The brand-new Batesville Police Department is on the air, with 155.2575 as "channel 1" for primary ops and 155.940 as "channel 2" for secondary ops. The bad news is that they run 100% voice inversion encryption on the dispatch channel at least... and this morning there were both clear and voice inversion transmissions on channel 2 as well. So, this will be unwelcome news to scanner listeners in Independence County. I imagine that the BPD hasn't received their Kenwood radio equipment yet so this is why they're using analog NFM transmissions for now.
Batesville Police Department
- Thread starter wbswetnam
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TY for update. What is Tone in use on those?
Unfortunately I didn't bring a radio with me which will detect the tone. It'll have to wait until my next visit here, or unless someone else can supply that info.
Also you might as well write in the Independence County update that voice inversion is on both channels pretty much 100%. They were in the clear on channel 2 last night but today it, too, is encrypted.
Had my scanner set on search for tone and it flashes DCS 606 on both but, of course, VI is on so you can't understand anything.
TY. Is Newark no longer dispatching its own FD or PD or DPW? All licenses are long expired for them, and no licenses found on searching.
And seems BPD is either extremely paranoid or they have an massive crime scene there that isn't making news much? LOL
And seems BPD is either extremely paranoid or they have an massive crime scene there that isn't making news much? LOL
No...Newark is covered by the ICSO. They typically do have an officer assigned solely to Newark but there is no city-ran PD or fire (fire is dispatched by ICOEM just like other rural departments).
EDIT: They may use their own channel for the water company, I'm not sure. I don't listen to utilities; that doesn't interest me. Police and fire is all through the county.
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I haven't heard anything from Newark's channels in many years.
I think that maybe BPD doesn't want people to get accustomed to listening to their comms, and then a few weeks / months from now they go NXDN digital when the Kenwood radios arrive. Perhaps their thinking is "better to start off encrypted from the get-go".
I was talking with a Russellville cop just yesterday and I asked him why RPD had gone 100% encrypted digital a few years ago. He admitted that it was so that "officers were free to talk without the public listening in". Nothing about "officer safety", etc, just "so we can talk freely".
I guess they don't want the public knowing what the dispatchers want for carry-out meals. ;^>
Don't laugh, I heard this one night in Harris County, TX, during the night shift about 3AM. A dispatcher asked for a unit near downtown to switch to channel 4 (intercity/car-car, long before the trunked system went online), asked what was open in the xxx area, one was chosen, then gave the order over the air ( I guess they had menus from several 24-hour restaurants). They promised to pay the deputy when he arrived at Central.
Don't laugh, I heard this one night in Harris County, TX, during the night shift about 3AM. A dispatcher asked for a unit near downtown to switch to channel 4 (intercity/car-car, long before the trunked system went online), asked what was open in the xxx area, one was chosen, then gave the order over the air ( I guess they had menus from several 24-hour restaurants). They promised to pay the deputy when he arrived at Central.
Late one evening about six months ago, I was surprised to hear a conversation between two officers on the (always encrypted*) Russellville Police car-to-car AWIN talkgroup. I guess one cop had accidentally turned off the encryption, because I only heard one side of the conversation - the other cop's responses were encrypted as per normal. Anyway they were having a chat. The unencrypted cop was bad-mouthing another cop for being off-duty when he was supposed to be working that shift. "Yeah this is typical of XXX, he's a lazy a######, he'll probably do it again next week", etc.
So there it is folks... the "ability to talk freely"... that's why the city PD pays extra for encryption. I'd better shut up before I get in trouble with RR.
*Note - My Home Patrol 1 unit simply skips over encrypted talkgroups but it does always check anyway just in case a talkgroup becomes unencrypted.
So there it is folks... the "ability to talk freely"... that's why the city PD pays extra for encryption. I'd better shut up before I get in trouble with RR.
*Note - My Home Patrol 1 unit simply skips over encrypted talkgroups but it does always check anyway just in case a talkgroup becomes unencrypted.
The city uses different frequencies, as listed in the db here, and they are scrambling their communications (voice inversion). County traffic is on the 154.980 with no scrambling, as always, and they do still refer to dispatch as "Batesville".
What unit numbers have you heard on there?
