Lower Easter Shore Frequencies!!!

[scannercrzy]

Hi,
I'm so glad I found this forum before I totally lost my mind! I'am living in Somerset County,Maryland,which have recently gone into 800MHz trunked EDACS system. Others like the sheriff & local pd have gone digital.I rushed out and bought the radio shack pro96 and do not have a clue as to what to do with it.I'm so used to using the old scanners that you just enter the frequency and you hear it.I feel so stupid!! I have tried to follow the instructions in the manual but still don't hear anything but those loud control channels.I have scanned all the police/fire bands and can't find anybody,digital or otherwise.Can someone please email me or post some EASY step by step instructions for a IDIOT like me to try and comprehend!I have most all of the frequencies that they use but am not sure of the order they need to be in.I NEED HELP SOON !! I'm already tempted to give up and take this back to radio shack.We just want to hear out local police-fire ambulance!!!
Thanks so much for any expert advice !!

 

[ka3jjz]

Well if Somerset has converted over fully to the 800 mhz system, no scanner - not even the PRO-96 - will be able to listen to it. The last word I had - and it may not be totally accurate - is that the system used by the county is an EDACS Pro-Voice system. Anyone with any updates? Brian T.? It would also be helpful to know if the old fire dispatch freqs have changed; many Maryland communities that have moved their systems to 800 did just that.

What little information that the site has on Somerset county can be found here.

I'm not entirely sure what else is around you; I've never been to the lower Eastern Shore. If you're reasonably close to the Virginia border, with a good antenna, that might be a possibility. But first, you need to get 2 things - a programming cable (GRE is now even selling a USB cable) and a program called Win96.

This is important - Do Not let some otherwise well meaning RS employee sell you the wrong cable; the 20-289 cable is the only one RS sells that will work. In addition, don't let them program the radio for you. Most of them don't know how to properly do it anyway.

You can find links for GRE, Win96 and the 20-289 RS cable (in case you need to order it online) here

73s Mike

 

[scannercrzy]

Shore Frequencies!!

Thanks for replying so quickly!! The old fire channels HAVE changed.Police-Fire-Ambulance were on 46.18 & 46.24 only.With those two frequencies you could hear everything.Now i've found Somerset Central Dispatch on 155.6625 but they are also transmitting on 854.9625*855.4875*857.2125*895.9625*860.9625 with the first two being the alternating control channels.We can't find the police anywhere,have been told they are digital but we thought our new scanner would pick them up!
Okay I have the cable,downloaded the program win96 had no IDEA what to do next because after many attempts could not acces the HELP FILE!! I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle here!! THANKS AGAIN!

 

[ka3jjz]

For software questions like this, if no one answers here, jump on over to the Radio Shack or Scanning Software forums; more than likely someone has run into your problem and has a solution. Be sure to put something in the title that mentions your problem specifically; that way it will stand out a bit.

Be sure to submit those changes (the 46 mhz freqs being gone, and the new 155 mhz freq) to the database team so the Somerset page can be updated. If you find other freqs for the area, be sure to also supply them. We've not gotten a lot of reliable info from Somerset, so any changes would be welcome

73s Mike

 

[WCRadioGuy]

I have the answers as I installed the system.


Somerset paging freqs have changed and you hear them on 800 because the VHF is patched to the 800.

You will not hear ANY police on 800 because they are ProVoice digital and there is no scanner available to decode ProVoice.

If all you want to listen to is police, take the scanner back. If you want to listen to fire and county roads, keep it.

 

[ka3jjz]

Is that new 155.6625 fire dispatch freq narrowband? The allocation would seem to suggest this; it would be only the 2nd such allocation I know of, aside from the ones Kent County has 73s and thanx Mike

 

[WCRadioGuy]

Yes, the new freq is narrowband.

 

[scannercrzy]

Lower Eastern Shore Frequenies!!

Thanks to WCRADIOGUY!!!
I really appreciate you answering that question,we have been thinking it was the scanner or our antenna or us being idiots. We could here parts of the conversations(bits & pieces)!
Its really so miscellaneous and broken up that its not even worth trying to hear whats going on.
OKAY SO WHAT CAN WE BUY TO HEAR EVERYTHING !!!

Also is it neccessary to have a "digital" scanner to hear fire & ambulance calls or would a plain trunk tracker work just as well?

Thanks so much for any info!!!

 

[maus92]

Scannercrzy, what WC is saying is that the 800 EDACS ProVoice system used by the Somerset Co. Police uses a proprietary digital scheme which cannot be decoded by any commercially available receiver, scanner or otherwise, period. You are out of luck if you want to hear the police.

As for Somerset Fire, you can monitor the VHF freq. for dispatch, the Ops channels appear to be only the 800 system. My question is does the FD 800 system also use ProVoice, or are they analog?

CA
Annapolis

 

[scannercrzy]

Lower Shore Frequencies

I'm thinking that they must be switching around on what they are using,except for the police which must be in provoice permanently,because I have all the frequencies,trunked and otherwise programmed in my PRO96 and when Central dispatches a fire or ambulance call I can hear sometimes both sides of the conversation and other times only one side.I'm thinking about just taking the new scanner back because it was just too expensive to be only able to hear broken information.I mean whats the use to have a scanner if you can't hear the police calls at all and only some parts of the fire and ambulance calls.
Everybody around here is so UPSET by the new system,people have been listening to their scanners for YEARS and now they are just CUT OFF!! There was a elderly lady from Deal Island who came into Radio Shack when I was purchasing the PRO96 and was literally FLIPPING out because she could not here anything either and she had purchased & returned 2 different scanners because she had been told first she needed trunking and then she needed digital trunking and none of these will do any better for us than the OLD models we had. Who knew a little county like Somerset would go so HIGH TECH!!

 

[WCRadioGuy]

The FD is on the same system as police but are analog. The new VHF is patched to the 800 so there is no need to program the VHF in the scanner but it doesn't hurt to have it there.


By the way, it was the counties decision to make the police ProVoice.

 

[maus92]

Scannercrzy - have you checked the LCN order on your scanner? That may be one reason why the analog FD transmissions are broken up. Just a thought....

CA
Annapolis

 

[WCRadioGuy]

Scannercrzy - have you checked the LCN order on your scanner? That may be one reason why the analog FD transmissions are broken up. Just a thought....

CA
Annapolis

Thats true. I believe most radioshack scanners start with channel 0. You have to start trunked programming with channel 1.