Question about Beaufort County SO Scanners

[Justin1129]

What scanner would be the best to Buy to monitor Beaufort county Sheriffs office I'm looking for a cheap scanner Nothing really fancy what scanner should i buy Any suggestions?

 

[rdale]

Any digital scanner will do... Pro96's can be bought used for $250 or so, newer digital scanners with more features run you $400-$500.

 

[Justin1129]

Any digital scanner will do... Pro96's can be bought used for $250 or so, newer digital scanners with more features run you $400-$500.

Thnks!Beaufort county Went digital?Haha Im late i guess havent monitored them for Ages!

 

[brian]

My 2 cents worth - go with a newer digital scanner model, either RS/GRE or Uniden. This is a Simulcast P25 system, and even the newest digital scanners struggle to monitor that type of system with consistency. My experience with the PRO-96 on Simulcast P25 systems hasn't been good, but it may depend on the CPU version you get (newer is better). YMMV.

Unfortunately, as Rob mentioned, there are not many (non-stolen) newer digital scanners that most would consider "cheap."

 

[Caesar]

My 2 cents worth - go with a newer digital scanner model, either RS/GRE or Uniden. This is a Simulcast P25 system, and even the newest digital scanners struggle to monitor that type of system with consistency. My experience with the PRO-96 on Simulcast P25 systems hasn't been good, but it may depend on the CPU version you get (newer is better). YMMV.

Unfortunately, as Rob mentioned, there are not many (non-stolen) newer digital scanners that most would consider "cheap."

pro 106 and psr500s go for about 280$ on ebay these days, one pro 106 on rr.com here for 250$.

 

[bpalmer]

Pro 96 does not work here in Beaufort only the newer digital scanner seem to work. On the pro 96 I worked with I could not get the rebanded control channel up and decoding

 

[rdale]

Did you use tables with Win96? That's the only way it will work.

 

[bpalmer]

I did and it didn't help. Some of the rebanned frequencies are outside the fixed and predetermined frequencies deviations in the radio. I did manage a decode rate of about 5, not enough to hear anything

 

[cmlewis1969]

Pro 106 Bft Cty

Billy when you have time will you look this over and see if I have my 106 programmed corrctly. I have moved it all over the house here in Bluffton and dont pick up squat. Thanks.

 

[bpalmer]

CMlewis

My computer did not like your file and would not open it. See if you can cut and past parts of it and send via Private message.
SO for Siouthern Beaufort County uses TG 604 Dispatch, 05 Operations and 606 shift Your scanner must have 857.4375 or its rebanded version to work.

Did you use software to load your radio?? if so which brand/. If not that is the best way to go. I find Win 500 Better then Butel.

Can anyone tell me how to get the computer to open that file?????

 

[jeffmulter]

Did you use tables with Win96? That's the only way it will work.

I did and it didn't help. Some of the rebanned frequencies are outside the fixed and predetermined frequencies deviations in the radio.

The frequency tables compensate for that. If the tables are entered correctly, the Pro 96 will be able to decode the control channel, unless you do not have a suitable signal.

Billy when you have time will you look this over and see if I have my 106 programmed corrctly.

My computer did not like your file and would not open it.

Can anyone tell me how to get the computer to open that file?????

Winzip - or any similar utility program - will open the "zip" file and extract the file(s) inside it. If you don't have an unzipping program on your computer, I believe you can download previous versions of Winzip for free from PC Magazine and other sources online.

 

[brian]

Billy when you have time will you look this over and see if I have my 106 programmed corrctly. I have moved it all over the house here in Bluffton and dont pick up squat. Thanks.

I note that you have 4 TSYS objects all of the Palmetto P25 Beaufort County system. That's inefficient, but should still work. You can consider consolidating all of those talkgroups into a single TSYS object and assigning the different groups of talkgroups to the appropriate scan lists. You may have don't that for labeling purposes, but I can't quite tell.

You also have the ATT (Attenuator) set for 4 of your TSYS objects: 1811 (Jasper Co Palmetto 800), 1821 (BCSO Palmetto P25), 1831 (Bluffton PD Palmetto P25) and 1841 (Bft Fire/EMS). Disable the attenuator for those systems and see if that improves your performance.

