Help regarding DFD switchover

Alpha1906 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 06:54 AM

For professional/business purposes, my business and I have been monitoring the Detroit Fire Department over the last thirty years using Motorola Minitors programmed to the DFD frequency. Now please forgive me for my lack of knowledge regarding radio and communication jargon, but basically, due to the new switchover, our Minitor "fire boxes" have become obselete, as there has been little to no traffic on these frequencies in the past few days.

My humble question to you guys is: What equipment is now necessary to monitor the DFD communication, primarily the dispatch? What, if anything, can I go to Radio Shack or another electronics store to pick up as a short-term solution? Thank you in advance and I do apologize for however novice my question may sound to some.

mikey60 · #2 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 08:53 AM

They are now on a digital trunked radio system. You'll need one of the following scanners to be able to monitor the system:

Radio Shack Pro-96 Hand held scanner
Radio Shack Pro-2096 Mobile/Base Scanner
Uniden BC396T Hand Held Scanner
Uniden BC296D Hand Held Scanner
Uniden BC796D Base Scanner

Those are currently the only real options available.

Mike

m3tvnews · #3 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 10:33 AM

be ready to pay top $$ for the new apco 25 ready radio's

Alpha1906 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:04 AM

Thank you Mike. I'm looking at Radio Shack's website and they have a number of Digital Trunking Scanners. What features does the Pro 96 have that are absolutely necessary for me to listen to the DFD as opposed to some of the lower end cheaper ones, such as the PRO-83. I plan on buying one today. Is there a website listing the necessary channels/frequencies? It's my understanding that trunking technology has a degree of randomness to it...

seamusg · #5 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:13 AM

The radios listed above are digital, and the system you want is digital. Anything else won't work.

diskmonger · #6 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha1906

Thank you Mike. I'm looking at Radio Shack's website and they have a number of Digital Trunking Scanners. What features does the Pro 96 have that are absolutely necessary for me to listen to the DFD as opposed to some of the lower end cheaper ones, such as the PRO-83. I plan on buying one today. Is there a website listing the necessary channels/frequencies? It's my understanding that trunking technology has a degree of randomness to it...

It has to be a Digital Capable scanner. The models Mike listed out are the ONLY ones that you can use to listen to Detroit or the MPSCS system that the Michigan State Police are on. Anything else (i.e., PRO-83), you will not be able to listen to Detroit with. You might be able to program the digital frequencies into your PRO-83, but you are only going to hear digital signals that sound like static basicly.

Having owned both Uniden/Bearcat and Radio Shack digital scanners, I can tell you the Radio Shack PRO-96 or PRO-2096 is the best scanner to use on the Michigan digital stuff (Detroit).

This website (radio reference) has a listing of most of the frequencies and talkgroups you would want to program into your scanner. Randomness? Well, I guess you could say that to a certain extent. With trunking systems you really never know which frequency a talk group is going to end up on. BUT, that is why Trunk Tracking scanners are so nice, as long as you have the control channel programmed right, your scanner should follow the conversations. The radio shack models mentioned above are both trunk trackers.

The PRO-96 & PRO-2096 you can program via a programming cable and some software called WIN96. You can download the program right over the internet. It's free for 30-days then you have to buy/register it. I think most people here will agree it is worth the $30 or so to buy it.

Good luck!

Jeff
N8PJO

Thunderbolt · #7 (**permalink**) 09-14-2005, 11:57 AM

You may also want to invest in a good outdoor antenna with high-quality, low-loss coax cable, no less than Belden 9913. Depending on your location, a seven element Yagi-beam type of antenna would be the best way to go. Many people (scanner users) are complaining of the poor audio and reception results outside the city. Therefore, a good quality, well constructed Yagi antenna just might do the trick.

73's

Ron

Alpha1906 · #8 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 01:43 AM

Well I have my Pro 96 in hand as we speak. Now getting it to actually work is another thing, but I do thank you guys for all your help.

mikey60 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 08:31 AM

We'll all recommend the Win96 software to program the radio. You'll also need to get the programming cable from Radio Shack to do so. You can program it by hand, but the software makes it much easier to update your configuration.

