Waukesha County

[gthomas40]

Any idea what type of scanner to buy for Waukesha County? I was under the impression that if I got a digital trunking scanner it won't work with analog. And then I heard there are many different digital systems as well.

 

[jmsanders83]

Hi,

You definitely want to buy a digital-capable scanner. A digital scanner will work with analog.

If you buy an analog-only (non-digital) scanner, it will not work with digital.

You want a digital scanner because Waukesha County agencies are moving from the analog Waukesha County trunked radio system to OASIS (digital system) soon. Also, WISCOM (the radio system used by state agencies, like WSP) is digital.

Anything here will work:
Digital Police Scanner Radios

Happy scanning,
Josh

 

[Fvdberge]

I just bought the BCD325P2 and uploaded the Waukesha OASIS. After the upload I had an error "no APCO Band Plan". I am getting radio traffic but every couple of seconds or so the receptions drops out for a fraction of a second. Any suggestions?

 

[jmsanders83]

I just bought the BCD325P2 and uploaded the Waukesha OASIS. After the upload I had an error "no APCO Band Plan". I am getting radio traffic but every couple of seconds or so the receptions drops out for a fraction of a second. Any suggestions?

Hmm. You shouldn’t need to enter a band plan for OASIS.

You entered OASIS as a P25 trunked system? Not somehow as an analog trunked system?

Pages 51-52 of your manual talk about how to enter a band plan, but I don’t understand why you would need one.

The forums at https://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Uniden_Band_Plan_Entry also mention that a band plan shouldn’t be needed for P25 trunked systems.

 

[Railcon51]

That's funny because my bcd325p2 isnt working right on oasis either I get hiccups such as one way transmissions at times when parked on a talkgroup or when on scan I tried many antennas and looked at my settings and put all frequencies in properly so im wondering can somebody come over to show me whats wrong I got so frustrated that I ended up putting it for sale on craigslist its not even a few weeks old so I dont know what to do unless somebody would be kind enough to come out to my place and show me what to fix it any help would be much appreciated.

 

[KD4YGG]

Here is what I have used for the BCD325P2 with good results, both stationary and while mobile.

REMEMBER THAT DIGITAL IS NOT ALWAYS PERFECT.
GARBLED TRANSMISSIONS MAY BE THE SYSTEM NOT NECESSARILY THE SCANNER.
ANALOG HAS STATIC, DIGITAL HAS GARBLED/DROPPED TRANSMISSIONS.

YOUR RESULTS MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE SAME.

1) Program Waukesha County as a P25 system.
2) Program only the Waukesha County site.
3) Program ONLY the main control channel frequency (the red one) - no others
4) No band plan is needed
5) Program Site Hold to 2 seconds
6) Program P25 Threshold to Manual 6
7) Program in the OASIS shared and Waukesha County talkgroups of interest
8) Don't program in anything related to the Milwaukee County portion in this system.
9) Set Digital AGC to OFF


Program in the Milwaukee County portion as a completely separate system.

1) Program Milwaukee County as a P25 system.
2) Program only the Milwaukee County site.
3) Program ONLY the main control channel frequency (the red one) - no others
4) No band plan is needed
5) Program Site Hold to 2 seconds
6) Program P25 Threshold to Manual 6
7) Program in the OASIS shared and Milwaukee County talkgroups of interest
8) Don't program in anything related to the Waukesha County portion in this particular system.
9) Set Digital AGC to OFF

I use a Diamond RH3 Mini-Bullet stubby antenna with this set up. It's a small (2" tall) antenna I picked up at Ham Radio Outlet.

I have no experience with other scanners on this system.

 

[Railcon51]

I did that and now it seems to be doing a little better except I think the dispatcher is a little fast on the mic at times it lands on the talk group after a unit calls in so I dont know if its a p25 wait time issue or what I dont have experience with p25 trunking. Also I got a 4" laird EXC806BNX 800mhz antenna Tessco Part # 41763 it seems to do way better at pulling in the system I did a bit of field testing in milwaukee county and surrounding areas and was also able to even pull in the Ozaukee co trs as well better than my friends mini mag antenna on the car roof I do recommend the 4" 800mhz antenna for experimenting. Also my responses are a bit delayed im having issues on this site when I go to the forums page either on my phone or computer its really slow and sometimes fails to work and redirects me back to the main radioreference page or gives me an error saying Oops! We ran into some problems. Please try again later. More error details may be in the browser console. so if anyone can please help me that would be awesome thanks to all for your excellent help as im just learning about p25 scanning since the county went to oasis I live in waukesha county and its gonna take me sometime to get used to digital as I have been used to the old analog legacy system.

