What scanners for Rochester, NY? ...

[cmeisenzahl]

Hey guys. thinking about getting a handheld scanner, or maybe one for home use.

I work and live between Monroe and Livingston Counties in Western, NY.

Info here:
Livingston County, New York (NY) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
Monroe County, New York (NY) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Would any of these scanner give good coverage given the above frequencies?
UnidenDirect - 800MHz Base / Mobile Scanner
UnidenDirect - Clock Radio Base Scanner
UnidenDirect - 100 Channel Scanner

Looking at the frequencies mentioned, and the covered ranges, I think I would be good for the two counties?

Any other brands I should be checking out?

Thanks very much in advance,
Chris

 

[SteveC0625]

If you want to listen to any law enforcement in Monroe County,you will need a scanner that can handle P-25 transmissions. Fire and EMS are conventional narrowband.

 

[dgoodnough]

SteveC0625 is correct, and if I may add, "Rumor" has it that Monroe county is planning another future upgrade where all systems (Fire & EMS etc) will become P25. If I can find the article, I will post.

 

[SteveC0625]

SteveC0625 is correct, and if I may add, "Rumor" has it that Monroe county is planning another future upgrade where all systems (Fire & EMS etc) will become P25. If I can find the article, I will post.

d
It took them the better part of 10 years to get Fire and EMS lined up and switched to narrowband. I don't expect an additional move to P25 in any time period less than another 8-10 years.

There is (are?) a lot of purchasing cycles by about 50 different Fire and EMS agencies to consider. Moving all of them to another standard in any kind of coordinated manner is a long and arduous process.

And, there really is not a P25 solution to tone and voice paging yet, so we may not see P25 on the primary dispatch channels for a long, long time.

But I would be very interested to see the document you mentioned.

Thanks!

 

[dgoodnough]

Harris Corporation Awarded $30 Million Contract to Unite and Enhance Public Safety Communications in Monroe County, New York

This is what I read a while back. Nothing mentioned on the Monroe county web page itself about this.

 

[dgoodnough]

Steve, my last post went in while you already posted. If I do remember correctly from a local newscast, this new upgrade will not be for another 8-10 years. I agree with you on the P25 and paging. I'm sure they will find a way in time to work out the bugs in the system. I do believe the newscast also stated it would be a transition by different agencies over time, not all at once (panning several years). Again, don't quote me, I could be very wrong. I did post the Harris communications article in my last post, and it seems to pointing to another upgrade. I am wondering if the law enforcement will will continue to be P25 and they will migrate the remainder of the agencies to similar freq's and have all on a trunked system? I guess time will tell.

 

[dgoodnough]

New York's Monroe County to Deploy Public Safety Radio System

New York

 

[SteveC0625]

Steve, my last post went in while you already posted. If I do remember correctly from a local newscast, this new upgrade will not be for another 8-10 years. I agree with you on the P25 and paging. I'm sure they will find a way in time to work out the bugs in the system. I do believe the newscast also stated it would be a transition by different agencies over time, not all at once (panning several years). Again, don't quote me, I could be very wrong. I did post the Harris communications article in my last post, and it seems to pointing to another upgrade. I am wondering if the law enforcement will will continue to be P25 and they will migrate the remainder of the agencies to similar freq's and have all on a trunked system? I guess time will tell.

That phase-in sounds pretty reasonable, and my thoughts in my first post were fairly correct.

Here's more observations: Law Enforcement went live with the current P25 non-trunked UHF system at the beginning of 2010 so I would expect that they might be last to move to 700 MHZ trunked P25. Two reasons for this: First, their radios were all purchased and installed at the same time so their collective life expectancy is the longest of any equipment now in service. Second, LE operations are the most complex so I would expect that they'd want to get all the other bugs out of the system prior to bringing LE live.

Fire and EMS is in the middle because their equipment was collectively purchased over the last 5-7 years on a gradual basis by the various agencies making it the next longest life expectancy group. Fire and EMS are just as mission critical as LE, but would be much easier to phase in on a more gradual basis.

Local Government would likely be first to be moved. Their overall mission, while important, is not as mission critical and can tolerate more ups and downs in phase in. And I suspect their equipment may collectively be the oldest and first-due for replacement.

There is a whole pile of new backbone stuff to be done before they can ever think of installing mobile gear. That could use up the first couple of years.

And, there was no mention of the existing 800 MHZ MDT system which I would expect to be pulled into the 700 MHZ system. They might even do that part first after the backbone and infrastructure is in place.

And maybe I got it all wrong.... Time will tell.

 

[cmeisenzahl]

I see good info, thanks, guys!

Would this RS model handle all of the other stuff, in addition to the P25/trunked business?
PRO-164 1000-Channel Handheld Scanner - RadioShack.com

Thanks again!
Chris

 

[SteveC0625]

I see good info, thanks, guys!

Would this RS model handle all of the other stuff, in addition to the P25/trunked business?
PRO-164 1000-Channel Handheld Scanner - RadioShack.com

You will need a scanner that can handle at least: P25 + Trunking + VHF + UHF + 700 Mhz

 

[ka3jjz]

I see good info, thanks, guys!

