What the heck happened to Burlington County?

[jbitzer]

I noticed that as of 6/12/11 the Burlington County Police/Fire/EMS system in NJ has been completely revamped. The number of talkgroups went from 60 something to 201! It wouldn't be a bad thing if I had a newer digital scanner that could accommodate a large system like this but I am working with a BC796D with 100 TG per bank and need to use 3 entire banks to fit the entire system in.

I'm still learning with this scanner and have probably not even touched some of the units capabilities but can somebody tell me (and please don't laugh if this is a stupid question) if the TGID's have to correspond with the frequencies in the same bank? In other words, if I put the frequencies in bank 3, can I start entering the TGID's in the first bank if there is available space? Not sure if once it hits an active frequency, it will start scanning all TGID no matter what bank it's in.

Anyone have any ideas on how to best monitor this system without taking up 3 banks to do it with this scanner?

Thanks!

 

[W2GLD]

The system was updated with all talkgroups that actually have existed for sometime and know one had taken the time to update. There are still more to be added; however, keep in mind that not all of these are active 100% of the time. I would make a group for each zone (i.e. North, North-East, North-West, etc.) and then one just for the the countywide items you are interested in. With the BC796, that's going to work out best for you.

These updates were completed because they should have been a long time ago, but now with the introduction of scanners such as the Uniden Home Patrol and GRE PSR-800, updates now become more critical than ever.

Keep an eye out as more are coming in the next couple of weeks for Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, Cumberland, Atlantic, Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks, etc.

Happy scanning!

Jerry - W2GLD

 

[DJ88]

If I understand your question correctly, you have to put the talk groups in the same bank as the frequencies. To use the northeast zone as an example, when dispatch or one of the units from that zone transmits on a talk group, the transmissions are sent out over one of the assigned frequencies for that zone. If you have the northeast zone frequencies programmed in bank 3, and some of the talk groups programmed in bank
1, you won't hear anything on them because none of the frequencies for that zone are programmed in bank 1.

 

[Monoxide16]

It looks like Gloucester Co is usuing the 400 Mhz will burlington co also be doing this

 

[W2SJW]

It looks like Gloucester Co is usuing the 400 Mhz will burlington co also be doing this

Highly doubtful. If anything, they would shift to a 700MHz Phase-II system if DTV interference got that bad that they have to abandon 500 MHz.

Thank god that type of interference hasn't affected Somerset County (they're sticking with 470/500 during their P25 upgrade).

 

[W2GLD]

It looks like Gloucester Co is usuing the 400 Mhz will burlington co also be doing this

Not likely; however, there is talk of Burlington County and the consideration of a 700Mhz. system in the future, but it's not likely it will be anytime soon...

 

[Monoxide16]

good thank god 4 that lol i still here washington twp and glassboro and a coupld other zones on the 500 MHz does any1 know when the will fully switch over and if we will be able 2 here them.And thanks 4 all the info

 

[W2GLD]

good thank god 4 that lol i still here washington twp and glassboro and a coupld other zones on the 500 MHz does any1 know when the will fully switch over and if we will be able 2 here them.And thanks 4 all the info

Bear in mind, these changes for Gloucester County are only temporary; their license runs out on 07/2011 but will likely be extended for at least a little while until they get their affairs in order.

Do not be surprised is you start hearing the rumblings of a trunked radio system coming to Gloucester County in the coming months!

Enjoy the monitoring in New Jersey while it's here; massive changes are in the works within the next 5 years. I will finish this comment with this; expect full-time encryption for most public-safety agencies moving forward...

 

[Danny6569]

Burlington county

It looks like Gloucester Co is usuing the 400 Mhz will burlington co also be doing this

Burlington county wont be changing anything soon! they just put the digital system they have in now about 10 years ago, and spent millions on it so its not going anywheres soon!

 

[Danny6569]

Burlington county

I noticed that as of 6/12/11 the Burlington County Police/Fire/EMS system in NJ has been completely revamped. The number of talkgroups went from 60 something to 201! It wouldn't be a bad thing if I had a newer digital scanner that could accommodate a large system like this but I am working with a BC796D with 100 TG per bank and need to use 3 entire banks to fit the entire system in.

