Scanning San Mateo + Santa Clara counties questions

[chainsawman]

I'm building an SDR with some friends for a project. We want to listen to San Mateo County Sheriff and EMS, whatever police dispatch is available (like Palo Alto). Anyone able to help with a few questions as we get started?

1. Will tuning to the San Mateo County P25 System frequencies get us everything from county sheriff, fire, ems, Palo Alto PD, Daly City PD, etc?

2. Generally, when setting up the radio how do we know whether or not our homes are within range to pick up signal? Do we just look at the map of tower sites and if we're within the bubble, we should be good? Anything else to consider like surrounding environment?



3. Similar questions for Santa Clara. I know a lot of it is encrypted, but if we wanted to pick up county fire, how do we know if we should be tuning for the West, Central, or South Simulcast Cell (or something else entirely?)

Thanks for helping some radio newbies!

 

[officer_415]

The San Mateo County P25 system will get you Sheriff and EMS. Start with the countywide simulcast cell, the other sites provide fill-in coverage for specific areas, mostly in the western part of the county.

Fire and Daly City PD are on separate conventional frequencies.

Palo Alto PD is on the Silicon Valley Regional Communications System (SVRCS), west simulcast cell.