Pgpd

[Dave1586]

Prince George's County PD in Maryland just went all digital...they may have also encryped everything....can my Uniden BCD996XT pick these up?

 

[chief34a]

Most of the zones are not encrypted including the sector dispatch and tac TG's. 99.9% are TDMA only TG's so it is my understanding that you won't be able to monitor them with any scanner. There has been posts on other strings about a way to monitor these systems but it is above my head. Hopefully some one else can provide some info on that...........

 

[WA3RTH]

The answer for monitoring PG Police is no. Although most of the talkgroups are NOT encrypted, they are operating in the TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) mode, which presently no manufactured scanner can decipher.

There are a few instances where a Prince George's County Police unit will communicate with another jurisdiction which uses FDMA trunking radios, and when that happens, you could theoretically pickup the transmission on a digital trunking scanner, but those times are so rare that it would not be worth the effort.

Prince George's County Fire units have not switched over to the new TDMA 700 MHz trunking system yet, but will do so next year. When they do, the same rules will apply, although they communicate with outside agencies more often than the police units so the chances of hearing them on a digital trunking scanner will be greater.

On the other hand, once the FD does switch over to the new system, they will simulcast their main dispatch channel on a VHF frequency (possibly 155.685, but that is not confirmed yet) for the benefit of the volunteer firefighters, so you could always listen to the fire dispatch calls on that frequency.

As far as monitoring police transmissions however, you are pretty much S.O.L. with a scanner.

 

[W2NJS]

Another case of interoperability be damned. Surrounding jurisdictions are all on 800 mHz Smartzone. Who thought this one up? Nice going, guys.

 

[WA3RTH]

The Prince George's County radios are 700/800 MHz, and have all surrounding area talkgroups available at the user's fingertips:

Montgomery County
Anne Arundel County
Charles County
Howard County
D.C. (via backend UHF link)
Arlington
Alexandria
Fairfax
University of Maryland
Maryland Park Police
Maryland State Police (College Park & Forestville) (future)
Hyattsville City Police
Riverdale Park Police (future)
Mount Rainer / Bladensburg Police
Greenbelt City Police
Laurel City Police
Prince George's County Sheriff's Department
Prince George's County Dept. of Corrections
RINS
NPSPAC
MAJ INC
and all other Municipal Police Departments in Prince George's County which are dispatched by them

* PG Fire Department will be online next year.

You can't get much more interoperable then that.

 

[ocguard]

Another case of interoperability be damned. Surrounding jurisdictions are all on 800 mHz Smartzone. Who thought this one up? Nice going, guys.

Additionally, certain talk groups are configured such that, if an authorized FDMA-only radio (XTS5000) affiliates, the talk group reverts to FDMA-mode for the duration of the affiliation, allowing designated XTS5000-equipped mutual aid responders to access the system.

 

[W2NJS]

Oops. My error. And I do actually know that 700/800 can be/are done on the same radios. I must have been having a bad night, or day, or whatever.

 

[leonzo]

It may not be all doom and gloom. I said the same thing when Loudoun County VA went TDMA. Fortunately there must be quite a few non TDMA people affilliating with Loudoun County because I can still hear about 75% of the sheriff office traffic and about 95% of fire and rescue traffic. Again it is only because someone with a non TDMA radio is affiliating with Loudoun but there sure beats zero percent listening ability. So don't despair PG listeners, just put the TDMA system in your scanner and actually see how much you do or don't hear.