 

[KD4YGG]

Thanks for the information on the antenna!

 

[Fvdberge]

jmsanders, thanks for the quick reply. It appears to be working fine w/o the band plan and I believe the short dropouts I was experiencing were caused by the Close Call feature. When I turned this off, this issue went away. Over the weekend I will try the other member's suggestions.

Any suggestions on how to organize the Waukesha and Milwaukee talk groups? Waukesha has more than the 20 I seem to be able to upload. Do I upload Waukesha in two batches and then merge them in one P25 system?

 

[jmsanders83]

Ah, ok. Good. I 100% agree with what KD4YGG said above. I think there is value in separating the system into two sites. Especially if you just feel like listening to one or the other sometimes, it is easier to do so that way. Outside of that, it really boils down to what you care about listening to and personal preference.

 

[Fvdberge]

Thanks for all your help. I added the settings recommended by KD4YGG and have two MOT type II/P25 sites uploaded (MKE and Waukesha) and for now added all city GRP's.

I do have two questions.
1. Although I have all OASIS groups loaded (in two systems), at times I get a Talkgroup numerical code (eg. 2325) instead of the programmed "West Allis Police Dispatch". I have noticed it gives MKE system numerical codes when the scanner is scanning Waukesha and vice versa. Any suggestions?

2. I live in Brookfield. If I just want to scan City/Town Brookfield, Elm Grove and Wauwatosa and temporarily skip the rest, how do I accomplish this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[KD4YGG]

It sounds like you created only one system with two sites. That's not really recommended.

Program these as P25 and NOT Motorola (MOT) systems.

You should create TWO COMPLETELY SEPARATE systems.
System 1 for Milwaukee County, with JUST the Milwaukee County site main control channel.
System 2 for Waukesha County, with JUST the Waukesha County site main control channel.

Recommend these two systems and their associated site Quick Key be DIFFERENT to allow easy switching the systems on or off depending on what you want to listen to.

For System 1, program in ONLY the OASIS Mutual Aid/Shared talk groups and the Milwaukee County talk groups of interest.

For System 2, program in ONLY the OASIS Mutual Aid/Shared talk groups and the Waukesha County talk groups of interest.

Don't program Milwaukee County talk groups on the Waukesha County system.
Don't program Waukesha County talk groups on the Milwaukee County system.

Even though SOME talk groups can roam between the two counties, that's not always guaranteed from a monitoring perspective. It will be hit and miss depending on user radios being affiliated to the Milwaukee County site or Waukesha County site.

Programming them separate and keeping them separate is the easiest and least confusing way to keep things straight from a monitoring perspective.

As to listening to only one particular city/town, program those into different GROUPS and assign the FUNCTION+QUICK-KEY numbers (as you see fit) to easily enable/disable those groups of interest.

Also sounds like you are ID SEARCHING versus ID SCANNING. After programming, select ID SCANNING.

Best piece of advice is to READ THE OWNER MANUAL !

 

[Fvdberge]

Thanks KD4YGG. You're correct, I need to read the manual but it does not talk about how to program the OASIS system of course. As to your comments, I am doing a ID SEARCH and will try SCANNING to see what the difference is (I'll check the manual),

I do believe I programmed two seperate SYSTEMS; one for MKE and one for Waukesha. Both are TRUNKED SYSTEM SETUP and are of the "Mot Type II/P25" type in the FREESCAN software. That's how they imported from RadioReference. Should that be changed to P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT)?

 

[jmsanders83]

Thanks for all your help. I added the settings recommended by KD4YGG and have two MOT type II/P25 sites uploaded (MKE and Waukesha) and for now added all city GRP's.

I do have two questions.
1. Although I have all OASIS groups loaded (in two systems), at times I get a Talkgroup numerical code (eg. 2325) instead of the programmed "West Allis Police Dispatch". I have noticed it gives MKE system numerical codes when the scanner is scanning Waukesha and vice versa. Any suggestions?

