Bessemer?

Status
Not open for further replies.

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
Has anyone successfully listened to Bessemer PD/FD on 155.1300 & 154.2500?

I live in southside Birmingham and I have never been able to pick them up, not in the car, or any one of my many scanners. Maybe I am still too far out.

Are these their correct frequencies?
 

EMS-1

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
163
Location
West Jefferson County, Ala.
The Frequency now used by Bessemer Police is 156.210 and the Bessemer Fire Dept. still uses 154.250. The old 155.130 has been handed down to the Brighton Fire Dept. Bessemer Police do also occasionally use the old state/small town frequency 155.010 for special events or other operations.

Hope this helps.....Carl
 

dave911

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
625
Location
Hoover
You'll need a good antenna or be in the right spot to pick up Bessemer on the SS. I usually don't get them unless I'm moving around. You should be able to hear the PD, though.

From the news reports lately, it sounds like Brighton FD has been a busy channel. 17 house fires in the past month? That's more than they usually have in a year.
 

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
Yeah, well - that’s the problem. I don't have good antennas apparently. I even hit horrible dead spots when listening to Birmingham PD on my Radio Shack digital scanner, and this is like, driving around in Southside! I tried plugging it up to my car roof mounted antenna (I think its an 800mhz one, but I have no clue), and it was worse. Yikes.

Oh, and I also can only pick up South and West on my scanner. East and North don't pick up alot. Occasionally. I am baffled by this - I would think I would get the same signal for all the channels. Maybe its a bug in the scanner itself.

In all my years of scanning, I never learned very much about antennas. I tried briefly, but the websites I found were a bit confusing.

Blah
 

dave911

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
625
Location
Hoover
William... have you tried the Radio Shack 800mhz antenna? It's only $17. (Catalog #20-283) I use that on both of my hand-helds and pick Birmingham up just fine. As for the East and North, have you made sure they are entered correctly and not accidently locked out? You should pick them up just as good as the other precincts.
 

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
Yeah, that was one of the first things I bought (the 800mhz) - seems to help a little, still many dead spots, especially I've noticed in 5 points south, but then randomly everywhere around the city.

Yep, both North and East are entered correctly. Like I said, I hear them fine for some periods of time (odly enough it is usually is very late at night or early in the morning), occassionally during the day and evening, but usually not.

No, they are not locked out - thats for sure, unless I am specifically listening to only a few channels. But I always unlock them back, and double check when I am specifically trying to listen to a particular channel and it is not picking up.

I also have problems with receiving signals sometimes but no audio. Do you have this problem? Where the display will stop on a channel, the lightning bolt will light up, and you can tell there is traffic going on, because it starts, then stops, then starts again, flowing like it usually does when there is radio traffic - but no audio. This usually lasts for only a few minutes, sometimes I have to turn off my scanner and turn it back on - In a year I haven't really figured out how to troubleshoot that problem.

I just assumed these were either problems with this first radio shack digital scanner, or problems with birminghams system.
 
Joined
May 23, 2003
Messages
627
Make sure you are using the correct CONTROL CHANNEL. SmartZone systems use
Dynamic Site Assignment which means if you are using a control channel to monitor
BHM PD WEST and there are no radios currently set to BHM PD WEST in that zone,
you won't hear anything. Try switching between 867.6125 & 868.2750 or you can
use whatever CC is currently active on the Jefferson County System and usually hear
Everything. Check your Attenuator settings, could explain the signal strength problem.
There is a good overview of Motorola Smartzone systems on the Wiki.
 
Last edited:

EMS-1

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
163
Location
West Jefferson County, Ala.
I agree with the Attenuator thing....It didn't take too much wrong button pushing on my BC250D to get it screwed up to where the receive function was almost mute. So I leave that Attenuator thingy alone now! because it can definitely make for a terrible scanning experience if fooled around with too much. Y'all take care now.....Carl
 

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
Sorry for the delayed reply - been busy with school stuff.

Okay, I do have that 800mhz antenna from Radio Shack - doesn’t do much good. I looked at the Attenuator thing - I found that I did have several of the frequencies with the attenuator thing turned on - must have pressed it by mistake (i have no clue what it does anyway).

How do you activate a control channel on the radio shack digital scanner? I've searched the manual but found nothing.

I've also heard chatter on the message board over the last few months about Jefferson County going digital - but you guys have listed a separate bank of channels. This is confusing me, because I started picking up JCSO along with other agencies on Birmingham's Public Safety frequencies months ago. Why is this?

Thanks for your assistance!

William
 

dave911

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
625
Location
Hoover
Birmingham and Jefferson County are sharing towers now. You can use either set of frequencies for both agencies. Personally, I get much better coverage with the Jefferson County frequencies. Most of the Jefferson County talk group ID's have changed from the old numbers. Birmingham's TG ID's are the same, though. A lot of the Jefferson County TG ID's listed here are outdated... not all, though. I was going to send a new list to the mods but haven't had time to put it all together.

