Scanning in Marion County/Ocala area

[NeedtoKnow2]

I have a Uniden Patrol II scanner that is picking up NOTHING in the Ocala region. I have 591 frequencies programed among several dozen agencies in a four county area within 20 miles. Someone on the Uniden forum said that many agencies are encrypted, implying that I won't hear anything on any radio.
How true is that statement? Are scanner's mostly useless in Marion County?

Here is my programmed list:

Natl Interagency Fire Center - USA	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Itinerant Businesses - USA	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
National Interagency Fire Center - USA	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Public Safety - USA	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Alachua	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Citrus	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Hernando	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Lake	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Levy	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Marion	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Business	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Businesses	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Common/Shared	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Department of Environmental Protection	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Department of Transportation	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Division of Emergency Management	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Forest Service	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
FL Medevac	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Utilities	Off	Conventional	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Alachua County - Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRUCom Project	Off	P25 X2-TDMA	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Basic Two-Way Radio (Williston)	Off	LTR	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Citrus County Public Services	Off	Motorola	Off	Off	Ignore	NAC Search
Citrus County Public Services (P25) System	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Duke Energy (Florida)	Off	Motorola	Off	Off	Ignore	NAC Search
Gainesville / Alachua County	Off	Motorola	Off	Off	Ignore	NAC Search
Hernando County	Off	Motorola	Off	Off	Ignore	NAC Search
Marion County FL Public Safety	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Ocala Public Safety	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Public Safety Interoperable Communications Network (PSIC)	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Reidy Rhodes and Taylor Communications (Gainesville)	Off	LTR	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System (P25)	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Sumter County Public Safety System	Off	P25 Standard	Off		Ignore	NAC Search
Tri-Co Communications (The Villages)	Off	LTR	Off		Ignore	NAC Search

 

[whooey]

What are the "off" columns? Are the scanlists enabled? I do know you cannot pickup Alachua county until you are north of Hwy 326.

 

[NeedtoKnow2]

What are the "off" columns? Are the scanlists enabled? I do know you cannot pickup Alachua county until you are north of Hwy 326.

Most of the "Offs" are "Avoid". The others are "ID: Search" and "Emergency Alert".

It is scanning. It cycles through the scan list about every 8 seconds. Over 500 frequencies in the list.

I did hear my first words from the scanner for 1 second, twice, after having it on this morning for two hours. It was too quick to see what agency it was. It's activity here is non-existent compared to the rural areas of the North Carolina mountains.

If the scanner is working and I have it set up properly, how much activity should I expect to hear in the Ocala/Marion County region?

 

[edweirdFL]

My first impression is that list is long enough that it's going to be easy to miss things if you are trying to scan all of that at the same time. Most of what I have programmed is not in your area but here are some I have heard.

FL Forest Service 159.270 Orlando Dist 91.5 PL
FL Forest Service 159.450 Bunnell Dist 100.0 PL

Will your scanner pickup the National Weather Service station(s)?

 

[khvfdff]

Marion county and Ocala are all encrypted and that also includes Lake County. Not sure about Sumter County. Alachua County you won’t hear until north of CR 326. Putnam County, you may or may not hear depending on their vhf reception. Volusia is monitorable, not sure how their range is, meaning how far into Marion County they read. Local Forestry is about the only thing you will hear and maybe the occasional hospital communication on the UHF med channels. But that’s about it.

 

[NeedtoKnow2]

My first impression is that list is long enough that it's going to be easy to miss things if you are trying to scan all of that at the same time. Most of what I have programmed is not in your area but here are some I have heard.

FL Forest Service 159.270 Orlando Dist 91.5 PL
FL Forest Service 159.450 Bunnell Dist 100.0 PL

Will your scanner pickup the National Weather Service station(s)?

Yes, it does. One faint and one stong.

 

[NeedtoKnow2]

Marion county and Ocala are all encrypted and that also includes Lake County. Not sure about Sumter County. Alachua County you won’t hear until north of CR 326. Putnam County, you may or may not hear depending on their vhf reception. Volusia is monitorable, not sure how their range is, meaning how far into Marion County they read. Local Forestry is about the only thing you will hear and maybe the occasional hospital communication on the UHF med channels. But that’s about it.

Thanks. That pretty much explains why I get one very brief hit every 30 minutes or so. I probably need to dwell on hits more than a second or two.

 

[phask]

The main county system is Simulcast (as well as most being ENC). HP will not do well on a Simulcast system.

Marion County Public Safety Trunking System, Ocala, Florida

Marion County Public Safety Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

 

[greggk]

Just my opinion, but, first, it certainly sounds like you know what you are doing. No doubt there. But if you increase dwell time, won't that then make for longer scan times.? Like others have said, try cutting down the list a bit. Can you just turn off favorites lists? I don't have the same scanner so I'm not sure. I agree that you should hear something, but possibly the sheer number of channels you are monitoring, plus possible simulcast and encryption problems, could make life not so good.

As you know, encryption cannot be heard ever. If there are simulcast issues, you may have to buy a SDS model. I just got my old system up and running in York, and find out we are heavily simulcast here; there goes money for a SDS100.

And, I just thought of something, albeit a little bit out there. Perhaps if you went to the broadcast web sites, and attempt to monitor what you are looking for, perhaps that will give you some info as to what you can/cannot monitor. Just a suggestion. FWIW. Good Luck; I know its frustrating. Greg

EDIT. I just saw Phask's post above me. I wasn't trying to copy his idea.

 

[NeedtoKnow2]

Just my opinion, but, first, it certainly sounds like you know what you are doing. No doubt there. But if you increase dwell time, won't that then make for longer scan times.? Like others have said, try cutting down the list a bit. Can you just turn off favorites lists? I don't have the same scanner so I'm not sure. I agree that you should hear something, but possibly the sheer number of channels you are monitoring, plus possible simulcast and encryption problems, could make life not so good.

As you know, encryption cannot be heard ever. If there are simulcast issues, you may have to buy a SDS model. I just got my old system up and running in York, and find out we are heavily simulcast here; there goes money for a SDS100.

And, I just thought of something, albeit a little bit out there. Perhaps if you went to the broadcast web sites, and attempt to monitor what you are looking for, perhaps that will give you some info as to what you can/cannot monitor. Just a suggestion. FWIW. Good Luck; I know its frustrating. Greg

EDIT. I just saw Phask's post above me. I wasn't trying to copy his idea.

I cut my stations down to below 100. Scan time is 5 to 7 seconds for scanning those stations. The "dwell time" as I understand it, is the duration on that frequency once the radio stops on a transmission. I don't get a "hit" on a broadcast but once every 10 to 15 minutes, so that increased dwell time does not slow down the scanning unless there is a hit on a broadcast which in my case isn't very often.

 

[greggk]

You could be very right about dwell time. I thought dwell time was the time the scanner stayed on a frequency before moving on, talk or not. I've been wrong before. Greg