Atwater california?

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redlinegts85

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I'm new to this radio stuff, so please forgive me if I have no idea what the heck I'm asking or saying.

I just bought a handheld radio and from my understanding I need a radio frequency code in order to here my local PD. Well, I found the radio frequencies of one city over, but not the city I live in.

Does anyone know the frequency for atwater, calfornia police 95301? Also, are they allowed to give me this information if I call them?
 

gmclam

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Merced County & Atwater

Atwater PD is on the Merced County Trunked Radio System (TRS). It's the same system Merced County Sheriff is on. You will need to program the TRS and include the TalkGroup (TG) for Atwater.

Since you are new this is going to be a steep learning curve. What brand & model of scanner are you using? Do you have programming software for the scanner? Someone might be able to send you a file to program into the scanner if you're able to get it into the scanner.
 

lbfd09

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Hey - welcome to the area,

You will find many of the Atwater conventional frequencies in their section of the data base. Atwater PD uses the Merced County Trunking System. There is a whole bunch more that use this trunking system - even more than in the data base. Livingston while having there own newly commissioned conventional channel is also found on there. There are many communication changes in the works and I have been updating as the dust settles. Updates pop on here as the changes are locked down and not going to change (at least for a few weeks).

Merced City to the south is fairly stable with the addition of the new fire dept radio system.

You might want to add (not in the data base) the local Ham Repeaters:
  • TARC 147.030 NO pl W6BXM Link with the TARC 440 Box, RACES nets
  • TARC 444.700 94.8TPl W6BXM
  • MMU-VIP 146.745 CDF's MMU VIP use
  • TARC 224.96 unlinked 220 box
  • TARC 1287.600 unlinked 1.2 machine
the above repeaters are on Mt Bullion
the below repeaters are on Mt Oso
  • SARA 145.390 These SARA boxes are not linked normally
  • SARA 440.225

Lots of ham rag chewing can be heard in between the RACES nets, drills, and activities.

Oh - don't forget the Merced County Fire Net as Atwater City is now dispatched on there. But they still have their local cmd and tac nets for larger incidents.

Have Fun
 

inigo88

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I have listened to the Merced County trunking system several times while driving across the state on I-5. :)

One issue that will certainly steepen the learning curve is the fact that it is a Motorola Type I system. Type I was a very old system and required the use of something called the "Fleet Map," which you'll have to program in order for the system to decode the talkgroups correctly. So as long as your scanner supports trunking you should be able to set up the system in these easy steps:

* Select the type of trunking system (Motorola Type I - 800 MHz).
* Input the control channel, or all the possible control channels.
* Select the proper fleetmap. There are usually presets for these, "E1P3" comes to mind, but check the database for the Merced County Trunking System to make sure.

The section of your radio scanner's manual about "Motorola trunking systems" will tell you exactly how to do this, and people here (myself included) can help if you're still lost, but we need to know what kind of scanner you have.
 

redlinegts85

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So just to confirm before I purchase a new scanner, Atwater PD uses trunking? I only care about receiving atwater police department dispatch...not atwater fire, public works, or anything like that. Just PD.

Why does atwater use the trunking but merced and livingston (surrounding cities) can be heard with a simple input of 155.955 on the scanner?
 

kma371

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So just to confirm before I purchase a new scanner, Atwater PD uses trunking? I only care about receiving atwater police department dispatch...not atwater fire, public works, or anything like that. Just PD.

Why does atwater use the trunking but merced and livingston (surrounding cities) can be heard with a simple input of 155.955 on the scanner?

Yes you need a trunking scanner to listen to Atwater PD

Agencies can use whatever system they want, for some reason, they wanted to be on Merced Co's trunked system. Most likely for interoperability reasons.


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk
 

lbfd09

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I have listened to the Merced County trunking system several times while driving across the state on I-5. :)

One issue that will certainly steepen the learning curve is the fact that it is a Motorola Type I system. Type I was a very old system and required the use of something called the "Fleet Map," which you'll have to program in order for the system to decode the talkgroups correctly. So as long as your scanner supports trunking you should be able to set up the system in these easy steps:

* Select the type of trunking system (Motorola Type I - 800 MHz).
* Input the control channel, or all the possible control channels.
* Select the proper fleetmap. There are usually presets for these, "E1P3" comes to mind, but check the database for the Merced County Trunking System to make sure.

