Lancaster NY Radio Suggestions

[blong]

Ok Folks need a bit of help here, I'm in Monroe County so I have an SDS 100 because of the Simulcast, Works great here.
Have a mother in Lancaster NY that would like a scanner to hear the activity around there. She would like to listen into, Lancaster Police, Lancaster Fire, Depew Fire, Bowmansville Fire, Lancaster Ambulance and so on. Really nothing beyond the immediate area.
The question is what radio is best for this area and these departments? I know the old VHF doesn't cut it anymore, so I need to step up.
Let me know your thoughts please.


TKS

 

[radioguy224]

ok so the lancaster ambulance is on a DMR trucked system

 

[radioguy224]

looks like alot of them work on the p25 channel Monroe/Ontario Counties Trunking System, Regional, New York and i would go with a Uniden BCD325P2 Phase II Handheld Digital Police Scanner

 

[sallen07]

looks like alot of them work on the p25 channel Monroe/Ontario Counties Trunking System, Regional, New York and i would go with a Uniden BCD325P2 Phase II Handheld Digital Police Scanner

Um, no. The OP stated that he had a SDS100 for the Monroe County system.

He's looking for a scanner for his mother who lives in Erie County. Nothing to do with Monroe County.

FWITW, the BCD325P2 does NOT handle the Monroe/Ontario system well, due to simulcast. Trust me, I've tried.

 

[sallen07]

Have a mother in Lancaster NY that would like a scanner to hear the activity around there. She would like to listen into, Lancaster Police, Lancaster Fire, Depew Fire, Bowmansville Fire, Lancaster Ambulance and so on.

@blong Have you checked the DB for Erie County?

Erie County, New York (NY) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Erie County, New York (NY)

www.radioreference.com

Looks like Lancaster Ambulance is on the SaiaNet DMR trunked system.

Lancaster Police are using DMR conventional, but according to the DB they are encrypted, so no way to monitor.

Depew and Lancaster fire are using UHF analog conventional, as is the county fire dispatch.

My recommendation would be a Uniden BCD325P2 or BCD996P2 with the DMR upgrade.

An alternative would be a Whistler TRX-1 or TRX-2. Note that those scanners can *decode* DMR out of the box, but they will not trunk-track a DMR system like SaiaNet. All they do is scan the voice channels, looking for traffic.

I use a BCD996P2 to monitor one talk group on SaiaNet and it works pretty well.

 

[Lorna68fs]

I can confirm 100% that Lancaster police are full time encrypted.

 

[ak716]

FWIW, If your mother is the one using it, and if she's not tech savvy, scrap the whole LVAC monitoring on SaiaNet. Saia is constantly updating it, changing frequencies, adding frequencies, and its slows the scanning down drastically in my opinion. Plus, anything noteworthy that LVAC is going to, Fire is going to (wrecks, fires, etc.)

Lancaster PD runs DMR with BP, so that's a no go as what @Lorna68fs s said.

Not totally sure what @sallen07 is referring to for the "county fire dispatch", as Erie County has no countywide, or county run fire dispatching what so ever. Maybe he's referring to CW Fire, which is just an interop channel, the name is slightly deceiving to someone not aware of the use for it.

Simple analog scanner, and she'll be happy, probably.

 

[blong]

Thanks everyone, I had heard that Lancaster fire and surrounding areas had gone digital, but I could not verify this, but it sounds like that isn't the case. Great group here knows all I appreciate the responses.
So to summarize it sounds like Lancaster Police is encrypted so not able to listen, LVAC is on SaiNet and not worth the trouble. So am I correct that the rest of the local fire is on UHF and a good old Analog scanner will work in the area? All she wants to do is know where the sirens are going. Nothing more sophisticated than that. She lives by Bowmansville station 2 so the sirens peak her curiosity.

Thanks for the info

 

[ak716]

Thanks everyone, I had heard that Lancaster fire and surrounding areas had gone digital, but I could not verify this, but it sounds like that isn't the case. Great group here knows all I appreciate the responses.
So to summarize it sounds like Lancaster Police is encrypted so not able to listen, LVAC is on SaiNet and not worth the trouble. So am I correct that the rest of the local fire is on UHF and a good old Analog scanner will work in the area? All she wants to do is know where the sirens are going. Nothing more sophisticated than that. She lives by Bowmansville station 2 so the sirens peak her curiosity.

Thanks for the info

Within Erie County, the ONLY fire that went digital is BNIA CFR, onto SaiaNet from a 800 EDACS system. LE, that's a whole different story....

 

[Wackyracer]

Lancaster fire is Analog UHF, LVAC is DMR, PD is DMR Encrypted....get any analog scanner or spend the big money to get one that also does DMR.

 

[Trbogeek]

Any truth that E. Aurora PD, W. Seneca PD, and Lancaster PD, are going on Saianet?

 

[ak716]

Well, a little digging into the EA board minutes from last month, they just signed a contract which spells out they are going to SaiaNet.

Didn’t find anything yet for the other agencies

 

[Wackyracer]

What frequency is Bowmansville F3?

 

[Nysff]

What frequency is Bowmansville F3?

Same as Lancaster F3 - 453.8875

 

[BusDriverDave]

Ok Folks need a bit of help here, I'm in Monroe County so I have an SDS 100 because of the Simulcast, Works great here.
Have a mother in Lancaster NY that would like a scanner to hear the activity around there. She would like to listen into, Lancaster Police, Lancaster Fire, Depew Fire, Bowmansville Fire, Lancaster Ambulance and so on. Really nothing beyond the immediate area.
The question is what radio is best for this area and these departments? I know the old VHF doesn't cut it anymore, so I need to step up.
Let me know your thoughts please.


TKS

Lancaster PD us encrypted.

 

[sallen07]

Lancaster PD us encrypted.

Yes, we told the OP that in May.