Services, services, services.... location, location, location. These are 2 things that will make you crazy until you find out about how they work. I lived less than 2 miles from a major airport and thought I had a busted scanner until I realized the air band service was off lol.
Let's make this super easy. Follow these steps and see if this helps any.
First, turn on the full database.
Menu>Set Scan Selection>Full Database - on, all others off for now.
Next, set your range, then your location.
MENU>Set your location>Range>50 (this is the max it goes)
MENU>Set your location>Enter Zip Code>USA>{Your Zip Code}
Lastly, turn on ALL services. Everything. Even security guards and school buses:
MENU>Select Service Types>Set any that you see OFF to ON.
We did all that for two reasons. 1, if you come across a frequency that is known to the RRDB, you'll see the alpha tag and 2, no matter what service they may be listed under in the RRDB, the scanner won't skip them.
Now SEARCH the Fed Bands of interest: 162-174, 406-420, etc. but do so in SMALL increments (so many scanner users try to search gigantic swaths of spectrum all at once and get upset at how little traffic they hear). No more than 15MHz at a time I'd say. 15 is ok, 10 is better and 5 is best. Now sit on that little section of spectrum for a couple hours during normal business hours (8AM to 6PM tops) as that is when most fed channels are active. Make note of what you find and then move on to the next 5 or 10 Mhz and do the same thing. Repeat this each day, but vary the times you listen to a particular patch of spectrum. One that is dead in the morning might be quite chatty in the afternoon and vice versa. Eventually you'll find most of the active fed channels in your area, which from the sounds of it I'm guessing will be a very different list of frequencies than what you are scanning now. Bear in mind that these frequencies change all the time, and sometimes the feds prefer to piggy back onto an existing P25 system rather than stand up one of their own, so you may find the agencies you're looking for are actually on a military or public safety DTRS, and not the VHF band anymore. Also listen up to the national mutual aid channels in the 800 MHz band, these will light up from time to time with fed activity too. I've even heard them using FRS radios before to "hide in plain sight" - most of us would never think to scan those channels.
One last thing you can do too is go sit at a park near the federal building and search there. You might even get some close call hits from there, so turn on Close Call DND also to catch those - I leave it on all the time and it's been interesting at times.
Good luck, let us know if you start finding activity or not. Lots of very savvy folks in here, willing to help.
-AZ