Charles County

[maus92]

Has Charles Co. moved to P25? I haven't had any digital transmissions monitoring the Motorola system going on two weeks now. I only get the analog of the Fire Dept. I hear the police at Charles County Maryland Live Audio Feeds so they are broadcasting on some system. I even bought a new scanner Uniden BCD996P2 (which I will need anyway when they complete the P25 upgrade) upgrading from the older BCD996XT. Maybe there are updates not yet captured in Radio Reference? Help.

Maybe - they are in the process of replacing their SmartNet system, although it wasn’t going to be completed until 2024. Perhaps they are ahead of schedule.

 

[maus92]

I am monitoring Charles County traffic on the Faifax County Marshal Hall 1 TG. I know the purpose of this talkgroup is normally to be used for potomac river communications between Fairfax County, Charles County, and PG County for river incidents. Charles County is on this talkgroup making reference to TG 10A10 for PG County A824 responding mutual aid. Any ideas what that 10A10 talkgroup would be? Any idea what traffic is normally transmitted on this talkgroup on the Fairfax P25 system?

I forgot to add that a 996p2 is not the best choice to monitor a P25 simulcast system as Charles Co will be.

 

[michael7a]

I forgot to add that a 996p2 is not the best choice to monitor a P25 simulcast system as Charles Co will be.

What model do you recommend for monitoring the P25 simulcast? Thanks.

 

[fredva]

What model do you recommend for monitoring the P25 simulcast? Thanks.

The Uniden SDS-100 and SDS-200 are the only scanners designed to be compatible with digital simulcast. Unication digital pagers also handle simulcast well, but they lack some capabilities that scanners have.

The possibility of monitoring a simulcast system is definitely something that should be taken into account when purchasing a new scanner these days. There's more to consider than just whether the scanner will handle Phase 2. Not everybody is in a simulcast area but for those who are or will be, it needs to be understood that not every digital Phase 2 scanner will handle simulcast well. There is a lot of information on RadioReference about simulcast if you want to learn more.

 

[maus92]

The Charles County system is up and operating normally, however it is using one of the alternate control channels. Best practice is to include the primary and all the alternate cchs when programming a scanner.