beginner - essex county OPP

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adymoe

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Hey guys, Im desperatley looking for help. Im a beginner with police scanning but do know the basics. I recently got the Uniden Bearcat BCD996XT scanner and Live in Harrow, part of essex county. We are patrolled by OPP who use the APCO-25 interface. For some reason my scanner wont pick them up. When scanning it jumps from 50.000 mhz up to 150.000 mhz bypassing those frequencies inbetween..not sure if I programmed it incorrectly. Someone once told me that elements can be removed from the scanner to cause it to not scan certain frequencies but I doubt thats the case. I do notice a sticky about programming to bell fleetnet so ill try that but anyone in essex county that listens to OPP that can help me would be greatly appreciated!
 

oldsailor56

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What program are you using to setup scanner? I use freescan with my 996T and get opp no problem and am in Kingsville. I only load places close to me from bell fleetnet..ie = chatham, Essex Windsor for opp.

sent you a pm (private message) here
 
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EJB

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He needs to get the software to program the 996XT and a file for the OPP in his area, I am guessing Kingsville, Essex and Windsor towers.

I am not familiar with this area so I don't know if the Essex OPP detachments talkgroup is patched with anyone else nor do I know if he wants the talkgroups for the counties near him.

He also should learn how all of this works, he was under the assumption that the OPP had frequencies for the area, that hasn't been the case since 2002.

A good way to learn about this stuff is for someone to send him a file for freescan or whatever software works with a 396XT, that way he can see how the filew is made/built and then go from there.
 

oldsailor56

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He needs to get the software to program the 996XT and a file for the OPP in his area, I am guessing Kingsville, Essex and Windsor towers.

I am not familiar with this area so I don't know if the Essex OPP detachments talkgroup is patched with anyone else nor do I know if he wants the talkgroups for the counties near him.

He also should learn how all of this works, he was under the assumption that the OPP had frequencies for the area, that hasn't been the case since 2002.

A good way to learn about this stuff is for someone to send him a file for freescan or whatever software works with a 396XT, that way he can see how the filew is made/built and then go from there.

done, emailed him a copy.
 

adymoe

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Thank guys, I got it running! I really appreciate your help, without U couldn't of done this
 

EJB

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Thank guys, I got it running! I really appreciate your help, without U couldn't of done this

I have been in contact with this individual via PM's, he is having a few issues with his scanner. He says he doesn't see the frequencies on the screen, that to me means that his scanner is not 'seeing' or hearing the tower or towers he has in his scanner.


I explained to him that the antenna that comes with his scanner is a general run of the mill antenna, not something designed for fleetnet and that might be his biggest problem. I told him to move his scanner to the highest point that he can think and point it at Essex and try then to see if the scanner sees and hears the Windsor tower.

I don't have enough info on the terrian in Essex Co & and whether or not with a better antenna will he be able to get his scanner to see and hear different towers in the area, are there towers in Chatham/Kent that he can possibly hear with a better antenna?

I also urged him to do the software route because there has to be someone out in this area who can send him a file with the various OPP and MOH CACC activity. I don't know who is patched with whom and I am unsure if the MTO Enforcement or MNR talkgroups are ever patched with the OPP as they are here on occasion and with Lambton.

So, someone please offer this person here a file, it is a PITA at times to get a scanner going but once you do, its great.
 

EJB

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I'll ask again:

Are there any fine members here that have a Freescan file that is specific for the Essex, Lambton and C/K, Elgin, etc area for Fleetnet?

There are plenty of members from Essex/Windsor, a lot of you exsist as I remember a few of you guys complaining about Windsor PS going encrypted and losing your fire service to whatever, can anyone of you step up here? The original poster lives in Essex and has a 396/996??XT, I do not own a XT and I don't have freescan.

Thanks in advance

Eric
 

Forts

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I see the OP has a premium membership here... why not make your own file in FreeScan? Just import Fleetnet and mess around with it. Once you get a feel for what you are doing, spread your wings and add a few other things in. People don't mind helping out but just handing someone a file in this situation won't really help too much when it comes to learning the ropes.

That being said, here's a quick file I just made for Fleetnet in Essex county. Has the Chatham, Essex and Windsor sites in it. OPP are in group 1, MOH is 2, MNR is 3.
 

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EJB

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I see the OP has a premium membership here... why not make your own file in FreeScan? Just import Fleetnet and mess around with it. Once you get a feel for what you are doing, spread your wings and add a few other things in. People don't mind helping out but just handing someone a file in this situation won't really help too much when it comes to learning the ropes.

