Analog to MARCS

[n8aho]

Greetings,
I live in Massillon. To this point our local safety services have been analog soon to go MARCS. I've not kept current on digital because I have not had to. Just two questions for now, is MARCS hard to receive? Secondly is there anyone living in Massillon that is also getting ready for the transition?

Keep me updated?

Jim

 

[budevans]

Jim,

Looking at the RR Database, Massillon has one MARCS-IP tower listed. It's located at the intersection of 9th Street SW and Albrecht Street SW.

Is MARCS-IP hard to receive? It depends on the setup for your county or surrounding counties. There are two configurations.

1st: Single tower with it's own unique frequencies. This setup usually is not a problem. As long as you are within range of the signal.

2nd: Multiple towers acting as one site. Which is called Simulcast. All of the (site) towers carry the same traffic on the same frequencies. Depending on where you live Simulcast can be difficult for consumer scanners to receive.

Since Massillon has just one tower, if you are within range you should be good.

Here's a link to the MARCS-IP database.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6643

There are two parts to the page. First is the Tower/Site listing. Which shows you the tower name, county and frequencies. This list can be sorted by clicking on County as the top of the list.

The second part of the database is the list of users sorted by county. Scroll down to Stark to see what is listed.

I hope this helps.

 

[n8aho]

Thanks,

I am learning more everyday. I am slowly figuring it out. It appears the radio's database was not up to date so I will attempt to make the updates.

 

[Nasby]

Massillon PD has already transitioned to a digital system.
They are on the Stark County 800 system. Massillon Fire will be following soon.

 

[Volfirefighter]

Massillon PD has already transitioned to a digital system.
They are on the Stark County 800 system. Massillon Fire will be following soon.

While both will be on the Stark County system for the time being, you will want to get a scanner that can do MARCS-IP. The Stark County is system is due to become obsolete and is very likely to be merged with MARCS-IP system as this is the most economical option for the county. The oldest, and likely what you will find for the best price used (around $200), are the Radio Shack Pro 197 and the Uniden BCD996T. These were the first digital scanners to cover 700 Mhz which MARCS-IP uses. They do not do P25 Phase 2 which MARCS-IP is capable of, but not likely to be used for some time. A scanner that will allow you to be prepared for P25 Phase 2 will run you more than twice that.