Need Collin County Help

[Sarge47]

Sounds like I am going to have to get a new used scanner that will decode Phase 2 p25 by mid year. I only need to hear ColCo Fire depts TGs. My budget is very tight. Please name a few used scanners that I should look for on Ebay.
Thanks. Sarge

 

[jasday]

Do you know if they will for sure use phase 2 talk groups? It may end up like the Fort Worth system where it's phase 2 capable but uses phase 1 tgs. I don't think that would be knows until they start doing testing on the system to see what phase the tgs are.

 

[troymail]

I concur - if the system isn't live yet and/or isn't confirmed to be using Phase 2 (or anything you can't already receive), I wouldn't make any serious moves..... for lots of reasons....

 

[Sarge47]

ColCo new radio system

Here is a link to an article that makes me believe it is now serious.
https://forums.radioreference.com/t...-p25-system-awarded-expansion-pawm-print.html

 

[troymail]

Oh, no doubt it is coming -- just a question of what it will really look like once live... In most cases, as it "lights up", folks will monitor and report - Phase 1 or Phase 2 - along with other troubling things that you can expect to deal with like simulcast distortion (a certainty) and possibly some increased use of encryption (but hopefully not).

 

[IAmSixNine]

Safe bet is collin co new system will be phase 2, plano is currently working on migrating more users to phase 2 as well. Since the Collin co part will be a new system its possible they will be on their own switch so even if some PAWM stuff is phase 1 it may or may not pass onto the collin co stuff. All that will depend on how they interlink the system.

Hopefully its like Garland and not layered. My Unication doesnt play well with the layers. Not that im close enough to monitor much of it anyway, well the phase 1 stuff. LOL

 

[Sarge47]

Do Yall think that a Uniden Home Patrol 2 would cover all the parameters ? By mid year I might be able to score one off of Ebay.

 

[hiegtx]

Do Yall think that a Uniden Home Patrol 2 would cover all the parameters ? By mid year I might be able to score one off of Ebay.

A Home Patrol-2 would cover the Plano/Collin County system whether it goes fully to Phase II, or only partly (such as Collin County fire departments going to P25 Phase I, while the current PAWM users, as well as other law enforcement on the Collin County side moving to Phase II).

The HP-2 would not cover any users on DMR. At present, the main user of DMR in your area that is possibly of interest would be CareFlite. Their helicopters, as well as ground units, are dispatched via Megahertz's DMR trunked system.

Other P25 Phase II scanners that would work would include Uniden's BCD325P2 and BCD996P2. Those can get a paid upgrade to cover DMR if you decided that was needed.

There are also several scanners produced by GRE or Whistler that can handle Phase II as well as DMR. Of the current models, the WS1088 & WS1098 handle P25 Phase II, and have an available paid upgrade for DMR. Their immediate predecessors, the WS1080 and WS1095, also work, and have a DMR upgrade available.

Whistler also has a program for a paid upgrade for earlier models, that makes them Phase II compliant, as well as getting DMR. These include the PSR-800 (manufactured by GRE), and RadioShack models Pro-18 and Pro-668. See this thread for more details: https://forums.radioreference.com/whistler-scanners/353415-new-legacy-scanner-upgrade-program.html

Edit to add: Current Whistler scanners TRX-1 & TRX-2 handle P25 Phase II, and have available free upgrades to add DMR and NXDN coverage.

 

[Sarge47]

BCD325p2

Thanks everybody for the info. Looks like a used BCD325p2 is all I will be able to afford.Vol. Firefighters dont get paid much and my real money goes to the family. Yall guys r great and I couldnt do without Yall.
Sarge