Dauphin County

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dmg1969

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Now that I bought an HP-1, I am monitoring Dauphin County again. I am trying to streamline my favorites lists because I find that they take forever to scan through. is there much traffic on the local PD talk groups (Derry Twp. Middletown, Penbrook, Susquehanna Twp., etc.)? Also...are Middletown and Derry Township Police dispatched seperately from the rest of the county? It appears so from the database.

I am thinking about removing them from the Dauphin County/Harrisburg Police favorites list to speed up the scanning of the system.Or, I could put them in their own favorites list.

In addition, I would probably move the fire ops channels to their own favorites list.

That way, the only channels scanning on my main Dauphin County favorites list would be:
Dauphin County Police Dispatch 1
Dauphin County Police Dispatch 2
Harrisburg City Police Dispatch 1
County Coroner
Dauphin County Fire Dispatch
Harrisburg City Fire Dispatch
Dauphin County EMS Dispatch

Essentially I would then have 3 favorites lists... One for police, fire and EMS dispatch (including coroner), 1 for local county PDs (if worth while) and one for fire ops channels.
 
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NodrogCop

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1. Middletown is now dispatched through Dauphin County. Have been since early last year. Derry Twp still dispatches PD through their own Comm Center.

2. I have been told, but don't know for sure, that local PD talk groups are encrypted. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can tell you.

Enjoy - I grew up in Dauphin County and listened to them a lot when I discovered scanning. Stopped when they went digital trunk and too cheap to buy a new scanner. :)

Gordon.
 

dmg1969

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OK. I will have to pull the Middletown dispatch TG.

The only local PD TG that shows as being encrypted (per the RRDB) is Steelton. All the rest are listed as open.

Yes, I remember the good old days of monitoring Harrisburg City and Dauphin County on their old UHF system. After Cumberland County went to Open Sky and Dauphin went digital, I got out of the hobby for a while. I got back into it when I moved to Perry County. I just took the leap into digital with the HP-1 because I wanted to start monitoring Dauphin County.
 

HM1529

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OK. I will have to pull the Middletown dispatch TG.

The only local PD TG that shows as being encrypted (per the RRDB) is Steelton. All the rest are listed as open.

Yes, I remember the good old days of monitoring Harrisburg City and Dauphin County on their old UHF system. After Cumberland County went to Open Sky and Dauphin went digital, I got out of the hobby for a while. I got back into it when I moved to Perry County. I just took the leap into digital with the HP-1 because I wanted to start monitoring Dauphin County.

My understanding is that all the "local" police tac channels are, in fact, encrypted. I know that the few times I have been able to monitor while in the area, I noted encryption in use. Unfortunately, I was driving and unable to document which talkgroups it was and nobody has made submissions indicating they are encrypted. I need to go back through some old private messages and emails. I could have sworn I had something somebody sent that way (instead of as a submission) that stated they were encrypted.
 

dmg1969

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My understanding is that all the "local" police tac channels are, in fact, encrypted. I know that the few times I have been able to monitor while in the area, I noted encryption in use. Unfortunately, I was driving and unable to document which talkgroups it was and nobody has made submissions indicating they are encrypted. I need to go back through some old private messages and emails. I could have sworn I had something somebody sent that way (instead of as a submission) that stated they were encrypted.

Well, if it helps..I can listen to them over the weekend and see what traffic I pick up and whether or not it is encrypted. It's a powerful system and I do receive it at home in Perry County.
 

Twister_2

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It is true. All police private channels (township/city/boro) AND ems ops channels are encrypted. However, every once and a while, I will hear Harrisburg PD communicate with each other on the city's public works talkgroup. And boy...they have no filters on their mouth. I have some recordings and it is pretty nasty. I thought about showing Linda before she left office.
 

HM1529

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Is Middletown PD dispatched by county on PD 1 or PD 2?

Is the Middletown talkgroup now encrypted like all the other local PD tac channels? It was clear when it was a dispatch channel.
 

dmg1969

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OK. So I can probably get rid of ALL of the local PD channels AND the Middletown police dispatch channel and just keep the Dauphin County police dispatch channels 1 and 2, Harrisburg police dispatch and Derry Twp. Police dispatch? I knew about the EMS ops channels being encrypted...saw that on the RR database.

That was another question I had...about the county police dispatch channels 1 and 2. Is this similar to the old system where the upper part of the county was dispatched on a different UHF frequency than the lower part of the county?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

NodrogCop

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As far as I'm aware, Dauphin kept the channel 1 and channel 2 groupings for the new talkgroups. That would put Middletown PD and the upper county/lower county departments on 2 and the mid-county/metro departments on 1.

If I was monitoring Dauphin, I would go with what you suggested.

Gordon
 

dmg1969

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I see that the Dauphin County database has been updated. Now the local PD TGs (except Middletown) show as encrypted, but so does the Coroner. Is Middletown still open or was that an oversight? Also, is it confirmed that the Coroner is encrypted? If so, I need to remove that from my Dauphin County favorites list as well.
 

n3obl

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I worked a submission for that. I cant confirm if they are encrypted now. I believe that was listed as their dispatch as they use to self dispatch but are now county dispatched.
 
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