AFS Talkgroup?

[Bluefeather]

I have an old Uniden Bearcat BC200XLT scanner that I used when I was a corner worker at the SCCA auto races. I haven't used it for years but it still works. I would like to use it to monitor the Los Alamos police and fire frequencies. I found some information on the web that gives the AFS Talkgroup numbers: 03-131 thru 03-137. How do I convert those numbers to frequencies I can set into my scanner?
Or, is there another place where I can get actual frequencies for Los Alamos?

 

[rpowley]

The BC200XLT is not a Trunktracker so it will not follow particular talkgroups. You could program in the frequencies minus the control channel and receive some of the transmissions, but it would be hard to follow complete conversations or reply's. Check out the link for what is available in the Los Alamos area. http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=1807

 

[hotdjdave]

Yep, you would need a new scanner that does trunk tracking.

Talk Groups (TGs) and Talk Group IDs (TGIDs) are only usable on a scanner that does trunk tracking. As rpowley wrote, you would have a hard time trying to listen to a Trunked Radio System (TRS). Each time a user talked, the control channel could change the frequency to another frequency in the system. This could happen every time the users key up the radio and transmit (or it could happen less frequently, but it still would happen). On a TRS with only a few frequencies, this would not be too hard to track using a scanner that does not have a trunk tracking feature. However, this is not always the case and there would be too many frequencies to really quick try to catch to keep up with a conversation. To really compound the issue, if there was more than one conversation going on by different users, it would be very difficult to be able to track who was saying what to whom. There could be several users talking to each other all on the same system and the system keeps rotating the frequencies randomly.

I suggest buying a new scanner, one that is capable of trunk tracking. You can pick on up at a relatively low cost if you are not interested in all the bells and whistles and you don't need it to decode APCO P25 (which is another subject altogether). You could even get a used one from eBay or elsewhere.

Sorry about the not so good news.

 

[nexus]

I have an old Uniden Bearcat BC200XLT scanner that I used when I was a corner worker at the SCCA auto races. I haven't used it for years but it still works. I would like to use it to monitor the Los Alamos police and fire frequencies. I found some information on the web that gives the AFS Talkgroup numbers: 03-131 thru 03-137. How do I convert those numbers to frequencies I can set into my scanner?
Or, is there another place where I can get actual frequencies for Los Alamos?

As the others said, you'll need a newer scanner capable of TRUNKTRACKING. Go to the database and you'll see the frequencies all listed there: It's a 400mhz EDACS Standard system. So you're in luck, you'll be able to use any trunktracking scanner to listen to them. Rebanding isn't effected and it's not provoice so they can be monitored.

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=227
This is the Los Alamos database information

First you'll need to get a trunktracking scanner. Check radio shack to see if they have any PRO-95's in stock. The PRO95 is a good choice. If they don't then you might want to consider the PRO-97.

AFS stands for AGENCY/FLEET/SUBFLEET and it's the method by how groups or agencies are devided on the system. a TALKGROUP is like a "Channel" or in computer terms a "FOLDER" or "SUB FOLDER".

C drive would be your AGENCY, and inside the C drive you have a folder called Program Files which would be the Fleet, and then inside Program Files would be another folder called Internet Explorer which would be the Subfleet. If that kind of helps you understand what the AFS talkgroup is all about.

They aren't frequencies. You would program in all (15) of the 409mhz frequencies into your scanner and then add the talkgroup ID's like 03-131 or 03-137. So when a user on talkgroup 03-137 keys up their radio the system assigns it any one of the 15 frequencies, allowing it to transmit. All of the other radios (or scanners that do trunktracking) that are either on that talkgroup or scanning that talkgroup will hear the transmission.