Bucks county reception

[bucks83]

Bucks County Fire frequencies.

Thought I would ad-on to this thread than starting a new one. I have been experimenting with Sentinel and created a couple favorites.
My first try ended with disappointment when Sentinel asked if it should copy ( because what i created the second time was different than the scanner ) and when I said yes, so it attached the new favorite to the first. $%#@

Anyway, I observed something strange that I did not expect when I tried a new favorite using the P25 system for Bucks County Fire ONLY. As it was scanning, TGID numbers popped up as just a NUMBER and an unknown department, example: 34 popped up "unknown department" and someone talking. Turns out these numbers kept popping up Memorial Day morning during different parades.

I'm guessing these were TAC frequencies of the fire stations. I just thought it strange that no further identification appeared on the scanner than JUST a NUMBER and UNKNOWN department, as if I wasn't supposed to know who they were LOL.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I just thought it strange that no further identification appeared on the scanner than JUST a NUMBER and UNKNOWN department, as if I wasn't supposed to know who they were LOL.

This simply means the talkgroup hasn't yet been identified in the Radioreference database (or you haven't programmed the talkgroup into your FL) Disabling ID Search in your scanner will prevent unknown talkgroups from being tracked if you don't want to hear them

 

[bucks83]

This simply means the talkgroup hasn't yet been identified in the Radioreference database (or you haven't programmed the talkgroup into your FL) Disabling ID Search in your scanner will prevent unknown talkgroups from being tracked if you don't want to hear them

I thought I had to enable ID Search so I did not get; "Priority Scan. No Channel" message.
I actually was happy to be able to hear these transmissions.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I thought I had to enable ID Search so I did not get; "Priority Scan. No Channel" message.

Nope, different function

Scan Priority Modes

Press Func then .no(PRI) to toggle Priority Mode Off, On, or DND On.

 

[trentbob]

Hi bucks83... not sure exactly what you're doing but if you look at the database which I think has been sent to you and it is in radio reference you would see that talk group 43 is tac 5... In the past when you asked what you should monitor I remember saying that tac 1 through tac 5 were good to monitor as they are not encrypted and are used by police, fire and EMS, especially fire police during parades or special events like directing traffic at vaccine centers. I've also been hearing the police do radar traps.

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time getting your radio set up but maybe I'm wrong but didn't you have it programmed by the vendor? I'm sure they didn't put everything in there that you need but they must have put in the Bucks County Phase ll system. Maybe that was someone else who said that. If you didn't have your radio programmed by the vendor, you need to do it yourself from the database in Sentinel.

There are no unknown talk groups in bucks now, it is up-to-date in radio reference. The latest talk groups added where the hospital notification talk groups, and that's been a while. You were listening to all the parades today except for Bristol, the fire police there use their own off system 460 megahertz repeater.

I know I've done this a few times before but I will give you again what you can listen to in Bucks County. I think you mentioned you might be in the Central Area of bucks and of course you know that the police are encrypted. So here's a list again of what you need to monitor. It's either in your radio already by the vendor? or you can take it off the database in Sentinel or you could simply do a zip code search, stop on each TG press enter and choose a favorites list to put it in. So here we go...

I'll give you the same ones I gave you last time. I don't need to give talk group numbers because these are labeled in the database. EMS dispatch South, the hospital notification talk groups, the fire response talk groups for South, East and Central. The fire ops talk groups for South, East and Central. Of course as we've mentioned before, tac1 through 5. Fire police South talk group is active also.

The reason parades are done on the tac channels is it doesn't tie up normal operations like we had on Monday when that woman drove her car into the Langhorne Gardens nursing home and was killed instantly and heavily entrapped. It happened around 9 a.m. at the same time some of the parades were starting. If you can get all of these talk groups on one favorites list then you are listening to everything available in the Central and lower part of the county. Hope this helps you, again I'm sorry to see you are not getting set up and if I'm wrong about your radio being programmed by the vendor I'm sorry I mixed you up with someone else. If the vendor did program your radio this should all just be there on a favorites list already so I may have been thinking of someone else.

 

[bucks83]

HI trentbob,
Yes I did have the vendor program the scanner but I wanted to use Sentinel to "fine tune" a few favorites. I created the Bucks County P25 Fire favorites that did not have all the other frequencies with it, only P25 Fire. I prefer this P25 favorite because everything is clear as a bell. The only thing I'm missing by doing this is the Fire Police in Bristol, which I'll program in separately.
The "tac" ID's I found are TGID numbers 30 to 34, all the parade action on Monday.

In all the reading and youtube videos I saw, no one mentioned a dialog popup when I wanted to write to the scanner. It gave me three options, the last one was "SKIP" which is what I do now LOL. It would say the scanner was different than what is in Sentinel, so the first time or two I said YES copy to scanner BUT it added the new favorite ONTO the favorite on the scanner. I'm learning a lot by trial and error.
Thanks for posting trentbob

 

[trentbob]

Glad you liked my post. I'm pretty good with Sentinel over the years and I'm really not following what you're saying but whatever works for you.

Just to clarify. I like to make changes right on the radio I do it all the time. I drill down the menu and change all kinds of options and move frequencies around, make display changes, make volume offset changes, filter changes, system hold times etc etc. it's most important that when you hook up to Sentinel that you immediately transfer the card to your profile and when it asks to override what's in the computer because it's different of course you override what's in the computer because you want all of your changes to be saved, when you make changes in Sentinel by adding or removing frequencies or changing out the Alpha tags, starting new favorites list that are named and numbered with a quick key, Etc, after you save it and when you are moving the information back to the radio it's most important after you've made all these changes in Sentinel of course you acknowledge that it's different than what you have on the radio and allow it to make the changes on the radio so whatever you did in Sentinel will now be in the radio including the original changes you had made on the radio in the first place which are now permanently kept in your profile. I hope that makes sense.

