Contra costa missing a lot

[casemods]

This is gonna be a multi parter and will likely not be in any certain order, so bear with me lol.

I programmed a bunch of random stuff into my baofeng uv5rm a few weeks ago. Say what you want about them, I pick up a ton of traffic with just 100 channels programmed in and set to scan them as I'm driving through concord to Livermore and nearby for my daily route at work.

Anyways, today driving home, I picked up what was likely best buy on 467.900 (they talked about a fortnite ps5 out on display, and I'm pretty sure gamestop is way too small to need radios)

It was only audible for about a mile as I passed it on the freeway, which was fairly high above the nearby stores, so it had good line of sight without much blocking it.

The database lists 467.900 as Joanne's fabrics and some other store in El Cerrito, which is a substantial distance away.

I'm just getting into this hobby, but I would love to help beef-up the Contra Costa library (specifically: Oakley, Brentwood, Antioch, Pittsburg, Discovery bay, and also Concord, Walnut Creek, Livermore, Dublin, Pleasanton when I'm in the area)

I went to several stores with close call on, and got nothing. I can see 4 and 5 jumping a bit, but nothing locks on. Total wine and more, home depot, Ross, etc, not getting anything. I did have a few settings on that didn't help, so the reception seems a lot better and diverse, but still unable to lock on to anything. I did a line of sight test and it was over 80' with line of sight in my back yard with another cheap radio with low wattage output.

I would like to know what settings I can adjust in the bcd436hp, if I need a few add-ons (dmr and nxdn maybe) and if another scanner would be a better option (such as the sds100)

And also what scanners or devices are people using to best capture local radios and their info?

Another question I had was the info readout, is that only based on what is set in the national or local database or does the scanner provide all that when scanning or something?

I wish there was an adjustment you can make to close call to let it pick up a user defined signal range. I manage to get stuff from sfo and Oakland Airport (assuming those are on a repeaters though) so I find it odd that local stuff is harder to grab.

Furthermore, if anyone local wanted to get together to help update the local database on weekends, I would love to meet up and collaborate.

 

[wa8pyr]

I'm just getting into this hobby, but I would love to help beef-up the Contra Costa library (specifically: Oakley, Brentwood, Antioch, Pittsburg, Discovery bay, and also Concord, Walnut Creek, Livermore, Dublin, Pleasanton when I'm in the area)

That‘s great, please submit what you find to the database!

I would like to know what settings I can adjust in the bcd436hp, if I need a few add-ons (dmr and nxdn maybe) and if another scanner would be a better option (such as the sds100)

The DMR and NXDN features aren’t necessary as there’s plenty out there to find that’s using analog, but having those features will increase what you can identify.

 

[ScanRafael]

home depot

It's been over 6 years since I quit my job at Home Depot, but I believe they are still using "First phones" for communication. While it has a Walkie Talkie menu option, you won't be able to pick up what associates are saying with a scanner. They also provided FRS radios to associates who worked in the parking lot.

 

[casemods]

Figured I will just add to this thread instead of making new ones

Went to century plaza (Pittsburg) and streets of Brenwood Saturday.

Brentwood: Saw AMC logo when I was at red Robin getting some food. Decided to look up amc and there was nothing in the bay area (unless I'm using the website incorrectly)

Entered 467.900 open tone (amc listed in Los Angeles) on my baofeng, got a ton of traffic right away. Started up the 436hp and got 3-4 different tones on this one frequency. There is a bunch of stores across the street from streets of brentwood, so it might be tough to track what is what. Still new to the 436hp, is there a way to RF plot with a specific tone? As much as I would like to sit there all day to listen to chatter, it's not possible.

I noticed the database does not have either of these shopping centers on the registry. Hoping to change that. Some of the stuff they say on the radios is pretty funny, I heard them talking about aliens and ufo's lol.

Century plaza, pretty sure I picked up lowes across the street, and burlington or Ross, although ross is known for low output and low traffic from what I've seen (I go to 3-4 stores in a loop every few weeks)

And lastly, what's the general consensus of calling the stores and asking if a name of a person you heard on the radio is working today to verify the frequency and tone of the chatter for the database?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

467.900 D632 is likely Bath and Body Works, I confirmed there is one at The Streets of Brentwood
467.900 D743 might be Best Buy. Stop by and ask for Megan

 

[ecps92]

This is gonna be a multi parter and will likely not be in any certain order, so bear with me lol.

I programmed a bunch of random stuff into my baofeng uv5rm a few weeks ago. Say what you want about them, I pick up a ton of traffic with just 100 channels programmed in and set to scan them as I'm driving through concord to Livermore and nearby for my daily route at work.

Anyways, today driving home, I picked up what was likely best buy on 467.900 (they talked about a fortnite ps5 out on display, and I'm pretty sure gamestop is way too small to need radios)

It was only audible for about a mile as I passed it on the freeway, which was fairly high above the nearby stores, so it had good line of sight without much blocking it.

The database lists 467.900 as Joanne's fabrics and some other store in El Cerrito, which is a substantial distance away.


Another question I had was the info readout, is that only based on what is set in the national or local database or does the scanner provide all that when scanning or something?

I wish there was an adjustment you can make to close call to let it pick up a user defined signal range. I manage to get stuff from sfo and Oakland Airport (assuming those are on a repeaters though) so I find it odd that local stuff is harder to grab.

