I'm looking for a new handheld digital scanner for my area in Pennsylvania, specifically in McKean and Elk counties. Any suggestions.
I'm looking for a new handheld digital scanner for my area in Pennsylvania, specifically in McKean and Elk counties. Any suggestions.
- Thread starter MJH933
- Start date
You'll get a more specific, and perhaps more informative, response if you have this thread be moved to your state (Pennsylvania) forum. Someone in, or at least closer to, your area of interest would have a better idea of what to suggest based on what works, or does not work, for them. My responses are based on what I see in the database, as I am nowhere near your location.
For Elk County, it appears that all of the local public safety agencies are using conventional frequencies, not a trunked system. The database shows that all of the ones currently posted are still analog, not digital. However, spot checking a couple of the more recent license grants, such as this one, show that the license includes the option to use the digital DMR format (also referred to as MotoTrbo). The database only shows what has been submitted, and so far, no DMR is noted. Someone in your area might have better information on whether DMR is being used at least part of the time, or if a changeover is planned in the near future. There have been very few database updates for this county in the past few years. That could mean little, if anything, has changed, or if a change has occurred, it has not been submitted to the database.
For McKean County, the public safety agencies are using both conventional (non-trunked) frequencies, as well as using the statewide PA-STARNet trunked system. The state's system is P25 Phase II. There are two sites for the system shown as located in your county. The site located near Kane is a single transmit tower, so if you are in range of it, simulcast would not be an issue, and any scanner capable of P25 Phase II trunking would likely work.
The other site in your county, listed as McKean Simulcast, is simulcast, with three tower sites shown. Dealing with a simulcast site is extremely location driven. Depending on where you are relative to the various transmit points, simulcast distortion could be a problem. If simulcast is a problem at your specific location, then your best choice would be Uniden's SDS100 portable scanner. The SDS series scanners are the only ones that can reliably handle simulcast. Depending on your exact location, especially if you are very close (like a quarter mile or so) to one of the tower locations for the McKean Simulcast site, you might be able to utilize either the 325P2 or 436HP scanners. The 436HP does not handle simulcast as well as the SDS100, but it is somewhat better than the 325P2 and Uniden's HP-2.
While there are no agencies nor businesses in your two counties of interest showing to use DMR, DMR, which is a digital format, is frequently used by businesses. If, at some point, you become interested in DMR (or NXDN, another digital format), you can purchase a paid upgrade from Uniden to be able to receive those signals. While the full changeover is likely several years away, eventually railroads will be changing from analog usage to frequencies using NXDN, so if rail is an interest, you might consider that for a future acquisition. If you decide to purchase an upgrade, buy directly from Uniden. The online dealers, such as ScannerMaster, Police Scanners (formerly Bearcat Warehouse) and Zip scanners charge an extra $20 or more to handle the transaction that you can do yourself.
Thank you so much, a lot of great information.
There have been two previous threads discussing the possibility of DMR in McKean County. Here is one of them:
forums.radioreference.com
And there is one NEXEDGE96 TSYS in McKean county that has been verified as being online but has not yet been entered in the DB.
ELK County PA Police Dispatch
Does anyone know if ELK County Police Dispatch has gone digital? Has been silent on analog for several weeks.
And there is one NEXEDGE96 TSYS in McKean county that has been verified as being online but has not yet been entered in the DB.
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