Scanning while on Interstate 95- multiple states

[imonitorit]

Nowadays is it a waste of time programming and using a scanner while on a I-95 road trip through several states? Does anyone have or had any experience with this?

I was thinking of a putting together a list of each state's DOT, highway patrol, fire/ems, skywarn, state & national mutual aid frequencies to program for the trip.

Years ago when most radio systems were analog and on VHF lo-hi & UHF it was pretty easy to listen to the activity. I have used apps like WAZE & google maps, (my wife has the job of "co-pilot" so I don't risk taking my eyes off the road) but being able to hear the activity ahead is a good backup to this.

Thanks for any input.

 

[kb3isq]

Nowadays is it a waste of time programming and using a scanner while on a I-95 road trip through several states? Does anyone have or had any experience with this?

I was thinking of a putting together a list of each state's DOT, highway patrol, fire/ems, skywarn, state & national mutual aid frequencies to program for the trip.

Years ago when most radio systems were analog and on VHF lo-hi & UHF it was pretty easy to listen to the activity. I have used apps like WAZE & google maps, (my wife has the job of "co-pilot" so I don't risk taking my eyes off the road) but being able to hear the activity ahead is a good backup to this.

Thanks for any input.

You can't beat having a scanner that has GPS capability as it adds and drops systems as you travel.

 

[trentbob]

I'm curious, you never mentioned what states. I-95 goes through Pennsylvania. I-95 is patrolled by the Pennsylvania State Police who are encrypted, there is a short area through Bensalem Township in Bucks County and they Patrol I-95 but they are... encrypted. While in the city limits of Philadelphia I-95 is patrolled by the city of Philadelphia Highway Patrol. The talk group for them would be the T band on their Phase 1 simulcast system and they are in the clear even though they have encryption available to them on tac channels.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

If you make it northeast, Delaware State Police dispatch talkgroups are in the clear (for now). Soon to change though, further discussion on that here. Delaware County, PA are still running their antiquated T-band conventional channels here. As Bob mentioned above me, Philly is still mostly in the clear here. if you monitor air traffic control, tune into Philly International Airport. Plenty of comms at KPHL, which I-95 runs parallel to! I'd recommend making sure your scanner's database is up to date before departing and using GPS if your scanner supports it is strongly encouraged so you don't need to fiddle around with it as you drive. Drive safely!

 

[imonitorit]

I'm curious, you never mentioned what states. I-95 goes through Pennsylvania. I-95 is patrolled by the Pennsylvania State Police who are encrypted, there is a short area through Bensalem Township in Bucks County and they Patrol I-95 but they are... encrypted. While in the city limits of Philadelphia I-95 is patrolled by the city of Philadelphia Highway Patrol. The talk group for them would be the T band on their Phase 1 simulcast system and they are in the clear even though they have encryption available to them on tac channels.
[/QUO

Florida to Massachusetts primarily.

 

[imonitorit]

If you make it northeast, Delaware State Police dispatch talkgroups are in the clear (for now). Soon to change though, further discussion on that here. Delaware County, PA are still running their antiquated T-band conventional channels here. As Bob mentioned above me, Philly is still mostly in the clear here. if you monitor air traffic control, tune into Philly International Airport. Plenty of comms at KPHL, which I-95 runs parallel to! I'd recommend making sure your scanner's database is up to date before departing and using GPS if your scanner supports it is strongly encouraged so you don't need to fiddle around with it as you drive. Drive safely!

Thanks. Unfortunately, no GPS scanner, no digital (real old school) and I'll be pre-programming the banks. I remember when PA law enforcement was mostly VHF-hi and had a blast when in the Pocono's.

 

[trentbob]

I hear you, I'm old-school myself but have had to adapt to whatever I was involuntarily forced to do, then I did it... As a news guy I only listen to very few things at a time but they are relevant to the immediate area that I am in.

To navigate I-95 including the agencies that police the roadway itself and then try to follow fire and other services you are in you are past the incident before you know it and because of exits available to you, would have no access to it anyway. You basically want to know the law enforcement that's on the road at the mile marker you're at at the time. Unfortunately most of it is encrypted but you still would need to know the area, to know, as you pass, from one jurisdiction to another.