Furthermore, if anyone local wanted to get together to help update the local database on weekends, I would love to meet up and collaborate.

without the PL or DPL - 467.9000 is a bubble pack business radio channel.

I would venture to guess (assume) based on Electronics, might be Best Buy, Target or Staples.
Always try and get the PL/DPL

Common Itinerant and Business - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

US-Nationwide Businesses-Retail - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Since many of these will be "Common" Nationwide, you won't find them listed locally in the RRDB

 

[casemods]

467.900 D632 is likely Bath and Body Works, I confirmed there is one at The Streets of Brentwood
467.900 D743 might be Best Buy. Stop by and ask for Megan

Best buy is pretty far away on lone tree, I don't think there is another one in the area anymore, but I did hear it from highway 4 one time, at least I'm pretty sure it was best buy, they talked about a fortnite ps5 or something, and I doubt game stop has high power radios for such a small store. Maybe target?

Do you just listen to radio chatter or find some way to find a stronger signal and pinpoint where the chatter is coming from? From what I've been told, there isn't really a way to adjust the close call function on the 436hp, and RF plot doesn't work with tones AFAIK

 

[casemods]

without the PL or DPL - 467.9000 is a bubble pack business radio channel.

I would venture to guess (assume) based on Electronics, might be Best Buy, Target or Staples.
Always try and get the PL/DPL

I learned a lot since that post, managed to get some codes a few days ago, check my last post in here

 

[ecps92]

I learned a lot since that post, managed to get some codes a few days ago, check my last post in here

And listening to the Malls can be hit-or-miss (no not the old store) but long hours to nail down the store, either by Close-Call or a SKU# given that matches to what the website for the store has...

Sometimes, Openning, Closing are the best hours, outside of Black Friday

 

[dave3825]

I wish there was an adjustment you can make to close call to let it pick up a user defined signal range. I manage to get stuff from sfo and Oakland Airport (assuming those are on a repeaters though) so I find it odd that local stuff is harder to grab.

From what I've been told, there isn't really a way to adjust the close call function on the 436hp

There are predefined ranges that you can turn on or off. Not in front of pc at the moment. Look in the profile editor in sentinel under close call.

 

[casemods]

There are predefined ranges that you can turn on or off. Not in front of pc at the moment. Look in the profile editor in sentinel under close call.

I will check when I get home 👍

 

[N4GDG]

I just got a pair of the UV5RM on eBay and programmed one with Chirp. I keyed up a local repeater and the green LED shows activity, but nothing is heard. I have not programmed the second one to see if it has the same problem. It seems this has been an occasional problem, but I have not found how anyone has corrected it. Any ideas? Thank you. Gary

 

[casemods]

I just got a pair of the UV5RM on eBay and programmed one with Chirp. I keyed up a local repeater and the green LED shows activity, but nothing is heard. I have not programmed the second one to see if it has the same problem. It seems this has been an occasional problem, but I have not found how anyone has corrected it. Any ideas? Thank you. Gary

They will queue up green if you have a sub tone programmed but there is activity on the channel with a different sub tone

 

[N4GDG]

I found that if I plug in the speaker mic it works fine. Someone forgot to connect the internal speaker. I appreciate the help. I did not buy on eBay and got them on Amazon. I have heard from the factory and they wanted proof of purchase. I assume they or Amazon are going to replace them.

 

[ECPD279]

467.900 is the "Red Star" common business channel and is licensed to literally THOUSANDS of businesses across the country for short range, in store communications. You will likely find tons of different PL and DCS tones as you drive around.

For business spelunking I tend to keep a bank with all of the common and itinerary channels and tone search turned on.

Some of the larger companies with multiple locations will use the same frequency / tone combination at all of their stores. For example, every Ross store I've ever been past operates on Blue Star (467.9250) with 271 DCS. Every JoAnn (if they're still in business) operates on Red Star (467.9000) 731 DCS. Most of these are nationwide licenses and will not show up with an FCC search on a store location.

On a "BoofWang", I recommend having the following common business frequencies programmed at minimum, with tone search on. You will hear about 80% of businesses that use radios, including retail, restaurants, car dealerships, commercial, industrial, construction, you name it. As you find tones, you can save them to individual channels when you figure out what they are.

J Dot - 467.7625
K Dot - 467.8125
Silver Star - 467.8500
Gold Star - 467.8750
Red Star - 467.9000
Blue Star - 467.9250
Brown Dot - 464.5000 (you'll hear a lot on this and may end up locking it out)
Yellow Dot - 464.5500 (ditto here)
Red Dot - 151.6250
Purple Dot - 151.9550
Blue Dot - 154.5700 (Also MURS 4 - Walmart uses this one with PL 67.0)
Green Dot - 154.6000 (Also MURS 5)
MURS 1 - 151.8200 (Sam's Club - 131 DCS)
MURS 2 - 151.8800
MURS 3 - 151.9400

I also keep all of the itinerant channels scanning with tone search

151.5050
151.5125
151.6400
151.7000
151.7600
154.5725
158.4000
158.4075
451.8000
451.8125
456.8000
456.8125
457.5250
457.5375
457.5500
457.5625
457.5750
457.5875
457.6000
457.6125
467.7500
467.7750
467.7875
467.8000
467.8250
467.8375
467.8625
467.8875
467.9125
469.5000
469.5500