Chicago Area Digital Systems

[werinshades]

We are very fortunate in the Chicago Metro Area not to have the Digital Revolution hitting us right square in the eye like many other cities and counties have faced. Is it because we are smart listeners and don't report or post sensitive information as it's happening..?? I listen mainly to Chicago Fire and Police Depts. including the very interesting Trunking system the Chicago Police have. The worst case scenario is sometimes they go into the encrypted or " coded mode " as the call it. As long as we listen wisely ,and don't report everything we hear on their, maybe it will be a few years before they eventually make the switch. By then , Uniden , Radio Shack and everyone will have a Digital Trunker in place.
By the way, I have the Official CPD directory with all them UCR codes in them. Ask a local Officer that you're friendly with and maybe you can get one too. It helps out a great deal trying to decipher all them 0820's 0460's and such.
Wow , has this hobby and communications sysytems have changed since iI started listening over 20 years ago!! I enjoy chatting about CFD & CPD stuff on the scanner..so if you're bored and need a chatter , look me up. I'm under AOL and Yahoo Instant Messenger frequently...

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Ucr codes

Yes they are extremely helpful, you can get a copy from the carma website if any one is interseted. Any word on the new contracts for the chicago police dept. for a time there their were no contacts and the cops were not stoping anybody because there were ticked off, I dont blame them. There was a special on tv a couple years back about officers that work the o'hare unit. I cant think of the division name anymore and I manage to lose a couple of cool web sites for them when upgrading version of my Isp, unfortunely. Do you have any sources that you recomend. I live close to Zone 1 providing coverage for the 16 & 17 districts. Hey I got a few cpd buddies they might now what the name of it is, Thanks any info would be greatly apperciate. The trunked system for chicago area det. and narc units get to be pretty interseting at times, have a friend there to. Now of any organized crime division-Vice talkgroup id's?

 

[cpd014]

I doubt it that they will ever go digital but they did purchase the XTS3500 portable radios wich I guess are capable of all that digital apco25/IMBE stuff but they didnt get them for the whole city only some districts have them mostly all the outside units and alot of other districts still have the old Motorola Sabers. The city has been testing the radio system and been installing more receive sites thourghout the city especally in downtown and from what I hear the radios work great in highrise buildings like the sears tower ect.. so it probaly aint a bid deal for them to switch what they have now is fine the city is broke with all the lawsuits they are paying out and other crap so they couldnt afford it anyways to begin with especally after all the money they spent on the new Office of Emergency Communications building. So I hope they never do and I dont think they will for a long long time down the road.

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

XTS RADIO USAGE

Yes they were testing them on a certain district, I believe district three excuse me zone three. But anyways some officers dont want digital or a trunked radio system because they fear what happen in new york with the radio siginals might happen hear. In some of the areas of chicago the trunked system is for the birds, and tac officers still use sticks, which have a crap battery supply due to the fact of over charging the batteries or exterme conditions, got love motorola. My thinking is that they would phase out the old stuff with new stuff before bring distrcts on line.
Testing however is different, because radios can be shifted around.

 

[cpd014]

Well now they got the xts3500 model I radios in a number of districts still some have the old sabers but the main reason they wanted to go with them is because they are supposed to have better audio and the channel capacity now they have every district and city wide on the radio with the old sabers they only had 12 positions and couldnt cover all the channels. But I hope they wont ever go to trunking or any of that crap because its too complicated and not all as preped up as it is made out to be. I work in the 014th District and we use the xts3500 radios and they are decent radios more channels clearer audio but allot of guys dont like them because of the design they are too thick and not as easy like the sabers to fit in a pocket and in your hand as well. But the radios are fine I think they should keep it until they design something a little better and less complicated in the future than the digital systems alot of cities have I dont think here in Chicago we would have the same communications problems like NewYork had but you never know they try to improve and flaws are allways gonna be there no matter how good of a system you have so only time will tell what the city will come up with next.

 

[Josh]

"trunking systems aren't all they're cracked up to be".


I don't agree with this statement. Trunked systems are great. They are superior over conventional systems because they are more spectrum efficient. You can have 25 different users on 4 repeaters and never have to listen to anyone else or worry too much about getting busy tones by design.

Before my local police (and the 15 others in the Downriver area), everyone was on simplex VHF- In order for me to easily monitor it, I needed to have a pretty good antenna on the house, but even at that, range was limited to the bases of all cities, mobile radios from a few neighboring cities and the portables (or preps as they can be called) of my city only.

With the new trunked radio sytem, all traffic is transmitted through a repeater so now (besides an XTS3000) all I need to monitor their system is the basic radio with stock antenna.