You may want to check your control channels for the 2 Palmetto 800 systems - I think you're lacking a primary CC for Site 33 Yemassee but that shouldn't make a whole lot of difference.

Hope that helps.

 

[brian]

CMlewis

Can anyone tell me how to get the computer to open that file?????

Billy -

As Jeff suggested, you have to extract the program file from the zip file that he attached to his message. Newer versions of Windows can do that automatically. He submitted a BIN file, which may associate to a different program on your computer.

First, download the zip file to your computer.
Second, extract the BIN file from the ZIP folder.
Third, Open Win500 and select File, Open.
Fourth, in the "File Type" drop-down box, select PC/IF BIN Files.
Fifth, navigate to where you extracted the BIN file and select it.

Brian

 

[bpalmer]

JeffMulter,

on the Pro 96 i used the table that was in the WIN 96 should I have done different. Will try and open the file again.

CMLewis. Looks good, but get rid of all attenuation and I would also get rid of the delays. I noticed you used a lot of colors. I personally find the a distraction and some of the lights are very bright, but that up to you. I need to study it miore but this should help. Looks good where here if you need more.

CM also remember you have to move the radio around a bit to find the best reception. In the house I have marked that spot with easy to remove tape.

Thanks guys on the zip file. I missed a step when I tried it the first several times. I just not used tozip files and I just missed the extract step.I now have that file burried in two places somewhere in my computers, but I got it straight now.

ENjoy the show.

 

[bpalmer]

CMLEWIS Igonore this note I did something I shouldn't have.

 

[bpalmer]

Looking thing over it looks like you need to add , as Brian indicated, the Control channel for Site 33 Yemassee to both of your Palmetto 800 systems. 856.8625.

Jasper County covered by three towers. the Jasper tower Site 51, Yemassee site 33 and Blufton site 37. Considering where you live you will mostly likely only reciev the Bluffton site on a regular bases (that is located near Gibbet Road and SC4).

You might want to add State air to ground to both Pal 800 system TG 3856. Also to BC system you have with FD and EMS add TG 669 (not published yet) County air to ground. Will look at you info again at a later time.

Good hunting



HAving the Yemasse site up up your raqnge if you can recieve it

 

[cmlewis1969]

Thanks to all. I did remove the delays, reset the TSYS to 1 for Bft P25 and just set the Tgrps to different scan lists it made quite a difference. I still get spotty reception in my (hotspot). After talking to some of my former colleages still in the Bft Emergency services they are still having alot of reception problems too with this new digital system. Not sure what Bft Co cure may be on this but I know Chas Co is working on putting up more towers and boosting Xmit power for their P25. I just wonder why with all the problems both counties had on analog with interference from all along the east coast why neither went down to 700 Mhz. Chatham did and it cut all interference but they too still have some dead spots. Just ramblings but make you think about how OUR money is spent.

 

[bpalmer]

In the Post Harsh Article about the Chs system you may get some insight. Our system here is more or less exactly the same and shares system ID number., We do get much better audio quality . You may fett somewhat less reception and volume at times. I tend to hear more then the dispatchers do at times.

Part of the reason we are here is South Carolina decided we should be here and partly because our radio managers did a hard sell on an unsuspecting County council because they wanted the newest toy

SC case was interoperability, which we all had. Every agency in Bft County to talk to every other and public safety with Charleston and Savannah.

Motorola contributed by discontinuing the spare parts they made or provided for the analog system impossible to..buy

Would useing 700MHz freq helps I doubt it but someone out there my correct me on thsi.. I think things needs to be fixed I am sure our county council a fix buy it in a second. Motorola, I believe, has a bad habit of under engineering these system. T hey always end of selling more equipment

 

[Justin1129]

According to scannermasters the RadioShack PRO-164 Scanner Will work in beaufort county

 

[brian]

Justin -

Sorry, but that's plain wrong. Beaufort County transitioned over to P25 (digital) within the last 6 months or less, and perhaps scannermaster hasn't updated their information. But, the PRO-164 doesn't support digital, which is required now for monitoring public safety in Beaufort County.