Analog vs Digital Scanner?? Cumberland Co

[jjcsnlynn]

My parents want to get a scanner for Cumberland County PA. I live in Delaware and have both analog and digital scanners. They want to hear the police and fire (and some fish and game frequencies).

Radio Shack told them that they are no digital frequencies in Cumberland county and sold them a Pro-163 analog scanner. I programmed it up with Win 97.

My questions are:
Will they pick up more info on a digital scanner and will they still get all the analog frequency information?

In your opinion, should they keep the analog scanner or switch to digital? They have 30 days to take back the Pro-163.

Jon

 

[eaf1956]

Analog vs Digital

My parents want to get a scanner for Cumberland County PA. I live in Delaware and have both analog and digital scanners. They want to hear the police and fire (and some fish and game frequencies).

Radio Shack told them that they are no digital frequencies in Cumberland county and sold them a Pro-163 analog scanner. I programmed it up with Win 97.

My questions are:
Will they pick up more info on a digital scanner and will they still get all the analog frequency information?

In your opinion, should they keep the analog scanner or switch to digital? They have 30 days to take back the Pro-163.

Jon

A digital scanner will pick up analog signals just fine along with anything that may be digital (except encryted) stuff. Basically, the digital scanner can do anything the analog can do PLUS get digital. Whereas, the analog scanner can only do analog siginals. IMHO a digital scanner is a much wiser purchase in buying a scanner, because, even if they are analog today they may in the very near future go digital and thus cause you to have to buy a new scanner.

 

[markandjere]

You should be able to hear initial dispatch for fire and ems in Cumberland county but you will not hear any police activity unless you are near Carlisle. Carlisle has it's own dispatch and are independant from the county system but you will need a digital scanner for that system.

 

[jjcsnlynn]

Radio Shack tolk my parents that the police are on some "Sky...something net" and they would never be able to hear the police. Is that true? they live 15 miles from Carlisle.

Mom had a scanner back in the day but lost interest when the frequencies changed. Now she's interested again since we have one here in Delaware.

 

[Tommahawk]

As someone that works in a surrounding county in a 911 center I would highly recommend a digital capable scanner since most counties surrounding Cumberland County (Dauphin/York/Lebanon/Caroll County, etc do have programming that requires a digital scanner. You will not be able to pick up 'Open Sky" unfortunately........

 

[jjcsnlynn]

Thanks. I'll let them know all of this.

 

[HM1529]

Unless they absolutely are only interested in Cumberland County, a digital scanner is the way to go for metro Harrisburg. Both the York County and Dauphin County trunked systems are easily heard in different areas of eastern Cumberland County.

Local and state police comms within Cumberland County will not be heard. PA State police operate on the state's PA-STARNet OpenSky trunked system. Cumberland County operates its own OpenSky based trunked system for public safety in the county (the only county in PA to make the switch to this trunking architecture). EMS and fire dispatch/response are rebroadcast on the old lowband and UHF freqs, but working channels and tac channels are not, so it gets quiet after inital responses are made. I was just out that way over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and heard plenty of traffic listening to Cumberland, Dauphin, and York. While I was in Cumberland, most of the traffic was from the other two counties. The DOD system that covers Mechanicsburg/Carlisle is also digital. Most of the comms are incredibly boring...just crews at the NAVICP in Mechanicsburg jockeying cargo trailers back and forth getting stuff ready for shipping. The law enforcement talkgroups on the DOD system are encrypted.

From where I was in Hampden Twp, I was easily picking up the PGC southcentral region dispatch channel (44.920) on a handheld inside a house. I did have a clear view of the mountains to the north, though, so I was probably in good line of site to a transmitter. Mobiles might be iffy unless they're nearby.

 

[brey1234]

open sky can be heard--for a price

I know of a TV station that bought an Open Sky radio and the county agreed to program it with dispatch channels for police and fire....I understand it was an expensive proposition.

 

[jjcsnlynn]

Parents decided to take it back and get a Pro-106. Thanks for your help.