Of course, right now, Chicago is on UHF repeaters, and I can relate that to the Detroit Police Department using a similar system. It works well for them and I like listening to them, but, the repeaters and overall system is getting old (some equipment dating from the '70s)- they will be digital by 2004, but that's progress. They apparently have two sites of repeaters right now on analog UHF, but even when they go 800, they feel that two simulcast towers will provide adequate coverage- we'll see. Also with a trunked system, I don't have to worry about the police dispatcher 'taking it out of repeat' so I can't hear anything but the dispatcher unless I had a super radio/rig on the repeater input frequency, but even that wouldn't help.

-Josh

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Info on the Citys Radio System

Chicago ones are lucky to have system adminstarters that agree with there officers at times. As we now the city has spent billions on upgrading there radio system to provide better coverage a example is the oem center which is start of the art, old technology is not bad and gets to be cheapier due to the fact of 800mhz change the ways of listening which makes better for reperter usage, the city also has three trunked radio system that i now of. O'hare Airport, Cpd Dectevitves & Narcotics and special details (right cpd014). and the old Chicago Housing Authority System. That got tooken over by beat cops on uhf frequencies due to cha screw ups at times. Poor Mr. Morris, sorry buddy. Personally if the city has a crapload of money to through away then I see then going to 800 mhz completly, all the reperaters towers they would need for coverage. Cpd 014 why not motorola HT1000 16channel model, I assuming better abillity for all the frequencies, didnt now the old radios only went up to 12channels, completly uneffecient in the citys case, or other companies such as vertex or icom or kenwood once again it comes down to cost effencity and proper usage, plus the abillity to turn off the radio if it gets stolen by the system operater ie:dispatcher in the Comm Center that take a crapload of stuff from there officers and bosses due to the fact of some punk causing prolbems on the street to tick off the officer all the stupid paperwork, I have friends that hate the job because of the paperwork and stupid policts but thats a whole nother story. So in all reality the city use's all types of communication, pagers, phones=nextels, Computer terminals and etc. Vhf is not meant to be used in big vast citys with a ton of people living there inless there are reperaters up in the case of the chicago fire dept, old motorolas are better then new motorolas ie moblie to mobile communication. Isp also shares equipment with the chicago police for special operations. Analyse before judging, in the case of chicago they tired everything and feel uhf is the best for them at this point for radio communication, hey they might change there mind, dout it but you never know, perhaps they'll join up with the Cook county Sheriffs Police Trunked System who really knows all the systems have a patch for interagency capability so there no major need for 800mhz equipment vastly. And if there did go over to a trunked system it would be Motorola Type II Uhf just to try it for the hell of it.

Ryan

 

[werinshades]

Things will change...

I know that you may not want to hear this, but I have confirmed that Chicago Fire Dept. will be switching to an All UHF Trunking System in a couple of years. The reason for this , is inter-operability with Chicago Police ( hello 9-11-01 !! ) , and Fire Suppression will be able to communicate more efficiently with EMS . We were supposed to be off the VHF Frequencies 3 years ago , to switch to an all UHF system. The big question was would it be Digital. Depending on if the city gets the cash for it or not. The sources I spoke with highly doubt it , due to the simple fact the trouble FDNY had in all the high-rises. Chicago has secured 4 additional 460Mhz. frequencies and about 20 in the 470Mhz. area for this new system already. this will be in addition to what we have already. So , about 30 frequencies. The suspicion is Chicago Police to switch to a UHF trunking system as well. All UHF City!!!! So , yes, a change will be occuring. But don't worry, Digital Trunkers will be out way before this happens , so we won't miss a beat.
On a personal note, I apoligize for not responding to posts earlier. Since no one else seemed to be on here, I gave up checking up on here. So ,I'm back. I'm always looking for informed Chicago Police and Fire Dept. listeners. I'd like to see this board stay active. Did I see we now have a 14th District officer here?? Welcome aboard. I'm a Chicago Fire Dept. Paramedic by the way. A true street medic, not a paper shuffler..hahahaha. Happy listening to all!!
PS....love the CPD trunking system....great listening )

 

[cpd014]

hopefully the city dont go digital but I got an astro xts3500 model III that will probaly be able to accept the system they might go to but I have no idea what is involved with programming ect.. so hopefully they keep it simple and stay the way they have it now the system works fine I can see any reason to switch over to digital but if they do hopefully ill be able to use the equipment I have now to monitor.

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Wow fd on a trunking system?

