State of Idaho 700 MHz IIMARS
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The 700 MHz Idaho System is also digital and the only options are to get one of the digital scanners from Uniden, GRE or Radio Shack. The older scanners such as the Pro97 are analog only and won't receive 700 MHz even if it were analog.
Dave
I don't know anything about the Yaesu. I have a 396XT and really like it. It works well on the digital systems in Idaho as well as uhf/vhf stuff. And it's nice and compact.
The Boise area seems to have the most Law enforcement encryption. Bingham, Power and Bannock have none. Bonneville, Jefferson, Madison, Teton & Fremont have some. The main dispatch TGs seem to be unencrypted, but tactical TGs are usually encrypted. Fire is not encrypted. I don't know about Blaine since nobody has input anything and I'm too far away to hear anything.
Depending on where you are, I think Jerome County will have their part of the system operating soon from Flat Top Butte. .Good luck with your desision.
Dave
The Boise area seems to have the most Law enforcement encryption. Bingham, Power and Bannock have none. Bonneville, Jefferson, Madison, Teton & Fremont have some. The main dispatch TGs seem to be unencrypted, but tactical TGs are usually encrypted. Fire is not encrypted. I don't know about Blaine since nobody has input anything and I'm too far away to hear anything.
Depending on where you are, I think Jerome County will have their part of the system operating soon from Flat Top Butte. .Good luck with your desision.
Dave
CC encrypted
Canyon County as we all know is fully encrypted and not due for any changes. Gang activity has created the need for this, and stats so far show local gangs as expected cannot mointor LE Comms and arrests are going up due to no more "radio tip-offs"
Canyon County as we all know is fully encrypted and not due for any changes. Gang activity has created the need for this, and stats so far show local gangs as expected cannot mointor LE Comms and arrests are going up due to no more "radio tip-offs"
Sophocles
Member
Iimars - vs - icawin
Gentlemen,
Sorry, but I am totally confused about the two systems listed in my title. Are these two systems the same? I used to see IIMARS listed on RR a couple years ago, then in place of that I started seeing ICAWIN and EICAWIN. I no longer see IIMARS on RR, but the thread is referring to IIMARS. What am I missing here?
Gentlemen,
Sorry, but I am totally confused about the two systems listed in my title. Are these two systems the same? I used to see IIMARS listed on RR a couple years ago, then in place of that I started seeing ICAWIN and EICAWIN. I no longer see IIMARS on RR, but the thread is referring to IIMARS. What am I missing here?
Idaho changed the official name from IIMARS to ICAWIN. They are one in the same, but this thread was started before the change, thus IIMARS. You will still see some people refer to the system as IIMARS, but there is only one statewide 700 MHz system, whatever you want to call it.
Dave
asimpleclick
Member
Blain county idaho
does anyone know a good scanner to listen to the police stations in blain county . they have switched to some new system any information on this system would be appreciated also. Or anywhere I can listen online to the police/ems stations . do I have to have a digital scanner to get there frequencies? And if anybody knows the frequencies that would be helpful. Any help would be nice.
Thank You
does anyone know a good scanner to listen to the police stations in blain county . they have switched to some new system any information on this system would be appreciated also. Or anywhere I can listen online to the police/ems stations . do I have to have a digital scanner to get there frequencies? And if anybody knows the frequencies that would be helpful. Any help would be nice.
Thank You
Sophocles
Member
asimpleclick,
Blaine County is showing as part of the ICAWIN System. Blaine Regional has a Talk Group of 45106 and Blaine County Law and Fire/EMS are Talk Groups 7800, 7801 and 7811. There are more likely other Talk Groups, but you can only find them using an APCO 25 digital scanner with Wildcard capabilities. You do need a digital scanner to hear them, so select one of the new ones. Portables have their advantages, like the Home Patrol, GRECOM PSR 800 and the Uniden BC396XT. The only radio I know that has Wildcards is the PSR 800. Home Patrol may be coming out with that capability in their new firmware releases (both free and paid) so check their website or send them a message on their forum, located on their website. I use the Home Patrol as base and mobile in my Prius and at home and mobile I use Spectrum Force wideband antennas (from Scanner master) and they both work great. The Home Patrol has less interference from my Prius electrical System than the PSR 800, but both are great radios. I know very little about the BC396XT, but I have heard it is a very good radio and requires you to program it manually unlike the Home Patrol and PSR 800 that use the RR database and do not require actual programming. You sound like you are new to this hobby or have very little experience, so I would say you would be a perfect candidate for the Home Patrol or PSR 800. If you do not care about finding new Talk Groups and want to rely on other people to find them and update the RR database, then go for the Home Patrol - you will love it! If you want to be on the cutting edge of finding new Talk Groups then go for the PSR 800.
