Bucks county reception

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Ryanwr944

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Hi I live in Warminster and been having issues listening to Bucks county my current scanner is an Whistler trx1. I been getting missed transmissions and garbled transmissions even with a new antenna from remtronics.
 

maus92

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Hi I live in Warminster and been having issues listening to Bucks county my current scanner is an Whistler trx1. I been getting missed transmissions and garbled transmissions even with a new antenna from remtronics.
Unfortunately, it's your scanner that's the problem.
 

trentbob

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Before you go buying a SDS 100 to listen to Bucks County understand it'll only be the fire that you will eventually hear. The Board of Supervisors approved the 1.2 million dollars the other night too enable EMS and Fire supervisors and equipment to hear encrypted transmissions from the police and that is the only thing that has been keeping them from going over to full-time encryption. The reason quoted was the Coronavirus.:rolleyes:

law enforcement I've talked to have another reason, we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

It is a well-known fact that Whistler radios do not work on tdma Phase 2. Some claim they do but I've never heard of it or seen it. I have a TRX 1, it never worked a lick on Bucks County p2. I took the batteries out and put it in the Boneyard with the rest of the radios I don't need anymore. It worked great on Burlington County type II smartzone but now they are Phase 2 encrypted.
 

Bobgolf10

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Before you go buying a SDS 100 to listen to Bucks County understand it'll only be the fire that you will eventually hear. The Board of Supervisors approved the 1.2 million dollars the other night too enable EMS and Fire supervisors and equipment to hear encrypted transmissions from the police and that is the only thing that has been keeping them from going over to full-time encryption. The reason quoted was the Coronavirus.:rolleyes:

law enforcement I've talked to have another reason, we just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.

It is a well-known fact that Whistler radios do not work on tdma Phase 2. Some claim they do but I've never heard of it or seen it. I have a TRX 1, it never worked a lick on Bucks County p2. I took the batteries out and put it in the Boneyard with the rest of the radios I don't need anymore. It worked great on Burlington County type II smartzone but now they are Phase 2 encrypted.
Thanks I was ready to buy one this weekend. There's nothing else I guess?
 

Whiskey3JMC

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Thanks I was ready to buy one this weekend. There's nothing else I guess?
Really depends on your listening interests. LE, Fire & EMS accounts for a tiny portion of everything I listen to. There's also aviation, amateur radio, railroads, SEPTA (some real interesting stuff there sometime) & more. There are other counties (like Chester County) who have switched over to a simulcast P25 system & are still mostly in the clear so keeping an SDS100 in your radio arsenal is still a good idea, very versatile radio and the rave reviews on the Uniden forums are a testimony to that
 

trentbob

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Really depends on your listening interests. LE, Fire & EMS accounts for a tiny portion of everything I listen to. There's also aviation, amateur radio, railroads, SEPTA (some real interesting stuff there sometime) & more. There are other counties (like Chester County) who have switched over to a simulcast P25 system & are still mostly in the clear so keeping an SDS100 in your radio arsenal is still a good idea, very versatile radio and the rave reviews on the Uniden forums are a testimony to that
Yep I have a 100 and 200, 536 and a 1095 on my bedside with ground planes and lmr400. I've been listening to police and fire radio since I was 12 so that's 55 years.

I listen to Amtrak police, Marine Channel 16, 13, 22, 81 and CG 121. I listen to the news Choppers Aviation frequencies for air coordination and the umbrella multicom helicopter Aviation frequency for Philadelphia and follow them on flight radar 24. I monitor the New Jersey Forest Firefighter towers and operations in Burlington County, Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. I monitor all of the news desk and Chopper operations oh, there's no limit to what you can hear from Bucks County.

BUT... losing that situational awareness of where that Lit Up screaming police car is going past my house is a real loss for me after so many years. Monitoring my local police Zone in Bucks County pulls all of it together for me, I enjoy listening to all the other stuff but listening to Fire and EMS is not going to cut it for me in Bucks, the water flow alarms, dumpster fires, false alarms and careless cooking along with the overdoses an emergency transports... I could care less about.

I'm going to sell my apx 7000 and my SDS 200 a later post virus model made in 2020 and works great.

I will keep the SDS 100. I never go to the city of Philadelphia anymore for obvious reasons but it works great on their simulcast system.

It's just a personal choice for everyone what radio you use and what you listen to once your County goes dark.

