Balt Co I-CALLS

[doctordave]

Never bothered to monitor I-CALLS on the Balt Co 800 system before the last two days. Punched up the 700000 ID on my Uniden. Peculiar thing is that, in addition to hearing the true I-CALLS, I'm also hearing what sounds like typical TG comms w/ an I-CALL ID that is very similar to the actual ID of the related dispatch. For example, I've heard PD ID 1680 comms on 701680, FD ID 48 comms on 700048, etc. Happens about 12-15 times per hour on my 780. ? just some internal error on my 780....or are there times when an I-CALL ID is linked to another TG for some reason?

Figured that some of you who routinely monitor these I-CALLS would have some insight.

 

[TinEar]

Welcome to Uniden. That seems to only happen when you don't have a very strong control channel. I've never seen that on BaltCo because I receive it full bars but I've sure seen it when I copy the DC system and the Eastern Shore system and other more distant systems. At least that's the reason it happens in my Unidens - all of them. I've had a couple of emails from people that were tuned in to my broadcast and asked why they were seeing that on the DC police system. The odd thing is that I would think you receive BaltCo with full quieting from where you are....don't you?

 

[doctordave]

Yeah, Al, I get the Balt Co system w/ superb clarity....maybe my 780 is just mis-identifying the IDs at times. Will try this with my 796s and 296 and see if the same thing occurs.

 

[TinEar]

Yeah, I'd be interested in what you see on the 796 since you get as strong a signal as I seem to on that system. As mentioned, I've just never seen it happen on a strong system but constantly see it on the weaker ones.

 

[skipshark773]

i had never known that I-calls could be monitored by outside equipment. I dont think my Pro-96 will monitor them (another reason i shouldive saved for another uniden, in fact it hardly does anything...) but ill give it a shot and see what happens. Maybe ill dig out my old BC245XLT and see if i can pick anything up...I dont know if the old unidens will support that kind of thing though....

 

[TinEar]

The first Uniden that I was aware of I-CALLS being able to be heard was the 780. I have no idea on any of the handhelds or older models. I was amazed at the number of emails I received after mentioning a few nights ago about using 700000 as a talkgroup to receive all of them. Apparently, a lot of people weren't aware of that. And of course I had one young guy that called me a liar - that receiving I-CALLS was not possible because he could not do it on his Radio Shack scanner, therefore, no one could. Good reasoning, huh?

 

[skipshark773]

Makes perfect sense to me... wheres the emoticon for smacking your head on the desk? I never saw it mentioned in my BC245XLT's manual, i dont think it will do it though. This was a TrunkTracker II, where being able to pickup EDACS was a major step forward. It makes sense that other equipment can monitor the calls, i remember having a radio with a paging ability and the ID's you selected to page other people all began with a 7. They would look similar to 722588 or something along those lines (i dont know what that one would match up to, i just made it up). Alawys began with a 7 and had 6 digits in it.

 

[TinEar]

I would imagine that function works exactly as the I-CALLS do with a 7 followed by the radio ID number.

 

[skipshark773]

one would think so, but this is baltimore county's system were talking about. The Baltimore County CAD is a complicated system. Radio ID's are tricky business. Example:

Radio#: 7801
Radio CAD ID: CA7801Z
ID for I-Calls/Paging: 7254xx

[Edit]: did some digging around in my old papers, and found out that paging ID's are the same as the I-Call ID's, in the system. The only real difference is the one described above.

 

[ka3jjz]

Skipshark, don't bother with the 245 and ICalls; it won't do it. Very frustrating, too, when you're trying to document a system that uses them very heavily (the United trunk at BWI). And I THINK the PRO96 cannot deal with them either.

73s Mike

 

[skipshark773]

thanks mike, thats what i thought. I knew the PRO-96 wouldnt do them....but i was kinda hoping that the old BC245 would...oh well.

 

[mlevin]

I used to have a Motorola MTX8250 that displayed the radio ID each time someone keyed up. They were the same ID's that showed up on the Unidens, and some of them even made sense. For instance Engine 321's mobile came up as 730321, and E2's ID came up as 730002. But Medic 2's ID came up as 731002. This only worked for the FD mobiles. Everything else didn't seem to correspond with the actual unit number at all.

 

[doctordave]

Well....turns out that the issue is actually specific to my 780. Plugged TG 700000 into my 796 & it only copies true I-CALLS. Case solved.

 

[lgentle]

I guess the PRO-95 doesn't do them either, huh? Everytime I hear an
I-CALLS come over, it's just static.

 

[mlevin]

It's only a Uniden thing.

 

[TinEar]

Speaking of Uniden things....

I just went to the Uniden web site to look for something and noticed they have the BCi25D digital card for the 250/785/296/796 (although you shouldn't need one for the 296/796 unless you broke the one that came with the scanner) for $99.99. Stores like ScannerMaster are still advertising it for $249.95.
http://www.uniden.com/store/itemlist.cfm?cattype=prd&catid=3

I know a couple of people here have mentioned using the 785 without the card. Great time to pick it up.

 

[skipshark773]

if i had the cash i wouldnt hesitate for a second to get a new uniden...

 

[mlevin]

That's probably what I miss the most about the Uniden. If I had to cash I would go buy a BC796D being that I don't own any desktops. Then I would get the Pro-2096 for the car, then maybe an Icom R75 to get myself into the HF/SW arena, then of course a BC780XLT dedicated to aviation. Donations are welcome of course...lol :lol: This hobby can make you go broke.

 

[lgentle]

So can computers if you know how to make a kicka$$ system :twisted:

 

[Dougie]

To go back to the original question posted, I have to say that
(I own a uniden 296). I sometimes pick up a 700000 i - call on baltimores motorolla systems for no apparent reason. My philosophy is this >> the police officer is in a eighth of a mile or closer from my location, and im picking up his radio id and him only, of some kind of bleed-over or mirrored
feedback, or rejection reasons of something of that nature ?????