Hi, just purchased a Radio Shack PRO-2018 Scanner, and having trouble locating the frequency for my home town. I live in Rowlett, Texas and when I go to the list it says trunked system with Garland. Have no clue what tht means....any help would be appreciated. I am a very old newbie.
Looking for Police Frequency/New Scanner
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Unfortunately, your new scanner won't work for the system in use in your area. It looks like a basic analog trunking scanner would work for you, for now. You should be able to get into an adequate scanner for under $200. I would also caution that several systems are migrating to digital modulation(p25). I believe Tx DPS is using p25 digital. Other than DPS, most everything around Dallas appears to be analog. FYI, a digital capable scanner would usually run around $400.
Basically, trunking allows the users of the system to share group of frequencies. Users are assigned to talkgroups (police, fire, ems) instead of frequencies. What would take 20, 50 or 100 conventional frequencies can be accomplished with maybe 5-10 in a trunked system. A computer(controller) keeps things organized to keep one group (sanitation) from interfering with another group (police). This is a VERY basic description of a trunked system, for much more info you can check this link from the WIKI.
Trunking Basics - The RadioReference Wiki
Hope this helps,
Jeff.
Basically, trunking allows the users of the system to share group of frequencies. Users are assigned to talkgroups (police, fire, ems) instead of frequencies. What would take 20, 50 or 100 conventional frequencies can be accomplished with maybe 5-10 in a trunked system. A computer(controller) keeps things organized to keep one group (sanitation) from interfering with another group (police). This is a VERY basic description of a trunked system, for much more info you can check this link from the WIKI.
Trunking Basics - The RadioReference Wiki
Hope this helps,
Jeff.
Not to make it more difficult/confusing, but.....
...it also looks like that system has undergone 800mHz frequency rebanding. Essentially what it means is that not all trunking scanners may be able to follow all the conversations.
Here's the wiki link for the radios which should work with that system currently
Category:Rebanding Supported Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki
This is the article explaining rebanding but you don't really need to understand in order to scan it, you just have to make sure the scanner is capable of doing it.
Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki
...it also looks like that system has undergone 800mHz frequency rebanding. Essentially what it means is that not all trunking scanners may be able to follow all the conversations.
Here's the wiki link for the radios which should work with that system currently
Category:Rebanding Supported Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki
This is the article explaining rebanding but you don't really need to understand in order to scan it, you just have to make sure the scanner is capable of doing it.
Rebanding - The RadioReference Wiki
Hi Barnum
Welcome to RadioReference
As the others have noted, the Pro-2018 is not capable of monitoring a trunked radio system. Besides the link Jeff has provided, this Wiki page has links to other articles on the subject, to give you a basic idea of how these radio systems work. Be sure and read this article.
The Garland system, which includes Rowlett, is analog. As Tahoe1970 noted, that's a rebanded system, so any scanner used for listening to this system must be 'rebanding friendly'. Otherwise, the system will not track correctly and you'll miss just about all of the radio traffic.
While an analog trunk-tracker would work, for now, for Rowlett & the Garland system, there is actually quite a bit of digital use in the Dallas/Garland area, and slowly, but steadily increasing.
Texas DPS, as noted, is digital using conventional frequencies. (The Region 1 office and communications center is on I-30 in Garland, just to the S/W of Rowlett.)
Richardson, which is just to the west-northwest of Rowlett, has migrated to a new P25 system.
Wylie, which is just to the north of Rowlett, Plano (slightly northwest), and others are on the PAWM P25 system.
Dallas (city) is still on Uhf conventional, but long term, will likely move to a P25 system. The question here is whether this will become a 'regional', Dallas County area, system, with other entities participating, or mainly City of Dallas only.
So, for the time being, a good, rebanding friendly, analog trunk-tracker would work specifically for Garland & Rowlett (it would also handle Rockwall County & the Rockwall (city) EDACS trunked system). However, if you also want TX DPS, Plano/Wylie, and/or Richardson, you'd need to get a digital trunk-tracker.
Even though you can not listen to the system you wanted, there is still plenty you could listen to with the current scanner you have. You could add the HEAR channel, check to see what medical helicopter channels are used in your area, businesses, 2M/70cm ham bands, CB, GRMS/FRS, MURS, NOAA Weather Radio, DOT, Power/ Utilities companies, etc. There's tons. May not be exactly what you are looking for but it can't hurt to try listening. Never know, you may find somthing like ham quite interesting to listen to.
Edit: also you may be able to pick up fire dispatch because if they are using pagers(like most places do), they have to have an analog conventional freq to dispatch on. It may be a Simlucast from the TRS but you should still be able to listen to it.
Edit: also you may be able to pick up fire dispatch because if they are using pagers(like most places do), they have to have an analog conventional freq to dispatch on. It may be a Simlucast from the TRS but you should still be able to listen to it.
Barnum,
You can listen Sachse & Rowlett Police and Fire via a live feed over the internet. To see what other choices are online in the area, click on the "Live Audio" tab at the top of the RadioReference home page. Select the state and county of interest, then you'll see a list of available feeds.
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