Encryption- New Caslte, PA.

[sunnyskyez]

Hi guys Im new here to your site.

Scanning still confuses me so when I got my first scanner I just plugged in the frequencies for my area hoping Ive got it right. You guys could explain it to me from now until the cows came home and I would still be foggy. LOL.

So here is my dilemma: I live in New Castle, PA - Lawrence County. We just had a “state of the art 911 call center” built. Any way, we were supposed to be in P25 Phase II in August, with encryption looming on the horizon. I noticed my HH analog is not as talkie as it once was, a lot of silence in there where the police are concerned. I only listen to the Police stuff, not interested in the EMT, RR, Weather, etc.

So at the beginning of this year I was thinking about getting digital scanner but being the procrastinator I am, its now Sept and only now figured out which one I wanted. But am now wondering why buy one at all, with all of this encryption coming into play it would be a waste of $600 dollars, but would make a fine conversation piece as a paper weight, or maybe putting it into a time capsule for the future..

What are your thoughts on this, seems like eventually all scanners will become obsolete?

I appreciate any information for you guys.

Thanks Sunny

 

[n3obl]

Lawrence county is eventually moving to a VHF Phase 2 P25 Trunking system. The backend of the system will be tied into the ICORRS system that over through Armstrong, Westmoreland etc. However the users and main part of their system will be VHF. Probably assumed it would be easier to mutual aid to Beaver County with such.

There are not too many people on here up in that area so information is spotty at times. I can only monitor that new system when I am mobile. We will not know yet if they will implement full time encryption or just select channels.

Frank

 

[fireman149]

The system is running, but none of the users have switched over. All of the agencies are still using the same frequencies they have been for years. I am not sure why the scanner seems less talkie...

I have been monitoring the new system for a good while now. Traffic is beginning to pick up with more testing and training in the past week or so.

I understand the police will start to migrate onto the new system first sometime near the middle to end of this month with total switch over of all agencies sometime in October.

Word has it that police will be encrypted or have the ability to be encrypted, but fire and EMS will not be for the most part. I do not know of a scanner available that will receive encrypted transmissions on the new system.

I have a Uniden BCD996P2 monitoring the system. I seem to have a lot of tuning to do yet to it to get the new digital to come in clearly. The system is a "simulcast" system. From what I have found in the posts in the forums, it seems these systems are tricky to get a scanner to receive clearly. So if you do decide to get a scanner, plan on spending some time with it to get it to work properly. Maybe you will be in a better location than I am and it will just work.

 

[kmi8dy]

we all have that hanging over our heads. will regret the day that our area will go silent. but there is so much more to listen too besides the police. they are only a small fraction of whats out there to listen too. i read out there someplace that its only less then 12 percent of all public service radio have went encrypted. so i wouldn't worry to much about it, till it happens, if it doe's happen. i still have my first scanner, it is a bearcat ( the original bearcat ) crystal operated ones. i think it held 4 crystals. they cost about $7.50 each when you wanted to change them for a new frequency. then radio shack come out with a hand tunable one that would pick up vhf hi-lo, and uhf.

 

[Nasby]

we all have that hanging over our heads. will regret the day that our area will go silent. but there is so much more to listen too besides the police. they are only a small fraction of whats out there to listen too. i read out there someplace that its only less then 12 percent of all public service radio have went encrypted. so i wouldn't worry to much about it, till it happens, if it doe's happen. i still have my first scanner, it is a bearcat ( the original bearcat ) crystal operated ones. i think it held 4 crystals. they cost about $7.50 each when you wanted to change them for a new frequency. then radio shack come out with a hand tunable one that would pick up vhf hi-lo, and uhf.

You may be correct that only 12% of public safety went encrypted but I would venture to say that 90% of scanner users want only to hear public safety, in particular law enforcement.

I agree that there's so much more to scan and hear than just law enforcement.

But unfortunately only a small percentage of folks want to hear trains, taxi's, planes, etc.

I'm crossing my fingers that Lawrence County does not decide on encryption for everything.

Only time will tell.

 

[sunnyskyez]

Thank you all. Great Info from each of you. I think I will hold off awhile to see what way the wind will blow. In the meantime I will enjoy lurking here and reading your post to keep updated.

Have a great night.
Sunny

 

[PAGANC412912]

I read the LEOC post to the public answering FAQs. They said Police wont be heard at all for officer safety so my guess is they will have all Police encrypted. Now my opinion is they shouldnt encrypt Dispatch but encrypt Tac. channels. Also noticed some places encrypt EMS Tac and EMS to Hospital channels. The hospital channels is totally understandable though. But as said above... Time will tell.

 

[sunnyskyez]

Thanks Pag and I agree with you they shouldnt encrypt the whole thing. They should just have their own encrypted channel for really unsafe matters.

I just found out yesterday talking with a Shenango Twp Fireman, they are going phase 2 by the end of this month and then they are going encrypted very soon afterwards. He told me not to waste my money.

So as I said before I will wait and see which way the wind blows for now instead of blowing $600 dollars at this time. Its not fair and as usual the people who follow the law get punished for the law breakers.

Cheers!