This is rather interseting concept, Well lets just hope they stay analog and I will have no prolbem monitering them. It about time they updated the system anyways kinda of outdated. Are they still going to have patches to the old vhf frequencies? Paramedic and firefighter inter agency is the idea behind this one. Brings me into a question of what I saw on the news the other day about a director of operatios guy named Robert Huff. I heard that he was fighting for better equipment for terriosom tacitats stuff. Well at lease if the system becomes functional there be beter agecny corporation in some areas. If you can get proposed uhf frequencies and let us now of them, I think some of them will be what the paramedics are using already 460.6250 and 460.6000. yes I known their are others but these are key. Well thanks for the info and keep us updated, just as I finished my officall frequency list info go firgure. Streets & San has to be the most screw up system that ive seen in a while, any clue on the officall frequency's. Why not relocate the chicago housing authority system for fd usage, well I dont know it seems kinda of waste full to spend all this money instead of putting users all on one system. If the city does mirgate for interagency communcation is the pd going to go over to it to? Another waste of money, they just upgrade their system and then they want to change it again, now if fd has their own system that will make sense with patchs to the pd system its all good. City always changing who really knows, what about the system at O'hare airport what abouut expanding its capabillites or midway for that fact. O'hare has two systems a uhf one and a 800mhz one. Well keep us posted thanks for the info.

On a side note what district or zone would be an batioln chief area of 13, or in the side of 2600 West Chicago.

Like parts of Irving road and grand ave. are covered in Z1 Districts 16/17. Thanks guys, keep us save.

Ryan

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Programming it

In order to program it you will need to a be good friends with a system manger or have software and firgure out to disabled the key but in your case since your an officer you might not need to have the key disable beacause you should know better But anyways if you were to do it on your own this is what you would need , programming software, rib box, and a few cables that may be able to be made. Hers the prolbem you run into though motorola yea requries you to registrer your software copy for a license which requries money, $200.00 bucks our so. your best bet is to talk to the system manger or have a friend get you a fd radio when the new system comes out. The xts you have is it personel or does it belong to the city? Most officers have their own radios so its not a big deal in most case's, the only prolbem you run into is frequency bands. Ie UHF 450-470.0000 or 470.0000-512.0000 vs. VHF 150-170.0000 traditionally. where I live in officer has his own radio but its real old i believe HT600 and really static when he transmits which kills his radio coverage, my pd has a fleet of ht1000 and radius type stuff Gp300, and etc but not the sp50. Got love motorola ^^.

 

[cpd014]

The xts3000 I have is my own personal radio along with the city and suburban frequencies I also have an astro saber and some other goodies but when I bought the xts3000 wich was used I wound up having to buy the software brand new from motorola wich I had to sign the license agreement and it cost me $375.00 bucks at the time about a year ago so that was very expense but worth it because the radio is great both astros are nice working radios but I did get original motorola RIB and Cables for the astro saber and Xts3000 for a decent price in mint condition. But to make a long story short I Programed the radios myself and it was farely easy alot of frequencies to put in but it was easier than I expected but I dont know how easy it would be if they go digital or what is involved other than what I did here Im really just learing this stuff Ha Ha but as long and as I dont have to buy a another expensive and other stuff to program and monitor when and if they do switch over ill be happy. But I know alot of radio techs and people in the OEC and they havent heard of any thing about them switching over they said the system they have now is working fine and they dont have the money to spend on a new system anyways right now and maybe not for a long time down the road the city is in Debt and I cant see them investing any money in it but if something was to happen you know are our radios gonna work okay?? they say it will they been testing them and improving the system we have now so who know we shall see just as long as it dont cost me more money and anyone else out there into this hobby or even persons that are police and fire/emt ect.. that have there own gear to monitor. But it would be nice to know someone that can do the programming I know some people but the city frowns if you have your own radio you can transmitt on and what i say to that is they can go to hell with that rule because its good if a policeman has his own radio to monitor they are life savers and if you get into a jam off duty you know it can be a life saver to you or others. But you got clowns on the job that would mess it up if they gave all 13,000 policeofficers there own radios and thats why they dont and dont want you to have one but if im in a life or death situation ill come up on the air for help and they can fire me or do what ever as long as im alive or the person im protecting is thats all i care about so other than that hopefully they stay on the system they are on now till I learn more of this stuff then ill be okay with it