Also are you naming your favorites list and giving them a quick key number in Sentinel? Just wondering if that's why information is being mixed together on favorites list.

Also when the vendor programmed your radio did they not put the Bucks County TRS on a favorites list by itself and call it Bucks County P2 or something like that? All you would have to do then is any talk group that is not in the group that I gave you in the list above is either a North talk group or an encrypted talk group, just hit avoid two times and lock them out then you will have just the talk groups I listed above which is basically fire and EMS along with the TAC channels. They should have done all this work for you already, that's what you paid them to do LOL. So much of this doesn't make sense to me but again, whatever works for you.

 

[bucks83]

"" are you naming your favorites list and giving them a quick key number in Sentinel, ""
LOL, I'm still trying to figure out what quick keys do. The manual says, use quick keys to turn things on and off but how? Do the odd number turn things on and even numbers turn them off ?
Yes, "read the manual", I read it to fall asleep LOL. I'll get it one day.

The vendor created "Bucks County" with ALL the frequencies BOTH P25 and conventional frequencies together and that is why I created the favorite for P25 only. Fire South - 155.115 is just a little scratchy for me, P25 clear.

 

[ceb515]

Minor update from my AC just came out. Looks like radios may be being reflashed tomorrow at least at my station.

 

[trentbob]

I wish to have the scanner capable all frequencies, I know there are tradeoffs. But the antenna would have to be indoors. I agree about upgrade being better. I guess I'm asking If this would work somewhat satisfactorily and what cable I would use. Then again I might be barking up the wrong tree. So I will search indoor scanner antennas vs whip antenna upgrade. Thanks

Minor update from my AC just came out. Looks like radios may be being reflashed tomorrow at least at my station.
View attachment 104491

That would be great to be one of the people picked to receive encrypted police transmissions!

 

[ceb515]

That would be great to be one of the people picked to receive encrypted police transmissions!

Too bad my radio is personally owned and not on the system.

 

[trentbob]

Too bad my radio is personally owned and not on the system. To know

Yeppers, Situational awareness is needed by frequent Commanders, there are so many incidents in the county especially that EMS and fire need to know the situation without the time consuming relay of just being told to stage. As long as the command post knows, people can be kept safer.

 

[trentbob]

Okay it looks like the original plan devised in January is going into effect. I heard two fire police talking to each other on the fire police South talk group about having their radios reprogrammed for encryption yesterday. They heard each other fine in the clear but now they have the ability to pick up Bucks County Police.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I heard two fire police talking to each other on the fire police South talk group about having their radios reprogrammed for encryption yesterday. They heard each other fine in the clear but now they have the ability to pick up Bucks County Police.

So the fire TGs themselves won't be encrypted, they're just reprogramming radios to receive the PD talkgroups?

 

[trentbob]

That is correct as we have been saying since January. There's not enough money to fully encrypt every radio in Fire and EMS service. Just too enable a radio to pick up encrypted police probably cost about $1,100 a piece. The plan all along that allowed the police to go encrypted and still give fire and EMS situational awareness was the Commissioners voted 1.2 million dollars to reflash EMS and some fire radios to enable them to pick up encrypted police Transmissions.

There has been Talk of the hospital notification talk groups being encrypted but I don't know if that will happen.

I have received three reliable sources who have said there are no plans in the foreseeable future for fire ops to go encrypted. I don't know what they're going to do with EMS in the future.

It makes sense that fire police would have the capability of police reception and I do know that Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs radios have been reflashed. I guess it's individual departments deciding who gets that capability. This has been in the planning since the money was voted on and the police went encrypted but there have been persistent rumors that fire Ops would be going encrypted.

There are no plans to encrypt fire Ops for the foreseeable future.

 

[ceb515]

If I get a call tonight I'll check out the radios to see if the encryption switches turn on encryption on fire channels. My company was upgraded yesterday afternoon. (My chief is adament fire is going encrypted but me and everyone here and contacts at the radio room think he's incorrect.)

Will report back.

 

[trentbob]

Yes let us know, it is my understanding that if you're going to encrypt a talk group then every radio that uses that talk group must be converted to encryption. There's no way near enough money to do that. We also have the problem of the non Motorola radios that use the fire talk groups. There is no way around that and every radio on The Talk group has to be encrypted for it to work.

 

[trentbob]

PS... I just want to add like I always do... Anything is Possible hahaha.

 

[squirrel]

PS... I just want to add like I always do... Anything is Possible hahaha.

My department had all of our officer’s portables and officer seat portables on the trucks programmed with encryption capability last month. We now have the ability to monitor PD but fire is still in the clear. As far as I am aware there is no plan for the county to come back and do the rest any time soon.

 

[trentbob]

My department had all of our officer’s portables and officer seat portables on the trucks programmed with encryption capability last month. We now have the ability to monitor PD but fire is still in the clear. As far as I am aware there is no plan for the county to come back and do the rest any time soon.

Yeppers, as we've been saying for the last six months or so. Didn't know how many radios would be capable in each department but it makes sense as long as supervisors are aware of the situation, that's good!

I notice you don't have the word "Secret" in front of your username