Does anybody know what the Area Talkgroups and Region Interop Talkgrpups are used for? What neighborhoods, cities, etc go with what Area and Region talkgroup? Anybody have any ideas about this?
In my experience they're predominantly used for special events by the City of Cleveland. During major sporting events you may see one or two channels used for downtown events, traffic enforcement trying to clear out after a major game, etc. It's not uncommon for downtown special events to end up on these instead of Special Event 1/2.
During the RNC the Region IO were used quite extensively and even expanded out to be larger than the original 16. Two were used during the post-CAVS playoff games and parade. In the radios themselves the user has a number of zones, so they may go to Zone 23, Region X. Each zone has up to 16 channels (because the knob on top of the radio has 16 positions). So you may hear things like "Go to Zone 23, Region 16" - Occasionally and very rarely you may hear stakeouts on there. The only time I've seen them used outside of Cleveland is when what I assume to be a task force is doing a stakeout or a UC follow of suspects, but that has maybe been 2-3 times in the past 8 months.
I just looked at some recording history and I can't tell you the last time anything happened on them. Probably nothing in the last 5 days at all. They're worth putting into your scanner for when they do light up.
Edit: The Area Com are typically administrative city functions too. Far less interesting and clearly used by people who don't use a radio day to day.