If you know exactly where you're going and you research it well and talk to locals, depending on the particular area of the interstate that you will be traveling Oh, you can map it out pretty well as long as you do have your co-pilot with you.

 

[KK4JUG]

(Best) Bottom Line: GPS

 

[brian]

In South Carolina, along I-95, there won't be a whole lot to listen to. The vast majority of Public Safety radio traffic on the state is carried on Palmetto 800, which is the state-wide P25 digital trunked radio system. This includes SCHP and most, if not all, county and local law enforcement agencies.

You could program some fire department tone-out frequencies in a few counties along the way. Jasper, Beaufort, Bamberg, Orangeburg, Clarendon, Williamsburg, and Dillon Counties all still use VHF analog convention frequencies for that purpose. I'm not sure about Berkeley and Dorchester Counties as they recently migrated all public safety services to Palmetto 800 and may no longer be toning out calls on VHF. I'm also not sure about Florence County.

SC DOT primarily operates on low-band VHF. However, that's just road crews and wouldn't be particularly interesting or helpful for travel information. DOT operates a highway emergency response service called SHEP, but they also operate on Palmetto 800.

 

[buddrousa]

Nowadays is it a waste of time programming and using a scanner while on a I-95 road trip through several states? Does anyone have or had any experience with this?

I was thinking of a putting together a list of each state's DOT, highway patrol, fire/ems, skywarn, state & national mutual aid frequencies to program for the trip.

Years ago when most radio systems were analog and on VHF lo-hi & UHF it was pretty easy to listen to the activity. I have used apps like WAZE & google maps, (my wife has the job of "co-pilot" so I don't risk taking my eyes off the road) but being able to hear the activity ahead is a good backup to this.

Thanks for any input.

Why not do it the easy way USE A UNIDEN x36 or SDS WITH GPS. Problem Solved.

 

[fredva]

Without digital, I think you are going to miss a lot of stuff you would otherwise be able to hear. NC Highway Patrol is digital and Virginia State Police as well as the Virginia Safety Service Patrol operate on digital. Local fire and rescue are going to be a mix - some jurisdictions will be all digital, some will have their dispatch channels or paging on analog and incident traffic on digital, and some others will be totally analog.

Not that you'd hear everything even with a digital scanner - some units are dispatched with MDTs, keeping traffic off the radio.

 

[kc4jgc]

As others above has said, your analog scanner is useless now. You may hear Maryland State Police on low band and maybe on county trunked systems, but that's about it. The state and some counties are transitioning to 700 MHz TDMA. South of the Potomac, Everything I know (VA, NC, SC) is all digital. I assume GA is as well; FLSP is digital encrypted. Looks like Waze is your new best friend.

 

[trentbob]

To the original poster, I have to admit when you replied that you were old school and didn't have a GPS scanner I totally missed your comment about having an analog only scanner. I realize it now from some of the other posts. I don't know how I missed it but I did. Honestly you might as well leave the scanner at home, coming up 95 through Pennsylvania and Points North, even though a lot of police is encrypted now to hear anything else like fire or whatever, your analog scanner is definitely going to be worthless in the I-95 corridor. Sorry if I misled you. I just didn't see that comment until now. I'm an old-school guy also but not that old school lol.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

Nope here in Maryland I95 is patroled by Maryland State Police and the MD Transit Authority Police and they are on the Maryland 1st Respond system which is a phase 2 digital system covering the whole state. They no longer use the low band vhf radios and you can find the low band radios for sale on govdeals.com. On I495 the Washington,VA and MD Beltway which goes all the way around Washington DC ,it is 66 miles long, yes I have driven a full circle around it and that is patrolled by MSP and Virginia State Police. MD Does have its Chart safety trucks patrolling as well to assist motorist that have broken down on the beltway and all of I 95 as well.

 

[RichardKramer]

I don't know how busy the interop V-tac, U-tac, 800-tac freqs are along the I95 areas; but here in Berks Co PA the interop Tac freqs are used by outside County agencies when responding to incidents in Berks Co. Maybe you can get some use on your analog scanner out of those freqs.

