios.

Mike

 

[ka3jjz]

That's a great site, Al; it's one of those that I'd say 'now why didn't I think of that'?

And I think Mike is correct; I read that very same thing somewhere else, where the smaller pds have county radios and ID as Zebra units.

Let's hope Nate's new digs has a good quality phone line so he can patch in here and tell us what he finds.

73s Mike

 

[TinEar]

I received an email from someone that told me the Cheverly units are Zebra units 130-139 and use PG Channel 1. Now we just need to find the rest of the unit numbers and which PG channel they operate on for the other gaggle of mini-departments.

[Edit] I was going to email Eric (the admin for MD) to ask if we should start a section under the PG freqs to identify these sub-units like Cheverly. I should have known. He has already added it to the database at the bottom of the PG page.

 

[Gasman315]

14 hr drive and I am here. 23:15 and I just spoke a a 2nd shift Morning side copper. They use the Pg sheriff freq. I will find more as I get familiar with the area. Now I am hitting the shower and the rack. I have my scanner on and it is everyactive. Thanks for all your help
Nate