I will do some checking by taking the tone off of that channel on the scanner and see what I hear (my dad says he hears the voice inversion mess a lot on his because his can't do tones).
Don't remember what unit numbers I'm hearing and it may be I'm missing a lot since my thirty year old scanner is just set for 154.980 and I have never tried the other numbers, but I do hear plenty of calls within Batesville city limits where I live.
As I said, I will take the tone off of the frequency on my scanner to listen to all traffic but from what I'm hearing on there myself and been told from officers on the dept you are mistaken. If the officer numbers begin with 1 that is sheriff's dept and they take county calls (ex: 117, 126, etc.). Dealing with the PD a couple of times because of the alarm going off at a location I am a key holder for, I know they use "PD" as the first characters of their unit numbers (ex. "PD11" or "PD8", etc.) on the radio when talking to dispatch (i.e. "Batesville").
The sheriff's dept is no longer responding to calls within the true city limits of Batesville; exceptions are if they stop to assist a PD unit or if they make a traffic stop within the city limits, as I've heard both of those on the county channel but it's still county sheriff traffic, just assisting PD.
If you put in the city frequencies in your scanner, 90% or more of the traffic you will hear will be voice inversion (so it'll sound like a robot and be unintelligible). That's the city PD traffic and is scrambled, per my observations and hearing confirmation from the chief when someone I know asked him.
I'll verify this again today when I get time by listening to 154.980 with no tone programmed but I wouldn't be posting if I wasn't almost 100% sure.
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As a follow-up to my last message, I talked with a couple of other people that I know have scanners in the area and they said they have not heard any city calls on the sheriff channels, either. I also did what I said I would:
Hope that helps. Any other questions, just ask.
EDIT: One thing to remember - sheriff's deputies can still make traffic stops or respond to other calls (assist PD) within the city limits as far as I understand.
As a follow-up to my last message, I talked with a couple of other people that I know have scanners in the area and they said they have not heard any city calls on the sheriff channels, either. I also did what I said I would:
- I programmed one scanner with 154.980 and no tone.
- I programmed another scanner with the two frequencies listed for BPD.
- On 154.980 I heard county sheriff dispatch traffic for county calls only; no city calls
- On the other scanner with the two BPD frequencies I heard the noise of scrambled radio transmissions 99% of the time and a time or two heard unscrambled traffic on one of the channels
Hope that helps. Any other questions, just ask.
EDIT: One thing to remember - sheriff's deputies can still make traffic stops or respond to other calls (assist PD) within the city limits as far as I understand.
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Yes SO as well as ASP can do LEA activity in city limits as needed etc. BPD is VI pretty much full time. And I'm not sure if they will use ful encryption on the digital once they switch.
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And another thing I just got to comment on, you guys who have been here a long time or who really know your stuff sure are good to us new guys or less knowledgeable, you are also polite and courteous and of benefit others, and I as well as many others I am sure appreciate this, and thank you for that.
Don't mention it. It's a constant learning process, at least for me. I know when I first got into scanning on my own (i.e. beyond overhearing it on my dad's or grandmother's scanners) I wanted to hear as much as I could. Then I took a dive into the digital world (first got a RadioShack Pro-106 and then a Uniden 996XT) and could hear the statewide AWIN system, specifically state police but several other things as well, I thought it was really neat. I have a couple of Uniden BCT15X scanners and in one of them I have the Entergy system; I don't listen to it all the time but if there is bad weather or something else that causes an outage it gets fairly active and I can sometimes pick up on when it should be restored or what the cause was. I also like to listen to the local airport unicom channel; there is more air traffic in and out of the local airport than most people realize. You'll also hear when C130's are passing through as they call in since they are going through this air space. Well, I could go on and on but that would probably be boring.
There are always things to discover and new systems come online all the time, as well as others changing frequencies, etc. As anyone, I wish the BPD (or any dept) wasn't using VI/scrambled transmissions (on main channels; TAC is different) but they are so we have to just strike them off of the list (same as, for example, LRPD which is on AWIN but fully encrypted) and listen to what is "in the clear".
It's all part of the wide, wide world of scanning. Don't ever be afraid to ask a question on here.
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