Dauphin County - Motorola p25 System

[paemtp152]

I should be able to take my 996T, put it in ID scan mode and with a portable be able to map the talk groups by going to each channel on the portable and just key up right?

That didn't seem to work with a mobile unit. Later today I'll try it with an EMS portable to see if it works any better.

 

[HM1529]

Many talkgroups are now listed in the database. Many of the police and ems talkgroups are apparently encrypted full time.

 

[Kief]

Are you finding all the departments encrypted or just some? What is many 5 or 6 . I was just wondering if it’s worth getting a digital scanner at this point. I also wanted to point out that if you check out the Department of Justice web site it encourages all public safety to use encryption for communications .I think this is the beginning of the end for police scanners. This will spread across the county. Just had to add my two cents

 

[HM1529]

Are you finding all the departments encrypted or just some? What is many 5 or 6 . I was just wondering if it’s worth getting a digital scanner at this point. I also wanted to point out that if you check out the Department of Justice web site it encourages all public safety to use encryption for communications .I think this is the beginning of the end for police scanners. This will spread across the county. Just had to add my two cents

Information submitted to the database so far says that all the police channels except for the main dispatch channels and all the EMS channels except for the dispatch channel will have full time encryption.

Fire channels will be clear.

I am not sure about EMA and other talkgroups...still waiting for folks to submit information to confirm.

There are more talkgroups on the system than what is currently listed. However, I am awaiting additional information from submitters.

 

[paemtp152]

Information submitted to the database so far says that all the police channels except for the main dispatch channels and all the EMS channels except for the dispatch channel will have full time encryption.

Fire channels will be clear.

I am not sure about EMA and other talkgroups...still waiting for folks to submit information to confirm.

There are more talkgroups on the system than what is currently listed. However, I am awaiting additional information from submitters.

This was my understanding also.

So back to the original question -

If I take a portable and my BCD996T with the information that is currently in the database and set the scanner to "ID search" will I be able to get the talkgroup ID by keying up the portable on each talkgroup in the portable? This didn't work with an EMS mobile unit but then I might be doing something wrong.

 

[paemtp152]

At the moment Derry Twp. PD is un-encrypted on TG 11201.

 

[HM1529]

At the moment Derry Twp. PD is un-encrypted on TG 11201.

Yeah, according to the info submitted, that should remain clear since it is a dispatch channel.

Most scanners will ignore a talkgroup on which all units are encrypted.

On the digital scanners I have used, unless there was a talkgroup that was selectable encryption and at least once active user was transmitting clear, the scanner would not display the talkgroup. I would guess your scanner works the same way. So, since most of the EMS talkgroups are full time encrypted, you're probably not going to be able to use the scanner to get info.

The info that was sent in recently included more EMS talkgroups than what are currently listed. However, since they are all encrypted, I did not get a chance to list them (kind of pointless since we can scan them). I got busy doing something else. I probably should not have wasted my time entering the encrypted police talkgroups, but I did.

 

[paemtp152]

Yeah, according to the info submitted, that should remain clear since it is a dispatch channel.

Most scanners will ignore a talkgroup on which all units are encrypted.

On the digital scanners I have used, unless there was a talkgroup that was selectable encryption and at least once active user was transmitting clear, the scanner would not display the talkgroup. I would guess your scanner works the same way. So, since most of the EMS talkgroups are full time encrypted, you're probably not going to be able to use the scanner to get info.

The info that was sent in recently included more EMS talkgroups than what are currently listed. However, since they are all encrypted, I did not get a chance to list them (kind of pointless since we can scan them). I got busy doing something else. I probably should not have wasted my time entering the encrypted police talkgroups, but I did.

Good info. I'm going to play with it at work tomorrow and see what happens. As long as I can get the dispatch channels I'll be happy.

BTW - 51004 which is listed as Dauphin Boro also appears to be un-encrypted.

 

[vinzep491]

correct me if i'm wrong,

but does this mean Hbg PD's dispach channel is and will remain in the clear??

 

[Twister_2]

I currently only have the simulcast frequencies programmed into my 106. Will I be able to hear the rest of the county's talkgroups from only monitoring the simulcast system? or will I have to program in all the tower sites?

 

[HM1529]

Was in Harrisburg the past few days for meetings. Lots of encrypted channels on the system...that's a bummer, but inevitable with the newer technologies.