I'm still learning with this scanner and have probably not even touched some of the units capabilities but can somebody tell me (and please don't laugh if this is a stupid question) if the TGID's have to correspond with the frequencies in the same bank? In other words, if I put the frequencies in bank 3, can I start entering the TGID's in the first bank if there is available space? Not sure if once it hits an active frequency, it will start scanning all TGID no matter what bank it's in.

Anyone have any ideas on how to best monitor this system without taking up 3 banks to do it with this scanner?

Burlington county has a lot more talk group ids than whats posted in here! the east and southwest and south and south central and south east all use a bunch of talk group ids also, and plus the county too, so theres a lot more to be posted!

 

[W2SJW]

Anyone here that's downloaded my FreeScan file for my 396XT can see what this system truly has set itself up as. I limit myself to PD, FD, EMS, & OEM & I'm at 211 talkgroups already.

There is so much more assigned for public works & local government usage that's not even shown here yet! My friend from Moto that oversaw the admin side of the system deployment politely warned the county about building a system that you can 'get lost' in like this, but they were set in their ways about how they wanted to do it.

Anyone else remember the older TGID listings for the Nassau County 800MHz EDACS system? This is almost as bad as that. Plenty of places to go hide & have a private chat...

EDIT - the system came on-line in 2004, so it's only about 7 years old at this point...

 

[jbitzer]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Rather than take up 30% of the scanlist in my 796D with all of burlington county I decided to just monitor the W and NW zones for Law and Fire/EMS. I actually live in Camden county but these two zones border the camden county/burlington county line where I am.

I see by the DB that Camden county is testing a P25 Phase II system so it looks like the end is near for monitoring county traffic but it may be some time until they are all online.

 

[W2GLD]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Rather than take up 30% of the scanlist in my 796D with all of burlington county I decided to just monitor the W and NW zones for Law and Fire/EMS. I actually live in Camden county but these two zones border the camden county/burlington county line where I am.

I see by the DB that Camden county is testing a P25 Phase II system so it looks like the end is near for monitoring county traffic but it may be some time until they are all online.

You have plenty of time before the Camden County system goes into affect. They are still in the process of installing towers and haven't even applied for 700MHz. frequencies as of 06-15-2011; so they are probably still a year or two away from actually fully implementing this new system, and they still have to get buy in from all of the agencies throughout the county. $5000 per radio is a tough nut to swallow in this economy; especially since the county just laid-off dispatchers and other personnel.

As for Burlington County, I would concentrate you're programming on the CW Police/Fire channels in one bank, NW & W Fire Response 1-4, NW & W Police Channels.

As for the tower sites; if you are stationary, you only need to program the NW tower control channels as this is the hub for the system. NW will carry everything you want to hear for along the Route 73 Corridor...

Good luck and happy monitoring!

 

[Highpockets]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Rather than take up 30% of the scanlist in my 796D with all of burlington county I decided to just monitor the W and NW zones for Law and Fire/EMS. I actually live in Camden county but these two zones border the camden county/burlington county line where I am.

I see by the DB that Camden county is testing a P25 Phase II system so it looks like the end is near for monitoring county traffic but it may be some time until they are all online.

With the (GRE) PSR800 you may be able to monitor the new Phase II system, we'll have to wait and see if that is possible when the system is up and running (and not encrypted) and someone with the 800 checks it out.

 

[kd5bff]

