Philadelphia Analog Scanning Suggestions

[FoleyF]

Hello All-

Does anyone have any recommendations for good analog frequencies to listen to while in Philadelphia? I believe Philly is all digital, with some or all encrypted, so I don't expect to hear very much on my Pro-97. I see some analog frequencies in the database, but wanted to know what you think the best things are to listen to while in the city.

Thanks,

Foley

 

[HM1529]

Hello All-

Does anyone have any recommendations for good analog frequencies to listen to while in Philadelphia? I believe Philly is all digital, with some or all encrypted, so I don't expect to hear very much on my Pro-97. I see some analog frequencies in the database, but wanted to know what you think the best things are to listen to while in the city.

Thanks,

Foley

SEPTA Police dispatch is 502.6875. You can hear some interesting stuff here. SEPTA rebroadcasts Philly PD's "J Band" citywide talkgroup on their dispatch channel, too. Listening to this freq for the first time can be confusing to someone unfamiliar with SEPTA and/or Philly PD. Since the PPD J Band is rebroadcast, it might be stepped on by a SEPTA dispatcher or police officer when they talk. If things are busy on J Band and SEPTA PD is busy, too, it can be tough to parse out all the traffic and make sense of what's happening.

 

[FoleyF]

Good information......what exactly does "J Band" Cover? Anyone else have any other good frequencies?

 

[JRM5204]

J Band is a citywide admin. police talkgroup and all priorty calls get broadcast over J Band. The Inspectors (Issac), Command Inspections (CI Units), Aviation unit helicpters (Tac Air 1 & 2), SWAT (Sam 100 units), Canine Unit (K Kate units), Police Detention Unit (PDU)(Van 1-4) operate off of J.

SEPTA Transit Police have Seven police zones along the Market Frankford Elevated Subway Line (EL) and the Broad Street Line. They use identifiers like

1-7 Command - Zone Shift Commanders (Lieutenants)
Car 1A thru 7A Zone Shift Supervisors (Sergeants)
Car 1 thru 7 - Roving Zone Patrol Cars
Beat 10-79 - Officers assighned beats in there patrol zone
Bike Units - Bicycle Patrol
Charlie Units - Chain of Command (Chief of Police, Captains)
Delta Units - Tactical Units
Kate units K-9 Units

453.4500R PL107.2 is the Philadelphia Intl. Airport Comm Center
Airport Units - Airport Operations Personel
Andy 100 units - PPD Airport Police Unit
Foxtrot Units - PFD Engine 78/Medic 30 ARFF Units

508.2125R PL141.3 is the Philadelphia Housing Police Dispatch

506.9875R PL203.5 is the University of Pennsylvania Police Dispatch

460.4000R PL173.8 is Temple University Police

47.5400P CS HASTE (Trauma Alerts)

Look in the database there are a few 800mhz analog simplex freqs for PPD and PFD I have never heard anything on them but I live outside the city. There is also some analog freqs for the Parking Authority, some other colleges/universities, sports complex etc. that I did not list but I think most are in the database.

 

[ctrabs74]

SEPTA Transit Police have Seven police zones along the Market Frankford Elevated Subway Line (EL) and the Broad Street Line. They use identifiers like

Beat 10-79 - Officers assighned beats in there patrol zone

Often the beat officers will ID with a two-digit number and a letter (ie. Beat 13-A/B/C). I'm sure the A/B/C is a shift identifier, but don't quote me on it.

Delta Units - Tactical Units

The "tactical" units are SEPTA Transit Police investigators (I don't think they're called "detectives" but it's the same concept).

"Sam" units are the transport wagons; "SORT x" are the tactical officers.

The SEPTA Police channel can be a very frustrating channel to listen to at times. There's been more than one occasion when PPD/J-Band puts out a flash on a big job and the SEPTA cops happen to be calling in a ped stop while PPD has their call being rebroadcast. That aside, they're not too highly regarded as an agency, but I'm going to refrain from further comment on that topic...

 

[nursepen]

you should be able to hear camden and gloucester county in new jersey listed in RR data base, camden city should be interesting to hear using Edac in the clear for police. In the data base there are fire buffs groups listed,when they're on the air they do a good job of describing major fires in the air

 

[policefreak]

Welcome to Philadelphia

While in the Philadelphia area, you definitely want to check out Delaware County (especially if you're traveling up 95 from Delaware). It is a completely conventional system, mostly UHF freqs. Check it out on the RR database! It also may be worthwhile listening to Montgomery county. It is an 800 MHz trunked Motorola system, but most of it is analog; most with the exception of a couple digitally encrypted PDs (Upper Merion, Pottstown) and digital Whitemarsh PD. The fire comms are digital, but there are various rebroadcasts on conventional freqs. Even without a digitally capable scanner, there is plenty to listen to in the Philly area.
Welcome to Philadelphia... and Happy Scanning!! {:>D