Boise Idaho Scanner Question

[singaporekeith]

I will be moving to Boise Idaho in the near future and was wondering will it be worth it to invest in a new SDS100 scanner to listen in to police/fire, etc? Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[sparklehorse]

Boise is located in Ada County. According to the Radioreference database all police and fire in Ada County, including the sheriff and the Boise PD, have migrated to the Idaho state 700 MHz p25 trunked system known as ICAWIN:

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4742

That system utilizes a transmission type known as simulcast in the Boise area. Older digital scanner models will receive that system but will be prone to problems like broken, garbled or dropped transmissions. The SDS scanners are a newer receiver technology that is designed to properly receive simulcast transmissions and should work very well for you in Boise. Are they worth the extra dollars? If you live in an area that employs simulcast I feel the answer is yes. Hope that helps.

EDIT TO ADD: According to the database SOME law enforcement in Ada County is encrypted. Unfortunately NO scanner can receive encrypted transmissions. That said, it appears the law dispatch channels are NOT encrypted as well as most fire and medical communications, the state police and probably some law enforcement from neighbor counties would also be in the clear.
.

 

[singaporekeith]

Boise is located in Ada County. According to the Radioreference database all police and fire in Ada County, including the sheriff and the Boise PD, have migrated to the Idaho state 700 MHz p25 trunked system known as ICAWIN:

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4742

That system utilizes a transmission type known as simulcast in the Boise area. Older digital scanner models will receive that system but will be prone to problems like broken, garbled or dropped transmissions. The SDS scanners are a newer receiver technology that is designed to properly receive simulcast transmissions and should work very well for you in Boise. Are they worth the extra dollars? If you live in an area that employs simulcast I feel the answer is yes. Hope that helps.

EDIT TO ADD: According to the database SOME law enforcement in Ada County is encrypted. Unfortunately NO scanner can receive encrypted transmissions. That said, it appears the law dispatch channels are NOT encrypted as well as most fire and medical communications, the state police and probably some law enforcement from neighbor counties would also be in the clear.
.

Thank you for your reply and that information. It sounds like there will be enough things to listen to to make it worthwhile.