Kalamazoo Listening

[nxnla]

I have been slowly getting into listening to some frequencies in the Kalamazoo area from my home using a SDR dongle and antenna. It's interesting, but would like to move around more without having to drag my laptop and dongles with me. I'm thinking of a handheld scanner, but I hear that virtually everything worth listening to (Police, Fire, Ambulance) is encrypted on the P-25 system. Is this true? Sorry if this is a newbie question, but before I shell out some $$$ on a decent scanner, I'd like to know I can listen to a wide range of possibilities.

If you are local to Kalamazoo, what do you listen in on a lot?

 

[RayAir]

EMS and Fire are in the clear but all LE in that county are unfortunately encrypted and cannot be monitored. Same with Calhoun.

 

[drdispatch]

As RayAir said, you're pretty much limited to fire & EMS as far as public safety goes. The City of Portage however is still VHF, so you can monitor their PD dispatch. No word yet on if Portage will migrate to MPSCS &/or encrypt LE traffic once consolidation happens, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[nxnla]

Is Plainwell/Otsego encrypted?

 

[drdispatch]

Is Plainwell/Otsego encrypted?

They are not; but they are presently on the Allegan County EDACS system using Pro-Voice, which only a few scanners can receive. Allegan County is in the process of switching to the MPSCS, which should be completed in about a year or so.

 

[nxnla]

Thanks! This is all really NOT encouraging me to invest in a nicer scanner and antenna setup for my home.