Right now I have my radio broken down like this:

Bank 0: Local PD
Bank 1: MPSCS (MSP/DNR/MDOC/Etc...)
Bank 2: MPSCS (DPD)
Bank 3: MPSCS (DFD/EMS)
Bank 4: Oakland County Various Agencies
Bank 5: Federal
Bank 6: MPSCS (Detroit Misc/DW&S, DPW, etc.)
Bank 7: Macomb County various agencies
Bank 8: Amateur Radio Frequencies
Bank 9: Misc frequencies

I broke up the DPD and DFD talkgroups into separate banks primarily becase there are too many talkgroups between them to fit them all into a single bank. Not including the common talkgroups, DPD has about 110 talkgroups, and DFD has about 45.

Win96 can be downloaded from http://www.starrsoft.com with a 30 day free trial, and a $30 purchase price.

Mike

feta92 · #10 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 09:06 AM

Mike,

Like the way you have your pro-96 set up. Are you willing to share that info? If so I would like to get your set up. Sorry this is also my 100th post!

Alpha1906 · #11 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 09:37 AM

This is a pretty neat piece of equipment from what I see so far, although I haven't been quite successful in getting it to monitor the DFD. I plan on purchasing the cord a little later on today so hopefully that'll help. I'd like to consider myself fairly tech savvy, so it should only be a matter of time...

mikey60 · #12 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by feta92

Mike,

Like the way you have your pro-96 set up. Are you willing to share that info? If so I would like to get your set up. Sorry this is also my 100th post!

Sure... File is attached to this message. You'll want to change the welcome screen obviously... And probably change around some of the banks for your location.

Mike

seamusg · #13 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alpha1906

This is a pretty neat piece of equipment from what I see so far, although I haven't been quite successful in getting it to monitor the DFD. I plan on purchasing the cord a little later on today so hopefully that'll help. I'd like to consider myself fairly tech savvy, so it should only be a matter of time...

If you are outside of Detroit, you may have trouble. A lot of people are reporting trouble getting a good signal on the control channel. Per the manual (pg.82) the cable you want is 20-289 (the grey one).Control channel 868.725 alts 868.5375 and 868.9375 getting Detroit a little broken right now about 50% on the control channel.

toydriver_det · #14 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikey60

Sure... File is attached to this message. You'll want to change the welcome screen obviously... And probably change around some of the banks for your location.

Mike

Mike,
Nice job on programming.

toydriver in mad hts

mikey60 · #15 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 01:44 PM

Thanks

I work in Madison Heights, don't live too far away as you can probably tell by the bank 0 config...

Mike

feta92 · #16 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 03:01 PM

Thanks a lot!!

Alpha1906 · #17 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 10:22 PM

Just an update on my quest to monitor the DFD (and possibly now Southfield Fire Department) regularly again:

Bought the Pro 96
Bought the Cable
Downloaded Win96
Downlaoded Mike's configuration to my Pro 96

Now, I'm simply trying to configue the Pro 96 so that it only scans DFD & Southfield Fire Department transmissions.

marrsfiremedic · #18 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 10:56 PM

I don't think the pro 96 can scan digital trunked (Detroit), and conventional (Southfield) at the same time. That is one of the features, or lack there of, that pursuaded me to by my Uniden BC296D which can scan both simultaniously. I can't spell, I know.

rdale · #19 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 11:10 PM

Yes the Pro96 can. All digital scanners do, as well as all current trunking scanners...

seamusg · #20 (**permalink**) 09-15-2005, 11:41 PM

The simplist way is to use Mike's setup as an example - then put Detroit Tower 701 with DFD talkgroups in one bank then put Southfield in another bank. How you layout the banks of a scanner is a personal preference. You can get into trouble with priority if you set it wrong ( I did once by seting Clinton Pd as priority with Clinton FD in the same bank - I rarely heard FD because they normaly send PD on FD runs).