Anybody in Jersey able to pick up Bucks County? Same with Camden.

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howie38

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I'm here in Burlington Twp and although I can pick up Mercer Co that has to carry across part of Bucks, I can't get a peep from Bucks. Figure I should at least get dispatch & Bristol/Croydon. Heck, I can hear their sirens. I'm thinking I should be able to get Camden County also. Their SJ channel comes in loud & clear.
 

Whiskey3JMC

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You'll hear much less traffic on the Bucks system now that LE has gone encrypted. Fire & EMS are still in the clear though. What scanner are you using to monitor?
 

trentbob

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Bucks County police on their tdma Phase ll system are encrypted but EMS and Fire comes in great for me when I'm in Burlington. I usually don't go on 541 too much further than Mount Holly but it comes in just fine, I have my sds100 permanently mounted in the car using the newer version of the Larson 150 450 800.

I live in Bristol and the Mercer County system comes in great also.
 

policefreak

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Depending on what you are using you should be getting Bucks County from Burlington Twp. Heck I get it all the way to Medford on my SDS100 and all the way to Hammonton on my Unication G5. Also, whats around you? Any cell towers within a couple hundred yards of your location?
 

howie38

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You'll hear much less traffic on the Bucks system now that LE has gone encrypted. Fire & EMS are still in the clear though. What scanner are you using to monitor?
996P2. I've reloaded the programming twice, but have never picked them up in the past year that I've had this unit. Camden's the same way. Been through several antennas & positions. Mercer comes in even better than Burl Co.
 

howie38

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Depending on what you are using you should be getting Bucks County from Burlington Twp. Heck I get it all the way to Medford on my SDS100 and all the way to Hammonton on my Unication G5. Also, whats around you? Any cell towers within a couple hundred yards of your location?
That may be the problem.
 

policefreak

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Yea I highly suspect you're getting some kind of cell site interference. What you're experiencing is common with those type of scanners in that situation. Cell site interference seems to affect the 700/800mhz bands much more than UHF T-Band which could explain why you'll get Mercer County UHF T-Band sites from 10+ miles out but not Bucks County which is probably only about 5 miles out. Unfortunately if this is the case, there isn't going to be a lot you can do for that. You can try setting the attenuator on the site settings though and see what that does. The attenuator weakens all signals across the board. So it would weaken any interfering signals enough that they won't interfere anymore. But it may also weaken the desired system to the point it will not come in anyway.
 

tvengr

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996P2. I've reloaded the programming twice, but have never picked them up in the past year that I've had this unit. Camden's the same way. Been through several antennas & positions. Mercer comes in even better than Burl Co.
What programming software are you using?
 

nosoup4u

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Up here in Hunterdon, I can get Bucks but only on my SDS scanners (and Unication when I had it). The BCDx36's would not receive it.
 

tvengr

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I can't get a peep from Bucks.
Here is a Bucks County Fire file for you to try. Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Open the extracted file with FreeSCAN and Upload Programming. System on quick key 1. Group quick keys as follows:

1. County Fire/EMS
2. Hospital ER
3. County Interop
 

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trentbob

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So as I said I live in Bucks County along the river near the Burlington-Bristol Bridge across from Burlington City. Buck's has one simulcast site and 24 Towers. Depending where you are in Burlington Township you would be using the Bensalem, thiokol or Falls Township Tower. It's a funky system, location and the 996 p2 is probably your issue.

Just to clarify what you can listen to now and it ain't much you would be interested in fire South response and Ops. Which is Bristol and Bensalem Township. Direct or fireground which is 700 megahertz Simplex low power would be out of range. You might want to listen to fire East response and ops also which will take you up into Middletown Township, Falls and Morrisville/ Makefield. As far as EMS you want to listen to EMS South response. The new Hospital talk groups are in flux but remain unencrypted for now. Of course police dispatch and Ops channels are encrypted. Tac 1 through 5 is in the clear and always was, never had the ability to encrypt and you will want to listen to them as the cops still do speed traps and surprisingly covert operations occasionally. A lot of Parade coverage or special events fire police use.

Back to a solution for your problem. I'm going to give you a few frequencies where Bucks County EMS and Fire is rebroadcast on VHF and with a good antenna you should be able to hear them. It is a rebroadcast of the phase II system. One of the frequencies is UHF and the repeater tower is on the top of Grundy Towers in Bristol borough right on the other side of the Burlington-Bristol Bridge where I am. See how this works for you.

460.625 pl 94.8, this is all County Fire and EMS dispatch. You will also hear fire South response and Ops, even has the Simplex fire Direct which you might hear occasionally. 155.115 pl 97.4 which is fire South dispatch, response and Ops. 151.22 pl 97.4 which is fire East dispatch, response and Ops.

You also might want to listen to the Burlington-Bristol Bridge Police. They are of course encrypted on the County system but they use their decades-old VHF simplex frequency more than they do the county radio and always have. It is also used by maintenance, Bridge operators and Bridge dispatchers including the Tacony Palmyra Bridge. 151 .010 pl 127.3... also you might want to listen to Bristol Borough Police on there UHF repeater that is not monitored by the county. It is a car-to-car channel that is loosey-goosey and interesting to listen to... 453.975 DCS 431.

Just in case you might be using a remtronix 800 megahertz antenna... that is not tuned for VHF or UHF even though it is a fair performer on UHF it will definitely not work on VHF. Let us know how this works out for you, hope it helps... Bob.
 
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