2. I live in Brookfield. If I just want to scan City/Town Brookfield, Elm Grove and Wauwatosa and temporarily skip the rest, how do I accomplish this?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, what KD4YGG said would accomplish what you're trying to do.

Create a Milwaukee County system with 853.525 as the control channel. It wouldn't hurt to also program the alternate control channels just in case - 853.1625, 853.6125, 853.6375. Use ID SCANNING mode, not ID SEARCH, very important - otherwise your scanner will stop on everything it hears, not just the specific channels you're interested in.

Under this system, store the TGID's you're interested in, Wauwatosa, so mostly:

1073 431 DMCWUPDDISPWauwatosa Police Dispatch Law Dispatch ​

1075 433 DMCWUPDTAC1Wauwatosa Police Tac 1 Law Tac ​

1077 435 DMCWUPDTAC2Wauwatosa Police Tac 2 Law Tac ​

1079 437 DMCWUPDTAC3Wauwatosa Police Tac 3 Law Tac ​

1081 439 DMCWUPDTAC4Wauwatosa Police Tac 4 Law Tac ​

1083 43b DMCWUPDTAC5Wauwatosa Police Tac 5 Law Tac ​

1085 43d DMCWUPDTAC6Wauwatosa Police Tac 6 Law Tac ​

1087 43f DMCWUPDAGWauwatosa Police Announcement Law Dispatch ​

1089 441 DMCWUPDTAC7Wauwatosa Police Tac 7 Law Tac ​

1111 457 DMCWUWU1Wauwatosa Citywide Public Works ​

2161 871 DMCWUFDDISPWauwatosa Fire Dispatch Fire Dispatch ​

2163 873 DMCWUFDTAC1Wauwatosa Fire Tac 1 Station Alerting Fire Dispatch ​

2165 875 DMCWUFDTAC2Wauwatosa Fire Tac 2 Officers/Inspectors Fire-Talk ​

2167 877 DMCWUFDTAC3Wauwatosa Fire Tac 3 Fire-Tac ​

2169 879 DMCWUFDAGWauwatosa Fire Announcement Fire Dispatch ​

1357 54d DMCFDPAGCCounty Fire Page Area C Fire Dispatch ​

2051 803 DMCFIRECALLCounty Fire Calling Interop ​

2053 805 DMCFIRE1BCounty Fire 1 Bravo Interop ​

2055 807 DMCFIRE2BCounty Fire 2 Bravo Fire-Tac ​

2057 809 DMCFIRE3BCounty Fire 3 Bravo Fire-Tac ​

2181 885 DMCFIRE4BCounty Fire 4 Bravo Fire-Tac ​

2183 887 DMCFIRE5BCounty Fire 5 Bravo Fire-Tac​

Create a separate Waukesha County P25 system with 853.7125 as the control channel. Add the alts just in case - 853.1375, 853.350, 853.6875. Again, use ID SCANNING mode, not ID SEARCH.

Under this system, store the TGID's you're interested in, Brookfield/Elm Grove, so mostly:

