Athens County Law Enforcement

[LubeckTech]

Are there any LE agencies still using VHF??
Most everything is MARCS but I am programming a Uniden 996P2 for someone and am not familiar with what all is happening in that county.

 

[W8UU]

No. Everything law enforcement in Athens County is on MARCS.

The 151.19 MHz County LE repeater is still operational but is supposed to be decommissioned in the near future. No one uses it. The old Athens PD dispatch channel 154.725 MHz is now used by the parking meter attendants. Ohio University Police gave their repeater channels 155.25 and 155.31 MHz to the student safety teams and other campus departments.

The only VHF public safety activity is the volunteer fire departments on 156.2325 MHz plus a bunch of VHF low power channels. Nelsonville and Athens City Fire are both on MARCS. EMS operates a paging base on VHF (154.1675 MHz) but all operations are on MARCS.

Most of the public service, street maintenance, county engineer, etc. still use VHF but there is interest in using MARCS there, too.

In short, don't waste your money on anything that can't receive MARCS. It's the saga of every scanner owner in Ohio.

 

[LubeckTech]

Thanks Rick,

Pretty Much what I thought.
My client has a Uniden 996P2 so he is good until more simulcast systems go online. I was wondering how much analog stuff to add. Washington County Simulcast is very hit and miss for these scanners with some people doing well if there are in the right location. If I had known this guy was buying a scanner I would have recommended a Uniden SDS series. Other than those the other options are a Unication G5 or SDR Trunk and PC. Athens County fire is using the 155.19 repeater at times and various area agencies that went to MARCS have been allowing township trustee road crews access to their old repeaters until the equipment dies or licence expiration.