Help listening in to radio traffic.

[Timsierramist]

I got my entry-level newbie green horn Baofeng UV-5RA radio a week ago and have been playing around with it a bit. I have figured out s lot of the settings and have been able to enjoy listening to some radio traffic, both armature and professional.

As noted in my original post seen here: http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...orum/318864-usc-department-public-safety.html

I wanted to listen in to USC Deparent of Public Safety. I understand that they are Trunked and use the passport system. When I go to the radio reference section for LA County, subsection Universities, and input the DPS frequency of 464.37500, I Adam met with very limited success. On some instances, it comes in clear. Most of the time, it simply sounds like someone is just clicking the mic of and on here and there. Or it comes out completely unreadable or the infamous "motorboat" sound.

I even bought the tall, 15.5 inch Nagoya antannae. It can't be distance can it? I'm Very close to campus. 2 blocks or so.

Clearly it's not as easy as imputing the numbers and listening. How can I set it up to listen as best as I can? I'm kinda getting hooked on the hobby as I should be and can't wait to learn more.

Thank you for assist!

 

[avdrummerboy]

LTR is an interesting system as even without a trunking scanner, as long as you know the logical channels and their order, most traffic most of the time will happen on one maybe two channels (two in a busy system.) This means, that as long as you can listen to the first two or so logical channels, you'll hear 99+% of the radio traffic, you won't get talk group ID's but you will hear traffic. It's a good system to use a poor mans scanner on.

As to the other noises, the seemingly random clicking is the LTR system basically telling all the radios on the system that it's still there, it's LTR's version of a control channel, the rest is sub audible when someone is actually transmitting. I'm not too familiar with passport systems, but I'm going to venture a guess that the motor boating noise that you hear is related to that, radios coming and going. Someone who knows more about passport will probably be along shortly to correct me.

 

[Timsierramist]

But for some reasons, I only get a very small fraction of the conversation.

I guess there are additional frequencies not listed?

I was thinking perhaps it would be better to buy a handheld radio scanner. It could certainly scan faster obviously, but wouldn't I be met with the same results as above with the scanner as I would the baofeng, since i'm using the same frequency which is 464.37500. It would be great to listen in on the USC Security ambassadors (yellow jackets) as well as LAPD southwest station/Hotshots channel. I suppose a scanner would be faster to scan, but would I see other benefits in it?

I was already interested in purchasing a scanner anywas since I could use the 800mhz to listen to law enforcement in my County (San Bernardino), which by and large uses the 800mhz Motorola Smart Net system.

 

[SCPD]

I got my entry-level newbie green horn Baofeng UV-5RA radio a week ago and have been playing around with it a bit. I have figured out s lot of the settings and have been able to enjoy listening to some radio traffic, both armature and professional.

As noted in my original post seen here: http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...orum/318864-usc-department-public-safety.html

I wanted to listen in to USC Deparent of Public Safety. I understand that they are Trunked and use the passport system. When I go to the radio reference section for LA County, subsection Universities, and input the DPS frequency of 464.37500, I Adam met with very limited success. On some instances, it comes in clear. Most of the time, it simply sounds like someone is just clicking the mic of and on here and there. Or it comes out completely unreadable or the infamous "motorboat" sound.

I even bought the tall, 15.5 inch Nagoya antannae. It can't be distance can it? I'm Very close to campus. 2 blocks or so.

Clearly it's not as easy as imputing the numbers and listening. How can I set it up to listen as best as I can? I'm kinda getting hooked on the hobby as I should be and can't wait to learn more.

Thank you for assist!

Need to enter some more frequencies. I believe that 464.37500 is only used for some visitor access function.

Give these a try, worked for me:

461.71250
462.50000
464.32500
464.37500
464.52500
464.67500
452.38750

 

[Timsierramist]

Excellent! Thank you for the additional frequencies. I'll punch all of those into "channel mode", then I'm thinking I could just keep it "scanning" with those frequencies and see what I hear. Won't be back downtown until Tuesday.

My replies will be delayed btw. I'm still new here on the forums and need moderators to reply. So my replies might be a bit old.