The section of your radio scanner's manual about "Motorola trunking systems" will tell you exactly how to do this, and people here (myself included) can help if you're still lost, but we need to know what kind of scanner you have.

And we on the west side complain that we can't hear stuff on that. But you look like the goto guy. There be a trunking system that is suppose to expand coverage from Pacheco.

I have them programmed in a V-Folder and have heard some of the west side buses on it. Mostly on one or two channels. other than that just data bursts. I ran the Unitracker app and did see a couple of known talkgroups. Otherwise just what seems like testing stuff. It does not seem to do any trunking reception. Can you offer any pointers on how I can pick up the limited traffic off of this new system?? Or are they just not ready for prime time yet?
 
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lbfd09

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So just to confirm before I purchase a new scanner, Atwater PD uses trunking? I only care about receiving atwater police department dispatch...not atwater fire, public works, or anything like that. Just PD.

Why does atwater use the trunking but merced and livingston (surrounding cities) can be heard with a simple input of 155.955 on the scanner?

Atwater PD uses trunking and a at last check showed no conventional plans. Why? Best answered by the Atwater PD Chief. Livingston still is using the 800 talkgroup heavily, their ultimate resutl - unknown. Again can't tell you the actual plans, as I be a fire guy and know how all these radio plans are molded in water.

Atwater being a smaller community elected to have fire increase their communication capability with adding 800 radios to their VHI-Hi band arsenal, when the system was first designed. I have no idea if these radios are still in use as they now are a CDF Sched A contracted fire department. Other communities like Merced City and Los Banos elected to stay on VHI-Hi. For Los Banos that was a good thing as the 800 is very spoty from Bullion on on the west side of the county. (Thus the new Pacheco site.) Gustine who also wen 800 has since transitions to a stand alone 800 repeater that has a remote to Turlock and rebroadcasts Turlock PD1 talkgroup.

Ah - do you have any plans going north? Turlock City has it's own 800 trucking system.

What scanner?? - Because of Merced Co's trunking system's age most any rebandable 800 trunking scanner will work today. Tomorrow - ah that's a secret (and they have yet to share).
 

redlinegts85

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I'm buying a trunking radio today. Will I need a USB cable to set up atwater pd? If not, that would be great because it's $40 for the cable.
 

lbfd09

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I'm buying a trunking radio today. Will I need a USB cable to set up atwater pd? If not, that would be great because it's $40 for the cable.

You can survive without - and if doing the one system, it can be done. Sounds like a Radio Shack price, those are easily found online much cheaper, if you can wait for the postman.

If you are getting the Pro106 or 197, using the easy to read only guide putting a few frequencies and talk groups will not be too difficult.

Have fun....
 

lbfd09

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I'm getting the pro 107

Ah - the new one. From what I have read you should not need a cable except for custumizing (entering in ned data/frequencies), and firmware updates.

It should be good right out of the box. But as time goes on I suspect you'll be looking for a cable as frequencies change.
 

redlinegts85

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Yeah I did buy the radio. The pro 107 from radio shack. I was messing around with it, even read all the instructions, and still couldn't figure it out. I was going through the "library" and eventually found "atwater city public safety" which is the Atwater PD dispatch, but I heard nothing. Nothing would play. Not sure if it actually locked on or whatever.

But anyways...after all that I turned on the light (I was in a dark room) and noticed my "brand new" radio from radioshack had scratches all over, so it was clearly used. I got in my car and headed right to radio shack to take it back. That's the last time I ever buy anything from them.

Now I'm not sure if I want to buy a radio online. I mean, if there were exact steps I could follow to getting Atwater PD on it, then sure I would get it, but it doesn't seem that easy.
 

LowBat

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I would think Radio Shack would be willing to program in one system for you if they weren't busy. As you mentioned you don't want to buy from them again, perhaps another radio vendor can help you. Doing a quick internet search I see there is a place called Cook Communications (Cook's Communications Corporation). They look to be a commercial radio dealer, but perhaps they may sell scanners as well. Might be worth a phone call. If anything they maybe able to direct you to a local place that'll help you.
 
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