You need a radio capable of receiving trunked systems. Your radio does not do digital, much less trunking, and it does not cover the frequencies in the 700 & 800MHz band used by most P25 trunking systems.
I am in Lexington Ky, but will be moving around a lot in the coming months for my job so I would probably be best to find one that is capable of both. I am very very new to all things radio so I still have very little understanding of what the difference between digital, trunking, and everything else actually is.
Or a pager capable of scanning P25 Phase 2. Don't forget Unication.
I don't think so. The chip only puts out filtered audio. If it was easy to do somebody would have figured it out 12 years ago.
I'll be passing through Lexington soon and just checked the database. Most of the Fayette County public safety stuff is full-time encrypted. Shown as "DE" or "TE" No radio, scanner or pager will hear the clear transmissions (some might let you hear the digital noise)
Ok, so with most of Fayette County being full time encrypted is there no way to listen to what is being said? Or is it like analog vs digital, where there is way but that way is a unique/expensive radio. "I'll be passing through Lexington soon and just checked the database. Most of the Fayette County public safety stuff is full-time encrypted. Shown as "DE" or "TE" No radio, scanner or pager will hear the clear transmissions (some might let you hear the digital noise)
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (P25) Trunking System, Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (P25) Trunking System Profilewww.radioreference.com
UK operations are mostly in the clear. There are some part time encrypted talk groups. Shown as "Te".
You should look around in the database for the areas you want to listen to and see if they're encrypted. The other variable for choosing equipment to scan trunked systems is simulcast. Simulcast systems can cause most scanners problems that limit what you hear. That info compared to your listening interests will guide your next hardware purchase.
The easiest, most consumer ready way to receive p25 simulcast systems is the relatively expensive SDS series from uniden*. That said $100 or less worth of rtl-sdr dongles, cables and antenna will receive the signals but you'll pay in setup time and they're not conveniently portable.
*Unication Pagers receive p25 simulcast very well but might leave you disappointed as a general listening tool. They are not scanners. You will need to program what you want to hear before hand. They are also only capable of receiving comparatively narrow range of frequencies.
As @jtwalker said encryption is secure and the only practical way to hear the clear transmissions is to have a radio that can decrypt them AND have the decryption key loaded into that radio.
Or DSD+ or other programs that work fine with an RTF-SDR, Airspy R2, or SDRplay. In my case, DSD+ with an Airspy R2 works better than my Uniden SDR200.