Would this RS model handle all of the other stuff, in addition to the P25/trunked business?
PRO-164 1000-Channel Handheld Scanner - RadioShack.com

Thanks again!
Chris

Only the models listed here will handle digital (trunked or conventional) - and I would stay away from the 250/785 due to incompatibility with rebanding...

Categoryigital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

best regards..Mike

 

[cmeisenzahl]

Thanks again, guys!
I just bought one of these used for $60 (pick it up tomorrow night). I realize it doesn't have digital. But hopefully it'll be enough to see if I'm interested. If so I can buy a better one on the future. It seemed like a very capable starter for the price. It was described as new in box.
Radio Shack PRO-164
RadioShack PRO-164 Police Scanner Radio

 

[dgoodnough]

Steve, I'm sure you know a lot more about the radio stuff than I do considering your experience in the field. I am just a radio hobbyist. Sounds like the plan Monroe County may be shooting for with the radio upgrades (And would make sense too). I just hope whatever they go to can still be monitored by the current equipment I have. This having to upgrade scanners is becoming expensive, and the wife seems to think it is unnecessary (LOL). She just doesn't understand.

Well, I guess we will see what happens in the near future.

 

[ThePagerGeek]

Monroe County P25 Phase 2 700Mhz trunk is spec'd to be online by Jan 1, 2013 for public services. These agencies include County DOT, County DES, MC Water Auth.

Fire and EMS are proposed to join the system in 2016/2017 after some years of testing the system.

Police and other LE are proposed to join the system in 2020.

I would disagree that it would be easier for the Fire and EMS agencies to transition over the PD. Fire and EMS are actually more complicated (from a radio perspective) than LE because of 2 major factors:

1 - There are 59 Fire and EMS agencies within the County, all operating independently (for the most part)

2 - All the LE equipment is owned by the County, whereas all the portable and mobile equipment for Fire and EMS are independently owned. This also includes multiple radio vendors vs just MC Radio Center for LE.

The past 2 transitions proved that also. Fire and EMS to narrowband took SIGNIFICANT planning and coordination (MC Fire and EMS Communications Board) vs the LE to P25 which was much more controlled by a single agency (Radio Center.)

Needless, this will be an interesting decade for communications in Monroe County..

tpg

 

[tuffaznalz]

I would disagree that it would be easier for the Fire and EMS agencies to transition over the PD. Fire and EMS are actually more complicated (from a radio perspective) than LE because of 2 major factors:

1 - There are 59 Fire and EMS agencies within the County, all operating independently (for the most part)

2 - All the LE equipment is owned by the County, whereas all the portable and mobile equipment for Fire and EMS are independently owned. This also includes multiple radio vendors vs just MC Radio Center for LE.

The past 2 transitions proved that also. Fire and EMS to narrowband took SIGNIFICANT planning and coordination (MC Fire and EMS Communications Board) vs the LE to P25 which was much more controlled by a single agency (Radio Center.)

The transition shouldn't be as complicated this time. The 59 personalities will have no choice of vendor other than Harris, in light of, the Harris system being proprietary. The only real decisions they will have to make are how many, how much and when. The most significant of those being the how much.

 

[ThePagerGeek]

The transition shouldn't be as complicated this time. The 59 personalities will have no choice of vendor other than Harris, in light of, the Harris system being proprietary. The only real decisions they will have to make are how many, how much and when. The most significant of those being the how much.

It will be more complicated since not all agencies will convert at the same time. There will be (planned) VHF to 700MHz patches to facilitate the transition for as long as it takes for each agency to fund the transition. This effects the operations of any mutual aid call within the county.

Also, it is NOT a proprietary system. It is an open protocol APCO P25 Phase 2 system. This is NOT OpenSky which IS proprietary. Both Harris and Motorola both have radios capable now, and most likely other vendors by that time.

tpg

 

[dgoodnough]

So, if it is not proprietary, we will still be able to listen in on our digital scanners?

 

[n2ops]

Ham Radios

What ham radios are P25 capable?

 

[w2csx]

It will be more complicated since not all agencies will convert at the same time. There will be (planned) VHF to 700MHz patches to facilitate the transition for as long as it takes for each agency to fund the transition. This effects the operations of any mutual aid call within the county.

Also, it is NOT a proprietary system. It is an open protocol APCO P25 Phase 2 system. This is NOT OpenSky which IS proprietary. Both Harris and Motorola both have radios capable now, and most likely other vendors by that time.

tpg

So it's going to be a phase 2 system? So my scanner will be useless,right?
I can't find any where in reading where it's going to be a phase 2 system.

 

[ThePagerGeek]

So it's going to be a phase 2 system? So my scanner will be useless,right?
I can't find any where in reading where it's going to be a phase 2 system.

It will be a P25 Phase 1 system to start for public services, migrating to P25 Phase 2 for Fire and EMS around 2016/2017.

tpg