Montgomery County Fire and Rescue -- Only hear Dispatchers

[dj0321]

Ok .. I have a scanner here , and I can hear Montgomery talking on both channels 7A and 7B , but I cannot hear other units .. Is there a new frequency now or something ? I have a PRO-137, and a Motorola Minitor IV.. Can someone advise on this please ?

[W2NJS]

MCFR has been using a 3600 baud trunked 800 mHz P25 digital system for several years now. What you are hearing are the legacy FM channels on 154.16 and 153.95 which are transmitted for the benefit of casual listeners and others who might not have a digital scanner for reception. I know nothing about the capabilities of your PRO-137 but if it doesn't do digital trunking you won''t be able to receive the MCFR 800 channels. MCFR currently uses five or six alternate channels which are assigned to units at time of dispatch, only one of which (7B) you will hear on analog FM.

[dj0321]

I used to be able to hear units on 7B but now all I get is Montgomery talking.. Can't hear other units. Is 7A, and 7B now digital, because of the narrow-banding ?

[ka3jjz]

As mentioned in another thread, this has nothing to do with narrowbanding. It's simply the way the control operators have set up these particular conventional channels. It's certainly possible they've changed the way these frequencies rebroadcast certain talkgroups over time.

Bottom line, if you want to hear this system, you need a digital trunktracker, the link for which scanners would qualify was also given in another thread. Your 137 doesn't trunktrack, so a little investment is necessary. Watch the various for sale threads in places like Universal Radio in Ohio, or even better, get a premium subscription and gain access to the classifieds area of this site.

Here's the link for how to get a (cheap) premium subscription...

Premium Subscription Information Page

As to which of the digitals work well for Montgomery, I'll let the Montgomery scannists answer that one, as I'm in PG County and rarely go that way...Mike

[W2NJS]

Originally Posted by dj0321

I used to be able to hear units on 7B but now all I get is Montgomery talking.. Can't hear other units. Is 7A, and 7B now digital, because of the narrow-banding ?

This discussion has nothing to do with narrowbanding. If you''re listening on VHF you're not hearing digitial; you're hearing FM. Dispatch is on 7A/154.160/PL156.7(5A), and (if they're still transmitting it on VHF) 7B is on 153.950/PL156.7/5A). These two channels may have been recently narrowbanded but you willl still hear them on your FM receiver with no problems. As a matter of policy, MCFR may have discontinued using 7B as a fireground channel to keep the discussions there off of VHF and strictly on 800 mHz; I actually haven't listened to 7B/VHF in a while. The first choice of dispatchers in assigning fireground channels seems to be 7C, which is strictly an 800 mHz channel with no retransmission on VHF.

[redburgundy]

I'm still hearing both sides--dispatchers and mobiles--on the analog VHF 7A and 7B channels.

[ResQguy]

Originally Posted by W2NJS

This discussion has nothing to do with narrowbanding. If you''re listening on VHF you're not hearing digitial; you're hearing FM. Dispatch is on 7A/154.160/PL156.7(5A), and (if they're still transmitting it on VHF) 7B is on 153.950/PL156.7/5A). These two channels may have been recently narrowbanded but you willl still hear them on your FM receiver with no problems. As a matter of policy, MCFR may have discontinued using 7B as a fireground channel to keep the discussions there off of VHF and strictly on 800 mHz; I actually haven't listened to 7B/VHF in a while. The first choice of dispatchers in assigning fireground channels seems to be 7C, which is strictly an 800 mHz channel with no retransmission on VHF.

7Bravo was never a fireground talkgroup. EMS and local alarms only.