There is a thread here in the PA Forum on Bucks County system going encrypted so you can keep up-to-date when it happens... Bob.
 

superdutyf250

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HI, I now 2 Unication g 5 pagers. Like others have said sell Your whistler and get a g5. you wont be disappointed. You will here systems the uniden dreams about.
 

trentbob

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HI, I now 2 Unication g 5 pagers. Like others have said sell Your whistler and get a g5. you wont be disappointed. You will here systems the uniden dreams about.
Yes the G5 and 100 are not affected by simulcast distortion secondary to LSM like the posters Whistler radio is. Unfortunately a G5 is not capable of picking up encrypted transmissions and that was the point here. Bucks County will soon be going police full encryption and neighboring counties like Burlington just went police full encryption and the other neighboring County Montgomery will be going police full encryption in December so...

At least we were able to establish that the TRX 1 was being affected by simulcast Distortion and has a history of not being able to handle tdma Phase 2 transmissions, yes a G5 and SDS can.
 

wa3bxw

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Yes the G5 and 100 are not affected by simulcast distortion secondary to LSM like the posters Whistler radio is. Unfortunately a G5 is not capable of picking up encrypted transmissions and that was the point here. Bucks County will soon be going police full encryption and neighboring counties like Burlington just went police full encryption and the other neighboring County Montgomery will be going police full encryption in December so...

At least we were able to establish that the TRX 1 was being affected by simulcast Distortion and has a history of not being able to handle tdma Phase 2 transmissions, yes a G5 and SDS can.
Bob the Unication G4 and G5 are capable of encryption, you just need the "key" !
 

trentbob

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Yes understood, so is a Icom R30 and my apx7000 LOL, being able to program it, now that's the "KEY";)
 

Ryanwr944

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Just got an update from a friend in the fire department by the end of July all fire and ems is going encrypted except dispatch
 

trentbob

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Just got an update from a friend in the fire department by the end of July all fire and ems is going encrypted except dispatch
Last I heard is that the new hospital notification individualized talkgroups will eventually be encrypted. Haven't heard anything about actual fire Ops or EMS North and South being encrypted. They are in the process however of altering Fire & EMS to be able to pick up police encryption using the money allocated by the County Commissioners to do just that, increasing situational awareness. Any further confirmation from your "friend" in the "fire department" would be appreciated, like source? What fire department?

Once the spineless County Commissioners folded like a deck of cards to the police Chiefs Association and joined the ranks of counties who have tainted themselves with lack of public disclosure, the absolute worst possible thing they could do in these political times, it really doesn't matter at this point what they do. The damage is done.

Keep us informed what your friend says and some of us will keep track of what our contacts on the inside say. Anything's possible at this point, but the process continues to enable Fire & EMS to MONITOR encrypted police Transmissions to increase situational awareness. That's what the county approved all that money for.
 

Ryanwr944

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Ok thank you hope all is well I don’t have a reliable source so wanted to see if anyone heard anything
 

trentbob

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Thanks Ryan, when the police went encrypted I was fortunate enough to have no less than 5 people who were able to give me info that turned out to be correct and accurate. I'll reach out and see if I can find out anything since there hasn't been any information that I'm aware of that changed. As I say anything is possible.

If I hear anything I'll start a thread where it belongs, personally, I'm not a EMS or fire listener and don't tie up a radio with the county Phase II system just to listen to Tac 1 through 5 which is in the clear but not often used. Occasional speed trap or special events. The fire police talk groups are active I hear but I live in Bristol and they have their own 500 megahertz repeater which is active.

I listen to the 2 VHF rebroadcast of the TRS for fire south and east.

As I say I'm still so disappointed that the county made this decision and lost their transparency during these times that the lack of police transparency is being made such an issue but it is what it is.
 

bucks83

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Hi,
Hope I'm not interrupting (of course I'm interrupting, sorry) BUT since this is about Bucks County reception, I have the SDS100 for a week now and love it.
My question; I noticed the PA-STARNet takes a while to scan and NOTHING ever shows up, so should I just lock it out or do I just need a different antenna ?
trentbob I'm thinking you have the best advice here. Thanks.
 

maus92

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Hi,
Hope I'm not interrupting (of course I'm interrupting, sorry) BUT since this is about Bucks County reception, I have the SDS100 for a week now and love it.
My question; I noticed the PA-STARNet takes a while to scan and NOTHING ever shows up, so should I just lock it out or do I just need a different antenna ?
trentbob I'm thinking you have the best advice here. Thanks.
StarNet has a number of sites that are likely irrelevant to you if you are monitoring from a fixed location. They should be locked out, which will help speed up your scanning.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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Hi,
Hope I'm not interrupting (of course I'm interrupting, sorry) BUT since this is about Bucks County reception, I have the SDS100 for a week now and love it.
My question; I noticed the PA-STARNet takes a while to scan and NOTHING ever shows up, so should I just lock it out or do I just need a different antenna ?
trentbob I'm thinking you have the best advice here. Thanks.
Well before you get too concerned about listening to this system, apparently you are using the database to do the ZIP code search?