 

[SCPD]

Excellent! Thank you for the additional frequencies. I'll punch all of those into "channel mode", then I'm thinking I could just keep it "scanning" with those frequencies and see what I hear. Won't be back downtown until Tuesday.

My replies will be delayed btw. I'm still new here on the forums and need moderators to reply. So my replies might be a bit old.

I keep forgetting that the first few posts from new members need to be approved before they are posted.

While it has been a couple of years since I monitored USC, the frequencies I listed should still be good.

452.38750 is what I have for the Security Ambassadors.

Can't get the RR database to show up correctly right now so can't verify if any updates have been made in the last couple of years but I doubt it.

How are you entering your frequencies into your UV-5RA? By hand or using Chirp?

Since you are interested in a scanner, you can't go wrong checking out the U.S. Regional Radio Discussion Forums for California here. Some scanners just work better in certain area and asking questions and doing research there will save you time and possible trouble down the road.

You are in a great location for scanning/monitoring.

I can personally confirm that both the BCD436HP and the HP-1/HP-2 from Uniden work great in your area.

 

[DickH]

Since you are new to scanning here is some antenna info. you may find helpful.
An antenna 1/4 wavelength long is the standard measurement for an antenna.
Here is 1/4 wavelength for various freqs.:
850MHz = 3-1/4"
460MHz = 6"
155MHz = 18"

Since you are so close to the station you want to hear, just about any length of wire will work.

 

[Timsierramist]

Being the newbie that I truly am, I was having big trouble getting the radio to listen in to the USC freq's. Even the Security Ambassador's radio that was a block away, lol. I thought...oh, must be my stock Antenna sucks, so I went and bought the 500 foot tall...well, it feel like that when it's riding up your back...version but didn't get any improvement, haha.

For the record, I get local police very clearly 1 and two cities over (Claremont & La Verne, CA). So its evident my Antenna is fine...just need to program a few more frequencies to scan all at once.

So, the 6" is ideal for listening to teh 400+ range there? Which is what USC/DPS are using basically.

@Lesel: Sadly, a bit out of budget. Only because I've had to make a few expensive purchases this past month or so. Eventually soon, I'll be buying some top rate scanner though. For a cheap scanner, I was thinking of something like this, lol.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...ef_=ox_sc_imb_mini_detail&smid=A2L77EE7U53NWQ

Thanks for the continued info/help folks.

 

[Timsierramist]

^^^ the $122 Amazon Warehouse used one of course.

 

[SCPD]

The BC346XTC would be a big "no go" as it doesn't decode P25 digital. You mentioned being interested in monitoring LAPD, which would require a P25 capable radio.

Here is a list that would at least meet this requirement:

http://forums.radioreference.com/ne...d-buy-listen-my-local-police.html#post2433184

Of these Phase 1 only units and hence, lower up front costs, the BCD396XT or HomePatrol-1 are the only ones I would recommend.

Note, the BCD396XT does require an additional purchase of a programming cable and possibly programming software if FreeSCAN doesn't meet your needs and has a steep learning curve. The HomePatrol-1 requires no additional purchases and is a joy in comparison to get up a running.

 

[avdrummerboy]

As to missing parts of conversations, that could be the radio scanning and not catching onto the active channel until someone is already talking, thereby cutting off the first half of the conversation.

 

[Timsierramist]

Good info to know. Would have dropped a pretty penny without all the features. I'll be saving up then. For now, need to continue to learn and play with my Baofeng!

 

[SCPD]

Good info to know. Would have dropped a pretty penny without all the features. I'll be saving up then. For now, need to continue to learn and play with my Baofeng!

Absolutely.

I have setup around half a dozen of these Baofeng radios for family and friends that were in the same situation as you, just wanting to monitor a few frequencies or a department or two and this is where these budget radios, when PROPERLY setup, DO work as "scanners". YMMV.

I have found that most of the folks I have setup these for come back in a few months and ask "What else can I listen to?" This is the point where a purpose built scanner makes sense to invest in.