Rich

 

[jonsmth]

Nowadays is it a waste of time programming and using a scanner while on a I-95 road trip through several states? Does anyone have or had any experience with this?

I live in Western Massachusetts and a native of Eastern NC. I usually make a couple of trips to NC every year to visit family and friends. I own a Radio Shack PRO-668 (converted to a Whistler WS-1080). On a few occasions I have spent time prior to my trip to NC Programming NY, NJ, DEL, MD, VA and NC State Police frequencies. I've had relatively good success in NY, good reception in Northern NJ but not so much in Southern NJ. No success in DEL and MD, marginal success in VA and marginal success in NC. Since a majority of the State Police sites are now Trunked systems of one type or the other, I've come to realize that my lack of success is most likely attributable to simulcast issues and lack of an external antenna. At my home in MA, I live about 1.5 miles from a COMIRS tower, so simulcast there is not an issue at all for me. Therefore, I've elected not to spring for a Uniden SDS-100/200, which to my understanding is the only scanners on the market that can combat simulcast issues. As for programming while driving, I can't even imagine! That would most likely end up in an accident! The previous post about scanners with GPS would certainly be a great benefit while travelling!

 

[motorcoachdoug]

There is also the G4 and G5 pagers/scanners that could be preprogrammed before you left on your trip but then depending on how many states you travel thru there might not be enough zones or channels for you to use depending on how you want to set it up..

 

[fredva]

No success in DEL and MD, marginal success in VA and marginal success in NC. Since a majority of the State Police sites are now Trunked systems of one type or the other, I've come to realize that my lack of success is most likely attributable to simulcast issues and lack of an external antenna.

Virginia State Police operate on a VHF multi-site trunked system, not a simulcast trunked system. My Pro-18 converted to a WS-1080 receives well on this system, as long as I have a VHF-friendly antenna next to the window or external to the vehicle. Some other statewide systems, such as North Carolina's, are a combination of multi-site trunking in less-populated areas and simulcast sites around metro areas. You're going to have simulcast challenges with that radio but with statewide systems, I would lean more toward antenna placement, assuming programming is correct.

 

[imonitorit]

To the original poster, I have to admit when you replied that you were old school and didn't have a GPS scanner I totally missed your comment about having an analog only scanner. I realize it now from some of the other posts. I don't know how I missed it but I did. Honestly you might as well leave the scanner at home, coming up 95 through Pennsylvania and Points North, even though a lot of police is encrypted now to hear anything else like fire or whatever, your analog scanner is definitely going to be worthless in the I-95 corridor. Sorry if I misled you. I just didn't see that comment until now. I'm an old-school guy also but not that old school lol.

No problem. I appreciate your input. Looks like WAZE & CB channel 19 (as long as I can stand the usual banter) is the way to go.

 

[trentbob]

You won't have any problem in my area which is where 95, 295, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the New Jersey Turnpike meet with any noisy banter on CB. Even though it is a major trucking hub the CB radio channel 19 will be quiet as a church mouse. Nothing. I can't remember the last CB antenna on an 18-wheeler and as I say I live in a heavy Trucking area with lots of industrial parks. I know it will be used in many parts of the country on 95 but in my area which once was very heavy with CB for decades, it is no longer used and very very quiet. We do have a lot of truck stops and even the lot lizards don't use CB to ply their trade anymore LOL.

There are some pockets of VHF and UHF analog, some communities will rebroadcast our Phase II simulcast County system fire radio on low-power VHF repeaters but as I was saying you would have to get off of 95 at a specific proper exit and then navigate the local area to hear this stuff. 95 does go right through my County.

If you make it as far as Pennsylvania you would just drive on 95 right past the city of Philadelphia as fast as as you can, once a very popular historic tourist destination there is nothing there for you or anyone else. Once you pass Philadelphia, Bucks County where I live is a very nice place to visit if you wanted to plan something, rich in Revolutionary War history, like Washington's Crossing which is right off 95... I would think that would be the end of the line as far as exploring 95... I wouldn't go to points north of Pennsylvania... Enjoy your trip!