Speaking for my personal opinion I have no use for that system whatsoever. So far the only thing that's in the clear around us would be the Department of Transportation, any kind of police activity like State Police or park rangers are encrypted.

It's a system that uses many many sites, if you ever want to copy it from Sentinel you will avoid all of those sites except for, depending on where you are, Buckingham, Monty or Philly, I may not be using the right abbreviation.

If you are to scroll through all of those sites the range that you have set, it will really slow you down and you are not going to hear anything anyway except maybe some road crew filling a pothole or something. Might have some value in a blizzard if you're into listening to snow plows LOL.

I have no interest in it whatsoever and know very little about it but there is a thread in the Pennsylvania forum with some very experienced people who are mapping out the system. I was hoping to hear the park rangers at Neshaminy and Tyler and although there are channels in the clear for park operations the Rangers have a private encrypted Channel. I personally would not pursue the system myself but that's a personal opinion. :)
 

bucks83

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Bucks County PA
Well before you get too concerned about listening to this system, apparently you are using the database to do the ZIP code search?

Speaking for my personal opinion I have no use for that system whatsoever. So far the only thing that's in the clear around us would be the Department of Transportation, any kind of police activity like State Police or park rangers are encrypted.

It's a system that uses many many sites, if you ever want to copy it from Sentinel you will avoid all of those sites except for, depending on where you are, Buckingham, Monty or Philly, I may not be using the right abbreviation.

If you are to scroll through all of those sites the range that you have set, it will really slow you down and you are not going to hear anything anyway except maybe some road crew filling a pothole or something. Might have some value in a blizzard if you're into listening to snow plows LOL.

I have no interest in it whatsoever and know very little about it but there is a thread in the Pennsylvania forum with some very experienced people who are mapping out the system. I was hoping to hear the park rangers at Neshaminy and Tyler and although there are channels in the clear for park operations the Rangers have a private encrypted Channel. I personally would not pursue the system myself but that's a personal opinion. :)
I had Bear Cat Warehouse program 5 Counties and the PA-STARNet appeared in the scanner when scanning all 5 counties. Your opinion has convinced me it's probably not worth leaving PA-STARNet active since I have not heard anything anyway and it seems to take some time to scan through it.
Thanks, trentbob.
 

trentbob

W3BUX- Bucks County, PA
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Well the system isn't completely done yet and what's in the database which is what the vendor installed will definitely grow in time. The development started in the western part of the state and nothing is completed in our area. I would think it is totally wasted space in your radio and you don't want to listen to it.

Do your reading and learn how to use the radio so that you can program it yourself from Sentinel and you can supplement the many many channels especially conventional older frequencies that they probably did not put in your radio as they probably just put systems. They don't know your area from a hole in the wall.

We have a saying that... the more you scan the less you hear. For example the only active talk groups you want to have for Bucks County are either EMS South or north and Hospital talk groups depending where you are, the fire response and Ops channels depending where you are, you don't have to listen to that countywide dispatch fire and EMS Channel with all the tones if you listen to either South, east, central or north fire talk groups. They dispatched the fire calls there also. I listen to fire south and east response and Ops. Also the fire police talk groups for North and South are active depending where your location is. I'm in Bristol so Bristol Fire Police have an old repeater system they've been using forever which I bet is not programmed into your scanner. You can listen to Tac 1 through 5 talk groups also. They are not encrypted and were meant for inner Ops. I actually did hear a radar trap today on one of the tac channels but they are rarely used. You need to lock out all of the police stuff including dispatch and Ops. They're all encrypted.

I don't know what counties they put in there but five counties to scan is way too much, I hope you at least have Philadelphia that still has dispatch in the clear, everybody else is encrypted for police.

Hopefully you will get familiar with the database and Sentinel and be able to customize your radio. Remember the less you scan the more you hear so start hitting double taps on the avoid button. Also there are a lot of VHF High frequencies that rebroadcast different counties fire Systems for dispatch. I'm going to venture and say they didn't program them either but they usually carry a very good distance.

Keep working on it and pare back what you listening to as much as you can.
 
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