Restrictions to Public Agencies and Police Frequencies in Central Florida

[kj4qk]

I live in Central Florida and am considering buying a scanning radio. I wonder if the hobby is worth it due to the structure of the Central Florida frequencies and the limited access to police and other emergency agencies. I would be interested in comment from experienced Central Florida scanners.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Although I'm not an "experienced Central Florida scanner" I feel I can weigh in:
Let's have a look at the database shall we? If by "limited access" you're referring to encryption, I'm not seeing any encryption on your county's system linked below so that's good news. If talkgroups were encrypted here they'd be listed as mode "DE" rather than "D". So my advice to you is check the database for the counties you want to scan. Fully encrypted talkgroups have an uppercase "E" suffix (as in "DE", "TE" "P25E" for conventional, etc) Partially-encrypted would have a lowercase "e" (De, Te, etc). Hope this helps

Seminole County Trunking System, Sanford, Florida

Seminole County Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

With that said if you're looking for a scanner recommendation, go with a Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 as you'll likely experience simulcast distortion monitoring this system with anything else if you're within listening range to two or more simulcasting towers

 

[Bolt21]

Seminole County is mostly clear for now. Orange County LE is encrypted, with FR in the clear.

As far as scanners go, get a Uniden SDS100 (handheld) or SDS200 (base). Due to simulcast issues, don't waste your money on anything else.

If you want to go the pager route for talkgroup monitoring, the Unication models are hard to beat.