All stations sound scrambled

[skatingrocker]

Hello everyone,

I'm helping my dad replace an old Uniden scanner which has recently stopped working. He programmed the old Uniden about 20 years ago but this one is a little more complicated, I got him a Uniden BCD996P2 but have not yet purchased the DMR addition.

I used ProScan (and FreeScan) to pull the stations for my parents house in Wood County, Ohio. From looking at the Radio Reference page for Wood County, many of the stations are listed as FMN, but sound scrambled (there is one that is occasional beeping). The scanner scans through the stations but only ever stops on a select few, (although there should be communication on many of them even if it's scrambled). For example, it never stops at North Baltimore Police - Local.

I'm surprised that I'm not hearing any voices through any of the channels where there used to be a lot of communication. Could the Radio Reference database be out of date or am I overlooking something else?

 

[sparklehorse]

I’m not familiar with that area, but a quick look at the database reveals that much of Wood County is on a wide area p25 system called the Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System:

Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System Trunking System, Toledo, Ohio

Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Is that what you’re trying to monitor?
.

 

[sparklehorse]

Could be what you’re hearing that sounds scrambled is the Sheriff dept, which apparently is now DMR. You’d need to purchase the DMR upgrade for the radio to decode that.
.

 

[buddrousa]

And also upgrade to the newest firmware.

BCD996P2 < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

info.uniden.com

BCD996P2FirmwareUpdate < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

info.uniden.com

 

[sparklehorse]

Being so close to Toledo I would expect the RR database to be pretty well up to date. No guarantee there, but population centers have more scanning enthusiasts than isolated rural areas. More ears = more people submitting updates (generally speaking).
.

 

[skatingrocker]

I’m not familiar with that area, but a quick look at the database reveals that much of Wood County is on a wide area p25 system called the Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System:

Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System Trunking System, Toledo, Ohio

Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Is that what you’re trying to monitor?
.

Some of it, yes. But he's mostly only interested in Wood County Sheriff, County EMS/Fire operations, North Baltimore Police/EMS, and Bowling Green Fire/Police. Some of which are listed on the Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System that you linked to.

Could be what you’re hearing that sounds scrambled is the Sheriff dept, which apparently is now DMR. You’d need to purchase the DMR upgrade for the radio to decode that.
.

You're right, a few of the scrambled stations that I hear are the Sheriff's department. I definitely plan on purchasing the DMR upgrade but was holding off until I could verify that the FM narrow band stations like North Baltimore Local Police could be received, but if the county moved over to DMR then maybe North Baltimore did too? My dad's old Uniden scanner (from early 2000's) stopped picking them up earlier this year.

And also upgrade to the newest firmware.

BCD996P2 < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

info.uniden.com

BCD996P2FirmwareUpdate < UnidenMan4 < TWiki

info.uniden.com

Thanks for the suggestion, that was the first order of business

 

[sparklehorse]

I wouldn’t hold out much hope for North Baltimore Police on that 159.09 frequency. That’s labeled as a Law Talk channel in the database. Looks like it’s a simplex car-to-car channel, and It may be rarely used or not used at all. You could try 155.37. That’s also listed under their FCC license. Don’t know why it’s not listed in the RR database, but it can’t hurt to plug it into the scanner and give it a shot. Is there an online feed for Wood County at Broadcastify? That might help you figure out what you’re receiving right now and what you’re not.
.

 

[sparklehorse]

Also you never know, it could be that N Baltimore PD used to have their own dispatch channel, but due to budget constraints decided to contract with the Sheriff Dept to handle their 911 and dispatch needs. So you’d now hear all the radio traffic for N Baltimore on the Sheriff channel. It’s actually kind of unusual anymore for a town of 3500 people to have their own dispatch channel, at least in my neck of the woods.
.

 

[buddrousa]

155.370 is know as INTERCITY and is used as a town to town channel used by dispatchers to talk to each other. These are dying off now that VOIP and no long distance charges on phones.

 

[sparklehorse]

Yeah, check out the Wiki page for Wood County:

Wood County (OH) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

That lists unit numbers for a bunch of small towns apparently all dispatched on the Sheriff channel, including N Baltimore. I’d put money on finding North Baltimore PD there, probably on that 155.07 rural towns channel. Of course you will need the DMR upgrade first. You could try that 151.115 analog simulcast channel but I’m guessing you already did. But that’s SO 1 (Sheriff primarily), it most likely wouldn’t have N Baltimore.
.

 

[skatingrocker]

Yeah, check out the Wiki page for Wood County:

Wood County (OH) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

That lists unit numbers for a bunch of small towns apparently all dispatched on the Sheriff channel, including N Baltimore. I’d put money on finding North Baltimore PD there, probably on that 155.07 rural towns channel. Of course you will need the DMR upgrade first. You could try that 151.115 analog simulcast channel but I’m guessing you already did. But that’s SO 1 (Sheriff primarily), it most likely wouldn’t have N Baltimore.
.

Thank you both. I did purchase the DMR upgrade and used ProScan to add some channels from sections that I overlooked, such as selected Ohio MARCS-IP: Multi-Agency Radio Communications frequencies.

You could be right on the North Baltimore channel, I may reach out to them directly to see what their current situation is.

 

[Railbender]

"You could be right on the North Baltimore channel, I may reach out to them directly to see what their current situation is. "

That would be a good question to ask in the Ohio State section of this forum; Ohio Radio Discussion Forum

 

[scanmanmi]

155.370 is know as INTERCITY and is used as a town to town channel used by dispatchers to talk to each other. These are dying off now that VOIP and no long distance charges on phones.

Yes. I remember hearing quite a lot of activity there 40 years ago. All the BOLs etc. When there was an interdistrict pursuit they automatically went there. One long pursuit I heard all the area cops saying thing like ' kick him in the ..... when you catch him".