San Jose

[jacklondon]

I've been scanning for a few years with a Radio Shack Pro-91 and upgraded recently to the Uniden BC246T... Does anyone have a good way to set up San Jose area communications? I'm most interested in PD and SO traffic...
Any help for an amatuer in San Jose would be GREATLY appreciated...I'm feeling a little lost and a tad bit overwhelmed.

 

[e63]

Check the database for San Jose. Santa Clara SO has three channels that are APCO-25, you will need a scanner that does digital. I use a 396T to listen to SC SO from the north SF Bay area and have not trouble listening to the SO they put a very strong signal.

 

[trooperdude]

I've been scanning for a few years with a Radio Shack Pro-91 and upgraded recently to the Uniden BC246T... Does anyone have a good way to set up San Jose area communications? I'm most interested in PD and SO traffic...
Any help for an amatuer in San Jose would be GREATLY appreciated...I'm feeling a little lost and a tad bit overwhelmed.

San Jose PD is UHF conventional 460mhz range.

Sheriff's office is half digital APCO P25, so you will need a digital capable scanner.

East and South are conventional VHF, with a 3 site simulcast system with WIDE
area coverage.

West side is P25 digital, 3 site simulcast system.

Car-car Frequency 3 is also digital P25, as are the court deputies.

You also have 800 trunking (Santa Clara city PD and Fire), but not much else
in the county is trunked yet.

Transit is LTR trunk if you're into that.

Most other departments are conventional.

Not much digital.. yet.

I have San Jose in it's own bank since it's so busy, "other" PD local and Sheriff in
a separate bank, and fire in it's own scan bank.

I also have ems in it's own bank since it too can get really really busy and I lock
it out frequently.

YMMV

 

[ScannerDude244]

I use a 396T to listen to SC SO from the north SF Bay area and have not trouble listening to the SO they put a very strong signal.

yeah SC SO comes in clear here in Soledad good strong signal.

 

[trooperdude]

yeah SC SO comes in clear here in Soledad good strong signal.

Their transmitters are simulcast.

One on Copernicus peak, next to Mt. Hamilton
One on Rodoni, in the Santa Cruz mountains
and One above Anderson Lake in Morgan Hill

Plus a bunch of in-fill sites.

Mt. Hamilton is 4,000ft elevation

I could hear them in Placer County when I visited years ago.

 

[scankid2591]

View attachment Santa Clara Conv.usd

heres my .usd for all of santa clara county. enjoy.

 

[jacklondon]

View attachment 6648

heres my .usd for all of santa clara county. enjoy.

This may be naive...or...ignorant...
but what is a .usd and how do I use it?

 

[landsknechte]

SCSO travels far and wide, as does SJPD 9 for some odd reason (comes in loud and clear in Santa Cruz, while nothing else from SJPD does). Depending on where you are, Santa Clara PD may or may not come in well. The signal doesn't travel all that far afield.

Also, you might want to "close" the banks that have the SJPD freqs, as there are a few departments in the general area (Berkely and Salinas) that use the same frequencies with different PL tones.

 

[trooperdude]

Sjpd 9

San Jose 9 is the "all city" channel, so it has high-level coverage.

That's why you can hear it far and wide. It's designed that way.

Some of the other channels are going to heavy down-tilt on their
antennas for exactly the reason that other agencies in the bay area
use the same frequencies with different tones.

 

[radio10-8]

San Jose 9 is used when travelling out of SJPD jurisidction. It is a part of the voting reciever network SJ uses but it also has a repeater on County building at 70 W hedding and in South County so YES you can hear it in Central county and passed San Francisco. since halfd the dept lives in Hollister or Salinas or Gilroy the emphasis onb coverage in SJ9

 

[radio10-8]

SJ01 (NORTHSIDE) Dist Robert, Victor & David--(Airport) 460.150
SJ02 (WESTSIDE) DIST NORA & FRANK --460.275
SJ03 (NORTH & EASTSIDE) DIST MARY & WILLIAM --460.200
SJ04 ( EASTSIDE FOOTHILL) DIST CHARLES & PAUL--460.425
SJ05 (DOWNTOWN) EDWARD & KING --460.400
SJ06 (CENTRAL) LINCOLN & SAM --460.325
SJ07 (SOUTHERN) ADAM &TOM --460.475
SJ08 (SOUTHERN) XRAY & YELLOW --460.525
SJ09 CITYWIDE --460-100
SJ10 BAYMACS --460.025
SJ11 CAR TO CAR --460.050
SJ13 MOTORCYCLE TO MOTORCYCLE, SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT TRAFFIC --460.175

CONTROL1 SANTA CLARA CO SHERIFFS OFFICE 156.210

 

[radio10-8]

you should program sj12, sj14, sj15 and sj16 into your scanner. You will hear officers working payjobs talking about the girls at the clubs or traffic controls. Some of these operate on unreapeated frequency so you will have to be close to hear them. Think the Arena, christmas in the park or parades. Most good comms are done via the MDT in chat session. Control 1 is all of San Jose and Morgan Hill & Gilroy, Most code 3 fill requests from CHP go on Control1 due to it covering hy 101, hy 87, hy 680 & hy 280. Besides who wants to hear Cupertino, Los Altos or Saratoga calls anyway!

 

[trooperdude]

Dont' forget SJ 17 too.

APCO P25 digital used by MERGE and street crimes.

Of course most of the comms there now are encrypted (Trish's parting shot.. LOL), but a lot of the time they forget to push the encrypt button and half of it is in the clear.

Sometimes they completely forget to encrypt.

And I agree, the tac channels make for some entertainment.. especially during Grand Prix.

Hey Los Altos Hills has crime (snicker), and there's a lot of stuff happening at Moffett off-base housing that's covered by the S/O as well.

Here are some more for San Jose:
Police Tactical 1 Special Events SJ 13 460.175 PL 186.2
Police Tactical 2 Training coordination SJ 14 460.300 PL 203.5
Police Tactical 3 SJ 15 460.375 PL 203.5
Police Citywide 1 direct SJ 16 460.100 PL136.5
Police ASTRO SJ 17 453.650 P25 digital
Police Special Events SJ 18 460.3625 PL 110.9

Also there is a rumor that MERGE has 220Mhz trunking radios in a cache, but I think those are dead with the advent of NexTel.