Scott County Iowa

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Dpipe

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New member here looking for some help. Grew up with a scanner and recently thought it would be neat to listen in again. some 30 years have passed and wow haven things changed. I did a lot of digging on here and have learned a lot but still am having trouble pinning down if my local area's communications are encrypted. I don't want to save my pennies and buy a cool new scanner only to find out I can't hear all of what I wanted. I have looked at the uniden BCD325P2 handheld. How do I know for sure I will hear all my local cities and county police and fire? I have so many questions but I guess I will start with that one. Thanks, Dave
 

Dpipe

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The more I look the more I think that my local area is not encrypted but I did run across this post (below) is that good news or bad news?

mws72

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#1

RACOM has announced that the Public Safety Agencies in the Quad-Cities (Both sides of the river in Iowa/Illinois) will partner with them to build their own P25 system. No details beyond that.
 

N8IAA

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The mystery question is..............Where do you live, and what system/systems are you interested in monitoring??
You need to give specific info to get specific info.


Larry
 

Dpipe

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Sorry, I titled my thread scott county iowa, thought that was what was needed. Im specifically looking at the quad cities area and thats why i pasted that other post in my post. Bettendorf, Davenport Iowa, and Moline, Rock Island Illinois is my area. Looking to monitor police and fire mostly.
Is that specific info?
 

Dpipe

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I also see now that I may be able to use the whistler ws1040. If im figuring things out correctly I think I wold be good with that but am unclear what it would mean if the area went to a P25 system. How long does something like that take to create? Sorry I keep adding on questions but I keep reading and discovering new things. Pretty cool stuff!
 

wtp

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the 325 would be good.
racom says it will eventually migrate to P-25.
and the 325 even does phase 2, P-25, so you should be good for a while.
encryption can happen to anybody anywhere at anytime.
i would not worry about it.
it was supposed to happen in my county in the mid 1990's.
we are still analog.
however we are testing in the 700Mhz, but the audio is in phase 1, data channel is phase 2 as far as i can tell.
so a 325 is in my future.
 

N8IAA

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Sorry, I titled my thread scott county iowa, thought that was what was needed. Im specifically looking at the quad cities area and thats why i pasted that other post in my post. Bettendorf, Davenport Iowa, and Moline, Rock Island Illinois is my area. Looking to monitor police and fire mostly.
Is that specific info?


That's what happens with old eyes;)

Larry
 

N8IAA

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I also see now that I may be able to use the whistler ws1040. If im figuring things out correctly I think I wold be good with that but am unclear what it would mean if the area went to a P25 system. How long does something like that take to create? Sorry I keep adding on questions but I keep reading and discovering new things. Pretty cool stuff!


Considering they are in six states, it could be quite awhile before that happens. For now, the 1040 will work great on the Raycom EDACS system.

Something else to consider, most times when updating to a P-25 system, they will eventually go quiet.

Larry
 

patmcc24

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I live in Savanna IL and can help you with the Scott Co. Trunking..... Control and freqs seem to be those from the Clinton System... I am listening To all Davenport PD and Fire.... as of now along with Eldridge and Bettendorf
 

Dpipe

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Thanks patmcc24, I see that you are a newbie on here as well. Can I ask what scanner you are using. Really leaning toward the whistler 1040 at this point because it is cheaper, do you enough about that scanner to tell me if I would be able to pick up most things in the quad cities with that scanner. As far as I can see from the database on here Davenport is the only one that has some of its stuff encrypted but i may be wrong. Would there be a great advantage in me spending the extra cash and going with the uniden 325P2?
 

Dpipe

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As I have continued to read and learn and chatted with someone at zipscanners I have a better understanding and still more questions. The person from zipscanners said that by looking at the mode section on the database here I will be able to tell if what I am looking at scanning is phase 1 or 2. He also said that EDACS is a phase 2 digital format. So when I go back and look on here I see the RACOM network is EDACS network standard for the system type and the system voice is provoice and analog. What then confuses me is when I scroll down to the talkgroups under mode all that is listed is an A and D, most of them A ( i assume analog). This is under scott county in iowa, I am specifically looking at the bettendorf and davenport police and fire talkgroups along with others but those are the 2 big ones I would like to listen in on. So my confusion is if it is listed as A under mode in the talk group but the systme is EDACS, is it digital or analog? Im still trying to figure out how much money I need to spend on what kind of scanner if I want to get back into this hobby from when I had a simple radio shack scanner growing up.
 

patmcc24

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Thanks patmcc24, I see that you are a newbie on here as well. Can I ask what scanner you are using. Really leaning toward the whistler 1040 at this point because it is cheaper, do you enough about that scanner to tell me if I would be able to pick up most things in the quad cities with that scanner. As far as I can see from the database on here Davenport is the only one that has some of its stuff encrypted but i may be wrong. Would there be a great advantage in me spending the extra cash and going with the uniden 325P2?
I run several scanners for all my local HF communications I have a PRO-2026 PRO-2046 PRO-2050 all of which have discriminator taps... I also run a BCT8 BCT15X and a BCD536HP... I have been doing this pretty much since I was 16 and have several old crystal scanners also that are just to look at anymore.
 