That being said, here's a quick file I just made for Fleetnet in Essex county. Has the Chatham, Essex and Windsor sites in it. OPP are in group 1, MOH is 2, MNR is 3.

You are a good man Chris
 

EJB

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Thank guys, I got it running! I really appreciate your help, without U couldn't of done this

How is this coming along Andy? Have you used the file that Forts created for you? Have you loaded it into your scanner? If not, have you looked at how Forts created it, in what format all the status bits, end code, etc and have you had a chance to figure out what towers you can pull in?

If you still are having issues with it would you like me to download freescan and see how it looks and how it will work?

What has happened to all the scanner dudes in Windsor/Essex and Muxlow? Hullo? A few of you scanner guys in the Canadian Tropics, lol, I haven't seen many posts regarding scanning out there. The original poster lives in Harrow, I am curious if he can scan the Michigan system from there with a decent antenna.

Anyone out that way wanna chime in?
 

Forts

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Yes, he'll be able to receive Michigan from Harrow, however the majority of the sites are simulcast so good reception will be tough with a scanner.

If the OP still needs help I'm sure he'll say so. Got busy with other things in the meantime perhaps.
 

adymoe

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Hey Guys, Im sorry I have been busy and still haven't had a chance to try loading those files but I will in the future. I am okay right now anyways with my local fleetnet, im listening to my area as I type. I am able to hear police in Michigan from harrow as well yes. I do want to ask you guys if your able to assist me with preemptive priority...I currently have two talk groups in my system. EMS and OPP. I want to be able to prioritize OPP over EMS and cant figure it out. I set OPP as a priority and turned on Priority Mode. Here are the lowsy directions I followed:

Priority/Priority ID/Priority Plus Scan Contents


Priority Scan When the scanner is scanning a conventional system, it interrupts scanning (based on the priority check interval setting) to check priority channels for activity. The more channels you have set to priority, the longer the interruption will be. The scanner is unable to scan over 100 priority channels at once. The quick keys for the system(s) and group(s) containing the priority channel(s) have to be enabled (and unlocked) or the scanner will display 'Priority Scan No Channel'.

Priority Plus Scan The scanner only scans priority channels in (unlocked) conventional systems with system and group quick keys enabled.

The highest priority is for channels in system/site and group quick key 1. The lowest priority is for channels in system/site quick key 90 and group quick key 0. Priority for priority channels in the same channel group follows the order in which the channels were created.

Priority ID Scan This function is similar to conventional priority although there is no interruption during the transmission. Priority ID Scan is always on for a system if enabled in the system setting. Priority is checked in between transmissions, when the scanner is receiving the control channel, and during the channel delay period. The scanner can only look for priority IDs in the trunked system it is currently scanning.

Preemptive Priority Preemptive priority is a feature that works on Motorola systems. If the Motorola system has priority channels, and you assign one of those TGs as priority in the scanner, then when one of those channels becomes active, the scanner will jump to it even if it is on a different system voice channel (i.e. it preempts your current reception). This feature relies on the system itself having talk groups assigned as priority (so the active channel information is included on voice channel low-speed data). If a talk group you assign as priority is not also a priority channel on the transmitting system, then the scanner will use standard trunking priority for the talk group.

To Use Priority Scan you must first set your priority channels.
To Use Priority ID Scan you must also enable Priority ID Scan for each system.



To Edit Priority Scan Options press MENU. Scroll to 'Priority Scan' and press E/.
Scroll to the options below and press E/. Press Scan/Srch to return to scanning when done with editing.


Set Priority sets the priority mode. You can also toggle these modes by pressing PRI in scan mode.

Scroll to 1 of 3 options and press E/.
Off - the priority feature is off.
On - the scanner checks conventional priority channels, and priority IDs within systems that have priority ID enabled. PRI appears in the display when you select this mode.
Plus On - the scanner only scans the conventional priority channels. PRI flashes in the display when you select this mode.




Set Interval sets how often the scanner will check the priority channels.

Scroll to 'Set Interval' and press E/.
Enter the number of seconds (1-10) and press E/ to save and exit.




MaxCHs/PRI-Scan sets the maximum priority channel numbers that are scanned during one priority scan interrupt. If there are more priority channels than the value you select, the channels are divided into more than one group and the scanner scans each group in turn. For example, if you set the maximum channels to 20 and there are 100 priority channels, the scanner checks those 100 channels in groups of 20 and takes a total of 5 intervals to complete the priority scan.

Scroll to 'MaxCHs/PRI-Scan' and press E/.
Enter the number of number of channels to check (1-100) and press E/ to save and exit.
 
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