Here are a few of the more important ones...

JCSO Center Point 41008
JCSO Bessemer 41040
JCSO Forestdale 41072
JCSO Warrants 1 41104
JCSO Warrants 2 41136
JCSO Voting Scty 41168
JCSO TAC 1 41200
JCSO TAC 2 41232
JCSO TAC 3 41264
JCSO TAC 4 41296
JCSO Narcotics 1 41584
JCSO Narcotics 2 41616
JCSO Narcotics 3 41648
JCSO Narcotics 4 41680
JCSO SWAT 1 41712
JCSO SWAT 2 41744
JCSO SWAT 3 41776
JCSO SWAT 4 41808
JCSO SWAT 5 41840
JCSO Jail 1 41872
JCSO Jail 2 41904
JCSO Jail 3 41936
JCSO Jail 4 41968
JCSO Jail Ops 42000
JCSO GS 1 48432
JCSO GS 2 48464
JCSO GS 3 48496 - Security
Family Court Sec 11664
EMA 16272
EMA Link 23440
Irondale PD 1 33424
Irondale PD 2 33456
Irondale PD 3 33488
Irondale PD SWAT 33520
Irondale PD Events 33552
Irondale FD 1 33584
Irondale FD 2 33616
Irondale FD 3 33648
Irondale FD TAC 33680
Irondale FD 5 33712
Bd of Ed Sec 9040
Adamsv. FD Tones 15664
Adamsville FD 1 32912
Adamsville FD 2 32944
Birmingport FD 9392
Brookside FD 1 9552
Brookside FD 2 9520
Centerpoint FD 1 10960
Centerpoint FD 2 10992
Concord FD 1 15920 - rarely used
Concord FD 2 15952
Forestdale FD 1 11376
Forestdale TAC 11408
Forestdale Fire (Unkown Use) 11536
Graysville FD 1 11760
Graysville FD 2 11792
Hoover FD Smlcst 16016 - not used

I've heard Hoover Fire training on all 4 of the following:
Hoover Fire TAC1 16080
Hoover Fire TAC2 16112
Hoover Fire TAC3 16304
Hoover Fire TAC4 16336

McCalla FD 1 13008
McCalla FD TAC 13040
Morris FD 1 13584
Minor/Mulga FD 1 32816
Minor FD TAC 32848
Shady Grove FD 1 16176
Shady Grove FD 2 16208
Sylvn Sprgs FD 1 14704
Sylvn Sprgs FD 2 14736
C.A.P. 1 15792
C.A.P. TAC 1 15824
Adamsville PD 1 15600
Adamsville TAC 1 15632
Gardendale PD 1 33072
Kimberly PD 1 12784 - Confirmed: They stated the department name over the weekend.
Unknown PD 1 13616 - Possibly Morris PD - I've only heard one traffic stop on it.
Midfield PD 1 48240
Trussville PD 1 24624
Trussville PD TAC 24656
Trussville PD 3 24752
Trussville PD 4 24784
Trussville PD 5 24816
Airport Em Alert 39056
Airport Shtl 1 39088
Airport Ops 1 39120
Airport Security 39152
Airport Maint 1 39184
Airport Maint 2 39216
Airport Ops 3 39248
Airport Maids 39280
Redbird Units 39312
PMA 1 (P-Call) 22896 - Police Mutual Aid
PMA 2 (P-Call) 22928 - Police Mutual Aid
PMA 3 (P-Call) 22960 - Police Mutual Aid
 
Last edited:

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
oh okay, gotcha. Thats interesting Any reason why they are doing that?

Okay, so i should just program jefferson counties frequencies and go with those to listen to birmingham? What about this control channel, how do I set that or does it automatically set itself?

Thanks
 
Last edited:

dave911

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
625
Location
Hoover
I only entered the Jefferson County control channels, nothing else, and it works just fine...

857.23750
858.23750
859.23750
860.23750
 

smithw14

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Messages
153
Location
Birmingham, AL
Enter just the control channels in Birmingham's bank? a new bank? do I delete the Birmingham control channels?

lol - sorry, I obviously don't understand this stuff as well as I should ;-)

thanks for your help

William
 

dave911

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 14, 2004
Messages
625
Location
Hoover
You can set up a system, use the control channels above and enter all the Birmingham and Jefferson County TG ID's in it that you want. Those frequencies work for both agencies.

Does that help? Feel free to PM me if you need more help.
 
Joined
May 23, 2003
Messages
627
Great ID list there Dave!
About the control channel issue, I have my PRO-96 set up with each agency I listen to in a
seperate bank (BHM Fire,BHM PD, JCSO & Trussville PD) It works better for me than using
the ID "Sub-Bank" setup. I have the control channels for both systems in each bank so I can select the one that provides the best coverage. The Jefferson CO. system seems to transmitt all talkgroups while BHM is site/zone specific. Just play around with it, see what works best for you!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top