Blaine County is showing as part of the ICAWIN System. Blaine Regional has a Talk Group of 45106 and Blaine County Law and Fire/EMS are Talk Groups 7800, 7801 and 7811. There are more likely other Talk Groups, but you can only find them using an APCO 25 digital scanner with Wildcard capabilities. You do need a digital scanner to hear them, so select one of the new ones. Portables have their advantages, like the Home Patrol, GRECOM PSR 800 and the Uniden BC396XT. The only radio I know that has Wildcards is the PSR 800. Home Patrol may be coming out with that capability in their new firmware releases (both free and paid) so check their website or send them a message on their forum, located on their website. I use the Home Patrol as base and mobile in my Prius and at home and mobile I use Spectrum Force wideband antennas (from Scanner master) and they both work great. The Home Patrol has less interference from my Prius electrical System than the PSR 800, but both are great radios. I know very little about the BC396XT, but I have heard it is a very good radio and requires you to program it manually unlike the Home Patrol and PSR 800 that use the RR database and do not require actual programming. You sound like you are new to this hobby or have very little experience, so I would say you would be a perfect candidate for the Home Patrol or PSR 800. If you do not care about finding new Talk Groups and want to rely on other people to find them and update the RR database, then go for the Home Patrol - you will love it! If you want to be on the cutting edge of finding new Talk Groups then go for the PSR 800.
Those Blaine TGs were some that I heard while I was in Twin Falls in June. The only Blaine site I had programmed into my 396XT was the Bellevue site, so there may have been traffic on the other Blaine sites that I didn't hear. The three listed TGs were all I heard and identified in about 2 hours of listening. Rather few and far between and not very active.
I would agree that a GRE PSR-800 or Uniden HP-1 might be best for a new to the hobby listener. I believe the next HP-1 update will implement the ID Search mode capability. The 396XT has ID search which is the same as the PSR-800 wildcard system.
A GRE PSR-500 would probably be the cheapest option to monitor the Blaine part of the 700 MHz system, but would require software (WIN500) to program it. The PSR 500 also would work fine on the Blaine system. Idaho Cooperative Agencies Wireless Interoperable Network (ICAWIN) Trunking System, Statewide, Idaho - Scanner Frequencies
Dave
I would agree that a GRE PSR-800 or Uniden HP-1 might be best for a new to the hobby listener. I believe the next HP-1 update will implement the ID Search mode capability. The 396XT has ID search which is the same as the PSR-800 wildcard system.
A GRE PSR-500 would probably be the cheapest option to monitor the Blaine part of the 700 MHz system, but would require software (WIN500) to program it. The PSR 500 also would work fine on the Blaine system. Idaho Cooperative Agencies Wireless Interoperable Network (ICAWIN) Trunking System, Statewide, Idaho - Scanner Frequencies
Dave
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Guys, I'm doing some planning for my trip. I took a look at the FCC ULS listings and I'm trying to figure something out.
Under Ada County's FCC ID, this has the listings for Boise, Shafer Butte and Table Rock. Boise/TR are the same freqs but the Shafer Butte isn't the one listed in the database.
Now, I happen to check out Canyon county next and there's a sub-list for Shafer Butte that matches the database. So if that's the case, then what is the Ada county version? The freqs are different. Any ideas?
Here they are:
1 769.09375
2 769.54375
3 770.04375
4 770.58125
5 771.18125
6 771.63125
7 771.94375
8 772.39375
9 772.54375
10 772.84375
11 772.99375
Under Ada County's FCC ID, this has the listings for Boise, Shafer Butte and Table Rock. Boise/TR are the same freqs but the Shafer Butte isn't the one listed in the database.
Now, I happen to check out Canyon county next and there's a sub-list for Shafer Butte that matches the database. So if that's the case, then what is the Ada county version? The freqs are different. Any ideas?
Here they are:
1 769.09375
2 769.54375
3 770.04375
4 770.58125
5 771.18125
6 771.63125
7 771.94375
8 772.39375
9 772.54375
10 772.84375
11 772.99375
The Ada County part of the ICAWIN is a simulcast on several sites using the same frequencies on each site. Program the control channel(s) shown in the database.