58909 County Fire Page/Alert Fire Dispatch ​

58910 County Fire Dispatch A Fire Dispatch ​

58911 County Fire Dispatch B Fire Dispatch ​

58912 County Fire Dispatch C Fire Dispatch​

58914 County Area 1 Law Dispatch Law Dispatch ​

58920 County Area 1 Law Ops Law Talk ​

58928 County Fire 1 Fire-Tac ​

58929 County Fire 2 Fire-Tac ​

58930 County Fire 3 Fire-Tac ​

58931 County Fire 4 Fire-Tac ​

58932 County Fire 5 Fire-Tac ​

58933 County Fire Call Fire Dispatch ​

58934 County Law Enforcement Tac 1 Law Talk ​

58935 County Law Enforcement Tac 2 Law Talk ​

58936 County Law Enforcement Tac 3 Law Talk ​

58937 County Law Enforcement Tac 4 Law Talk ​

58942 Flight Comms EMS Dispatch ​

58101 Brookfield Wastewater 1 Public Works ​

58102 Brookfield Water 1 Public Works ​

58103 Brookfield Emergency Management 1 Emergency Ops ​

58104 Brookfield Emergency Management 2 Emergency Ops ​

58105 Brookfield Fire Tac 1 Fire-Tac ​

58106 Brookfield Public Works ​

58107 Brookfield Park and Rec 1 Public Works ​

58108 Brookfield Public Works ​

58109 Brookfield Police Tac 1 Law Tac ​

58110 Brookfield Public Works ​

58111 Brookfield Highway 1 Public Works ​

58112 Brookfield Police Tac 2 Law Tac ​

58660 Town of Brookfield Administration Public Works ​

58661 Town of Brookfield Fire Tac 1 Fire-Tac ​

58662 Town of Brookfield Fire Tac 2 Fire-Tac ​

58663 Town of Brookfield Parks Public Works ​

58664 Town of Brookfield Police Tac 1 Law Tac ​

58665 Town of Brookfield Police Tac 2 Law Tac ​

58666 Town of Brookfield DPW 1 Public Works ​

58667 Town of Brookfield Sanitary Public Works ​

58401 Elm Grove DPW / Fire Paging Multi-Dispatch ​

58402 Elm Grove Fire Dispatch Fire Dispatch ​

58403 Elm Grove Fire Tac 1 Fire-Tac ​

58404 Elm Grove Fire Tac 2 Fire-Tac ​

58405 Elm Grove Police Dispatch Law Dispatch ​

58406 Elm Grove Police Tac 1 Law Tac ​

58407 Elm Grove DPW Public Works​

It would be a good idea to store the systemwide talk groups under both sites for mutual aid type events:

1301 OAGTAC1 (Incident Stabilization) Interop ​

1303 OAGTAC2 Interop ​

1305 OAGTAC3 Interop ​

1307 OAGTAC4 Interop ​

1365 OAAIRMD1 Air Medical 1 EMS-Talk ​

1367 OAAIRMD2 Air Medical 2 EMS-Talk ​

1371 OAIFERN2 Fire Dispatch ​

1403 OALAWCALL Interop ​

2059 OAIFERN Fire Dispatch ​

5000 OACHASE Interop ​

5005 OAGTAC5 Interop ​

5006 OAGTAC6 Interop ​

5007 OAGTAC7 Interop ​

5008 OAGTAC8 Interop ​

5009 OAGTAC9 Interop ​

5010 OAGTAC10 Interop ​

5011 OAGTAC11 Interop ​

5012 OAGTAC12 Interop ​

If you want to be able to listen to other agencies when you're interested in listening to more, there are a few ways you can accomplish that.
1) Use AVOID on specific channels to temporarily skip these other channels for now (very time consuming process though)
2) Create another profile on your scanner. One for your local interests and one that has everything.
3) Create an additional Milwaukee County system and Waukesha County system with everything in them. Then leave those systems on AVOID until you want them.

You may already know this, but I would also program 154.430 in a separate conventional system since City/Town of Brookfield and Elm Grove FD all tone out on that frequency.

 

[jmsanders83]

Thanks KD4YGG. You're correct, I need to read the manual but it does not talk about how to program the OASIS system of course. As to your comments, I am doing a ID SEARCH and will try SCANNING to see what the difference is (I'll check the manual),

I do believe I programmed two seperate SYSTEMS; one for MKE and one for Waukesha. Both are TRUNKED SYSTEM SETUP and are of the "Mot Type II/P25" type in the FREESCAN software. That's how they imported from RadioReference. Should that be changed to P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT)?

Keep this how it is. P25 One Freq Trunk is for a different situation.

 

[Fvdberge]

Thanks to both for all the advise. Scanner is now working the way I want it.

 

[MasterAce]

Any idea what type of scanner to buy for Waukesha County? I was under the impression that if I got a digital trunking scanner it won't work with analog. And then I heard there are many different digital systems as well.

I was gonna ask you the same thing. LOL I listen to your Waukesha City feed and love it. I wanted to know what scanner model is that. It sounds great.

 

[Fvdberge]

I am using the BCD325P2. Works great in Waukesha and Milwaukee.

 

[MattB02]

Does anyone know if the Uniden BCT15X BearTracker Mobile would work?

 

[InspireWaukesha87]

Sorry not anymore, all operations have migrated to OASIS the Milwaukee, Waukesha County regional Trunked radio system, there are only a few things that are conventional like fire page 154.430 county fire page, Mukwonago PD 159.150