Dpipe

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I run several scanners for all my local HF communications I have a PRO-2026 PRO-2046 PRO-2050 all of which have discriminator taps... I also run a BCT8 BCT15X and a BCD536HP... I have been doing this pretty much since I was 16 and have several old crystal scanners also that are just to look at anymore.
Patmcc24, could you reply to my post #11, Can you answer those questions? Would the Whistler 1040 pick up what I want to listen to in the quad cities?
 

patmcc24

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Patmcc24, could you reply to my post #11, Can you answer those questions? Would the Whistler 1040 pick up what I want to listen to in the quad cities?

Yes it will and a whole lot more..... If you go that route LMK and I can send you the current ID's and channels in LCN order
 

hiegtx

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Patmcc24, could you reply to my post #11, Can you answer those questions? Would the Whistler 1040 pick up what I want to listen to in the quad cities?
If the type in the Mode column is A, that is analog, which your WS1040 can monitor. If that letter is a D, that is 'digital', in other words ProVoice, which the 1040 cannot decode. The only scanners that can monitor non-encrypted ProVoice are the Uniden models that can utilize the paid ProVoice upgrade.

For your county, Scott, the RACOM system is showing one Mode D TGID for the Sheriff's Dept, for Civil deputees. This ProVoice TGID cannot be monitored (with the ws1040).

For County Fire/EMS, everything shows to be A, analog, which the 1040 can handle. Quad Cities MEDCOM is also listed as A, so should not be a problem.

For Davenport, PD Dispatch 1 indicates Analog (that's ok). 'Police 2' is listed both as ProVoice, D, but also full time encryption (the upper case E), so no way to monitor that. Event 1 is listed as De, ProVoice with part time encryption; your ws1040 cannot monitor ProVoice, and nothing can monitor the traffic that is encrypted.

For Bettendorf, only Police 2 is listed as D, ProVoice. While your ws1040 cannot monitor the ProVoice traffic, everything else is listed as A, analog, which your scanner can hear.

If, at some point, these locations were transitioned to a P25 Phase II system, your 1040 could not monitor any Phase II talkgroups, which are signified by a T in the mode column. If the system is Phase II capable, but various agencies are using Phase I talkgroups (letter D in the mode column), you would still be able to monitor then until they upgraded to Phase II (letter T mode).
 

patmcc24

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If the type in the Mode column is A, that is analog, which your WS1040 can monitor. If that letter is a D, that is 'digital', in other words ProVoice, which the 1040 cannot decode. The only scanners that can monitor non-encrypted ProVoice are the Uniden models that can utilize the paid ProVoice upgrade.

For your county, Scott, the RACOM system is showing one Mode D TGID for the Sheriff's Dept, for Civil deputees. This ProVoice TGID cannot be monitored (with the ws1040).

For County Fire/EMS, everything shows to be A, analog, which the 1040 can handle. Quad Cities MEDCOM is also listed as A, so should not be a problem.

For Davenport, PD Dispatch 1 indicates Analog (that's ok). 'Police 2' is listed both as ProVoice, D, but also full time encryption (the upper case E), so no way to monitor that. Event 1 is listed as De, ProVoice with part time encryption; your ws1040 cannot monitor ProVoice, and nothing can monitor the traffic that is encrypted.

For Bettendorf, only Police 2 is listed as D, ProVoice. While your ws1040 cannot monitor the ProVoice traffic, everything else is listed as A, analog, which your scanner can hear.

If, at some point, these locations were transitioned to a P25 Phase II system, your 1040 could not monitor any Phase II talkgroups, which are signified by a T in the mode column. If the system is Phase II capable, but various agencies are using Phase I talkgroups (letter D in the mode column), you would still be able to monitor then until they upgraded to Phase II (letter T mode).


That is strange....... I am listening to all of them right now on a BCT15x
 

patmcc24

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I do believe it may be in place..... however most if not all radios have not been swapped out to allow digital... I have heard voice on both 09-075 and 09-024 in last 24hrs
 

hiegtx

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That is strange....... I am listening to all of them right now on a BCT15x
As you note, not everyone might have the digital capable radio for ProVoice usage. There's also the possibility that those talkgroups are no longer full-time PV, but the database has not been updated to reflect that. You, of course, are in the area, and can verify one way or the other. I'm way out of your area, and so can only view what is in the database currently.
 

Dpipe

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Thank you so much for your posts hiegtx!! From what I have read about and learned from reading on here and other places your post was very very helpful! Thanks so much for looking into it.
 

Dpipe

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Yes it will and a whole lot more..... If you go that route LMK and I can send you the current ID's and channels in LCN order
patmcc24 If I pull the trigger on that scanner and have trouble programming I would take you up on the help. It may be a month before I buy it though as im still paying off my Christmas bills !
 
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