Canyon County also has a separate transmitter on Shafer Butte as part of the ICAWIN Canyon county system with different frequencies and control channel. Some Ada county traffic may actually be multicast on both the Ada and Canyon county systems. It's really just one big system with some interties between sites.
For best results program all of the sites(control channels) in the Boise area. Hope that is clear.
Dave
Although I don't have any inside info. it's probably money issues. Each county has to have a plan for becoming part of the statewide system, but if a county hasn't already secured federal grant money to help out in the process, that federal money has probably dried up. The state has funded some money for transmitter sites to fill in gaps in the statewide system such as Schweitzer Mtn in Bonner county and Mt Harrison in Cassia county, even though Cassia county has no immediate plans to join the system that I'm aware of.
Dave
Yep that's likely the case. After posting that message, I also didn't realize that Elmore county is pretty limited in terms of population (minus MH AFB.) But since they have their own infrastructure, it probably wasn't a very good investment for them. Who knows, that may change in the future. Upgrading systems isn't cheap.
new member question
Hi all. My name is Hal. I live in Nampa Id. I took up the scanning hobby about 2yrs ago, and for starters had purchased an older radio shack analog Pro 39. At the time i could pick up several police frequencies in my general area. Then a several months back, except for public safety and state police, the local enforcement broadcasts were/are no longer accessible on my scanner.
I had been considering an upgrade to a quality digital scanner but not so sure that would solve the problem now as the messages at the group seem to indicate that any scanners for public use are not capable of receiving the type broadcasts that the state is adopting.
Please advise, as Scanner Master advertises several quality scanners which offer (in confusing terms to me), a wide variety of decoding applications which seem to suggest they do it all.
Thanks, Hal.
Hal
Hi all. My name is Hal. I live in Nampa Id. I took up the scanning hobby about 2yrs ago, and for starters had purchased an older radio shack analog Pro 39. At the time i could pick up several police frequencies in my general area. Then a several months back, except for public safety and state police, the local enforcement broadcasts were/are no longer accessible on my scanner.
I had been considering an upgrade to a quality digital scanner but not so sure that would solve the problem now as the messages at the group seem to indicate that any scanners for public use are not capable of receiving the type broadcasts that the state is adopting.
Please advise, as Scanner Master advertises several quality scanners which offer (in confusing terms to me), a wide variety of decoding applications which seem to suggest they do it all.
Thanks, Hal.
Hal
Hal.
No digital scanner will receive the encrypted 700 MHz channels.
Some of the Boise area law channels, such as main dispatch, on the 700 MHz system are still unencrypted, I believe. See the database for which channels are unencrypted(D) and which one are encrypted(E) in the Boise area.
Idaho Cooperative Agencies Wireless Interoperable Network (ICAWIN) Trunking System, Statewide, Idaho - Scanner Frequencies
Look here for a information on the various digital scanners.
Category
igital Scanners - The RadioReference WikiAll of the following will work on the unencrypted 700 MHz cahannels.
Uniden
BCD396XT (handheld)
BCD996XT (desktop, mobile)
Home Patrol-1 (Desktop, mobile)
GRE
PSR 500 (handheld)
PSR 600 (desktop, mobile)
PSR 800 (handheld)
Radio Shack
Pro-106 (handheld)
Pro-197 (desktop, mobile)
NOTE: I believe the RS Pro-106 will be on sale on Black Friday for $299.00.
Dave
Go-West
Member
Hi Hal,
I lived in SE Boise until last June. I have one of the GRE-PSR 500's. It worked great monitoring Ada County and city of Boise. The main dispatch with BPD and ACSO was in the clear. I was able to listen to some of the activity in Canyon County, mainly some fire and rescue activity. In Ada County I was able to monitor Idaho State Patrol, they use the 460 Mhz band. Also, you might be able to monitor Ada County Fire and Rescue. They use the 150 Mhz band.
I hope this helps a little bit.
I lived in SE Boise until last June. I have one of the GRE-PSR 500's. It worked great monitoring Ada County and city of Boise. The main dispatch with BPD and ACSO was in the clear. I was able to listen to some of the activity in Canyon County, mainly some fire and rescue activity. In Ada County I was able to monitor Idaho State Patrol, they use the 460 Mhz band. Also, you might be able to monitor Ada County Fire and Rescue. They use the 150 Mhz band.
I hope this helps a little bit.
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