JBitzer, I used to have my radio set up like this. In the first bank I had loaded the PD and Fire TG's for the area where I live (P-7, NE). Then I had all the fire in another bank and the rest of the PD in yet another bank, sorta how yours seems to be set up. This was a huge pain to me to monitor so I did a total revamp and set it up according to zones, like W2GLD suggested. I made a little cheat sheet that I keep in handy on how things are set up. Bank 0 is all the NE stuff and bank 1 is west, etc. I basically set it up from where I live and and the further out from my location, the further down the line it goes. I have all the information for the East and South TG from the fire side. I will be posting that soon, as I notice it comes and goes in the database. I did do some consolidating when I set it up, for instance I combined East within the NE because Pemberton and Woodland back each other on fire calls. I can email you a listing on how I have things set up if you would like. Since I did the revamp, it is so much easier to track things. As I go into another zone, I punch a button and there is just that area. It is so awesome. I do plan on loading up some of the new stuff that was published just this past week and see if I truly like it. I run all RS scanners so unfortunately, I can't send you my radio file but I can send you a spreadsheet. I always knew there had to be a ton more talkgroups out there for BC, but didn't have a reliable way of getting them. If you want to look at a system that is a nightmare to program, look at Delaware's statewide system. I used to go down there from time to time, and I just gave up trying to get it the way I wanted it. I also noticed district 46 and a couple of others are on P-7 now instead of P-4, along with districts 18 &19. Can anyone confirm any other changes. At first I thought it was a system issue that, but that usually comes and goes. This has been permanent for the last week. If anyone can help me out on this, I would appreciate it so that I can update my districts on my cheat sheet.

 

[jeff]

New Hanover (38 units) & North Hanover (46 units) PD's have switched to NE P-7 from N P-4 with the move of Bordentown Twp to Central. Also look for more TG's to be disabled due to non usage. IMO as a user of the system I'm glad to have many TG's for use. When I started in the fire service here back '71 we had one VHF freq for alerting and usage. FYI most sites carry all of the R-1 TG's.

 

[wnjl]

New Hanover (38 units) & North Hanover (46 units) PD's have switched to NE P-7 from N P-4 with the move of Bordentown Twp to Central. Also look for more TG's to be disabled due to non usage. IMO as a user of the system I'm glad to have many TG's for use. When I started in the fire service here back '71 we had one VHF freq for alerting and usage. FYI most sites carry all of the R-1 TG's.

Wow, great news! I am indeed hearing 32 units on P-4 now.

 

[jbitzer]

As for the tower sites; if you are stationary, you only need to program the NW tower control channels as this is the hub for the system. NW will carry everything you want to hear for along the Route 73 Corridor...

Sorry for the delay in responding (been inundated with graduation events, work projects, and life's hectic schedule)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the above statement. Are you saying there may be an alternate way to monitor all of BC without the need to program every channel and TGID into my scanner? Could you please provide more detail? Thanks!

Jeff

 

[W2GLD]

Sorry for the delay in responding (been inundated with graduation events, work projects, and life's hectic schedule)

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by the above statement. Are you saying there may be an alternate way to monitor all of BC without the need to program every channel and TGID into my scanner? Could you please provide more detail? Thanks!

Jeff

Jeff, this comment only applies for those along the RT-73 corridor; since North-West & West have become shared zones. For example: if you live in Mount Laurel; you're obviously going to receive the North-West tower signal much better than the Medford tower site. If you wanted to listen to Evesham & Medford Police; simply program these groups alongside the North-West area talkgroups and only monitor the North-West tower and you'll receive everything just fine.

The other way to segment out this system in your scanner is to program each bank as a separate zone and only scan those you'd like to hear at a given time.

For Example:

Bank 1 = North-West
Bank 2 = West
Bank 3 = North-Central
Bank 4 = North
Bank 5 = North-East
Bank 6 = Countywide

Using this method, you can turn each tower site off an on as you see fit, along with it's associated talkgroups. Bear in mind, if your receive signal isn't at least 1/2 to 3/4 for each tower, you may experience digital warble or distortion.

My suggestion, if you are a stationary user, is to program in the tower site that covers your area, it's associated talkgroups, and any neighboring talkgroups you might wish to listen to and you'll be fine.

As a side note, all other towers on this system are intelli-repeaters and only carry traffic when a user is actually on that site.

Areas east of Medford are patrolled by NJSP Troop C and can be heard on their trunked radio system. As for Fire and EMS, they have units out in the East area; but these are seldom heard; however, their talkgroups will be added shortly as well.

Also, make sure when programming these frequencies in your scanner you are selecting "NFM" for the audio setting. This system is a 12.5khz narrowband system, unlike Bucks County, PA which is still a 25.0khz wideband system.

 

[W2SJW]

Actually, it works out like this:

Full Simulcast Sites
Northeast
North
Northwest
West

Intellirepeaters
North Central
East
South Central
South
Southwest
Southeast

This is in the order from 'Site 1' to 'Site 10'...