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Radio Info

Yea im in total agreement with you about radio traffic on the system if its a emergency go head and key up on it, or to added other officers. Was couirs about the license agreement stuff, briefy describe to me what they made you sign. I imagine that you maybe able to program it for digital stuff depending on the equipment you have by type wise. Motorola makes circuit borads if it isnt capable but it might run you some money to buy it if it isnt capable and have one of the radio guys at the oec center help ya out im sure they'll be more then hapy to tear it apart and put it back together if there not busy after all thats what they doand in regrad to the city issue there are ways around that ie system tech support over the phone. Ya I dont now about the new system stuff as it stands now the chicago police uhf traffic seems to be pretty good and clear there always seem to keep that functional. I would think that they would updated the older equpiment like the sticks that are still in use for the trunked radio system. Before buying new radio equpiment, but the cha stuff should be a good start inless they pull equpiment from that to better able the o'hare system or the tacitacal system for the city who nows. Plus leets not forget about the usage of mdt's in the car which will eventually outdated the radio system and provide better fuction abillity as more officers get trained on it. That will provide better ecryption and hush hush messages, but i think dealers will notice the blue screens in the officers car which will kill the whole purpose. Plus with nextels becoming more popular that will probaly toss out some radio traffic stuff. What system do you monitor out of coursity? Older officers have told me about how they would drop a dime that would be patch to a traffic channel or a call boxed that got replace by better technology ie the motorola radios which got upgrade as they got more advance. So maybe its coming but not for another few years by then the digital scanners will be the old thing, and smothing new will be coming out. All these new band changes are making more functional ability to these days. Oh yea by the way what sector do you work not the district I mean like are you a beat cop, etc? if you dont mind. you could pm it to me if you are worrie about other people knowing if you want thats up to you. Well I guess thats it for now.

Ryan

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

Looks to be sooner then later?

WPMG842=Check under this license, looks like about twitenty or so frequencies, the bandswitch happening may be soon.

Ryan

 

[werinshades]

Thanks RADIOGUY..

I checked this site out Ryan , and it was some good info. Pretty much everything I was told was confirmed. As fas as a time line goes, it will be at least a couple of years trust me. Installing radios, training, etc. The big question will be Digital or not, and if Digital, 3600 baud control channel or 9600 baud. The new Uniden Trunk Trackers do not support a 9600 baud control channel, therefore making it possible to monitor it ,but not in the Trunking Mode. My suspicion is it will not be Digital , basically because of the FDNY problems. I could be wrong, and if I am, start saving your money now. I trully believe Uniden will have a 9600 baud capable digital Trunker eventually ,so it may not matter soon. I wonder if Chicago Police will be on here also? I see 15 base frequencies, plus the 5 CFD already has. I will plug thesae frequencies in an empty bank and see if I hear anything. I will also be posting this on the CARMA Website..thanks again for the info.

 

[RADIOGUY2002]

City of Chicago Uhf Operations

Did you see that one, the new city opts one on that page?

Like thriteen uhf frequencies, it under the tactical one, programming the two systems into the scanner tonight to see if there is any active traffic.

Ryan

 

[werinshades]

Re: Thanks RADIOGUY..

I checked this site out Ryan , and it was some good info. Pretty much everything I was told was confirmed. As fas as a time line goes, it will be at least a couple of years trust me. Installing radios, training, etc. The big question will be Digital or not, and if Digital, 3600 baud control channel or 9600 baud. The new Uniden Trunk Trackers do not support a 9600 baud control channel, therefore making it possible to monitor it ,but not in the Trunking Mode. My suspicion is it will not be Digital , basically because of the FDNY problems. I could be wrong, and if I am, start saving your money now. I trully believe Uniden will have a 9600 baud capable digital Trunker eventually ,so it may not matter soon. I wonder if Chicago Police will be on here also? I see 15 base frequencies, plus the 5 CFD already has. I will plug thesae frequencies in an empty bank and see if I hear anything. I will also be posting this on the CARMA Website..thanks again for the info.

Well well well, reading back on this post I can now laugh. Uniden's 796D / 296D monitors 9600 baud Digital systems and now the Chicago Fire Dept. going digital is just around the corner. I have my 796D now..hehehehehee

 

[Thunderbolt]

Re: Thanks RADIOGUY..

Well well well, reading back on this post I can now laugh. Uniden's 796D / 296D monitors 9600 baud Digital systems and now the Chicago Fire Dept. going digital is just around the corner. I have my 796D now..hehehehehee

You are truly prepared for the FD system and the coming Starcom 21 Project.

 

[kikito]

We are very fortunate in the Chicago Metro Area not to have the Digital Revolution hitting us right square in the eye like many other cities and counties have faced. Is it because we are smart listeners and don't report or post sensitive information as it's happening..??

Yeah, this is an old post but the beginning implies, like many old posts, that Digital was used for privacy and/or keep listeners out.... hopefully we all know better by now.

 

[K9KRO]

CHA TRUNKED SYSTEM

l was cruising the web the other day and found a document where the CHA Trunked Freqs were transferred to the City of Chicago. Wonder if they were or will be added to the existing CPD 800 mhz analog trunked system? All my buds from the city took early retirement and have fled the city! Same thing happened to guys I knew at CFD. Contacts are drying up.

DB