I guess locals will have to listen to develop a list of which PD's are being dispatched on PD DISP 1 and PD DISP 2.

I did note, though, that a PRO-106 set up with the talkgroup wildcard will, in fact, display all received talkgroups, even those that are full time encrypted. Not that it matters much since, apparently, the users on this system cannot disable the encryption which means there will be little to no chance of hearing anything on all the encrypted talkgroups.

I say little to no because for whatever reason (programming error?) there was a short period of time where some radios on our local trunked system that were supposedly "strapped encrypted" could be heard in the clear. The issues was resolved after a week or two, but it provided some interesting listening for a brief period. So, keep an ear open as you never know what will happen.

 

[vinzep491]

?

I have the pd1 simulcast old channel (460.075) pogramedinto my analogscanner, and got nothing?!?!


Has 460.075 been terminated ALREADY, or am i having technical issues (have tried on multiple scnaners, still nothing?)



Input my fellow scanner freaks?

 

[WF3J]

Can't help you on 460.075 since it is for the south end of the county, but here in the north end they are still using 460.050 on the old system, along with some lower county districts (Lower Swatara for one). It has been quite active. The old system had 460.025, 460.050, 460.075, and 460.100 active at one time or another. I was never able to pick up anything on 460.075 from here.

From what I have been hearing from others, the lower county police switchover has been going well. They will switch over lower county EMS next week, with lower county fire the week after that.

We have another radio update meeting for our zone on the 13th. We should get a progress report and update then.

 

[Twister_2]

I have the pd1 simulcast old channel (460.075) pogramedinto my analogscanner, and got nothing?!?!


Has 460.075 been terminated ALREADY, or am i having technical issues (have tried on multiple scnaners, still nothing?)



Input my fellow scanner freaks?

460.075 has nothing for me either. It is not you or your scanner. There isn't any audio there the last time I checked. However, on 460.025, I have been hearing both analog and simulcast of digital. I don't know when, if when, they will plug the digital audio into 460.075.

I've been having other problems with this simulcast system. My 106 with the ducky gets horrible decode rates. I live almost equi-distant from the Blue Mtn site and the Chambers Hill site. With all of these weak signals and not one very strong signal, the scanner has trouble decoding the P25. I hope this isn't a problem for the police's portables in my area, but it certainly is for me. Once I get closer to a site, the problem is fixed but hooking it up to an onmi directional antenna makes it worse. It just increases all of the other weak simulcast signals. I might just have to get a beam and point it to Chambers Hill.
(I already tried the Atenuator. Nothing. It makes the signals too weak to decode at all)

 

[hosehead88]

Just made some changes to my Pro-2096...added Derry site and the Ellendale site to a bank.

My 2096 is still having great difficulty with this system. My PSR-600 seems to have no issues at all.

Signal is strong (90%+) for both sites, and the bank is OPEN, so any TG activity should come in.

Anyone successfully using a 2096 on this system? Perhaps I will need to see it to someone in York so I can buy another 600...

 

[wackywaves]

Fire talkgroups starting to appear on the system, In particular hbg fire ops and fire dispatch.

All current talkgroups sound great from the blue mtn simulcast, with the exception of occasional interference when listening to middletown and occasionally derry disp (but more so middletown). I'm unsure why it's only on these tg's, but seeing as I used to not even be able to pick up these guys on their conventional frequencies at all.. one cannot complain. It's still readable... just an unusual amount of background noise at times.
I'm noticing MANY encrypted tg's... quite a shame! One can only wonder what's being said.

Anyone else monitoring the successful transition onto the system? Anymore updates or information?!

ww

 

[wackywaves]

testing on a hershey fire tg, alot of talk from lp fire and hbg city fire, as well as other unidentifyed tg's in the fire band

 

[Twister_2]

During the fire tonight in Hershey, they used FIRE OPS 2 which was 2102, I think. I heard the dispatch on 33.8 also, but the units were on the P25 system. I assume the dispatch was on both and will be for a little while. It didn't sound that bad.
I am having serious problems, though. With only the rubber duck on the 106, the decode rate isn't good at all. Sometimes it is down in the 30% range and there is barely any audio, just a blurb here and a quick pop there. I narrowed the problem down to the multiple tower sites having a control channel on one frequency. That's expected because it is a partially simulcast system. I was hoping it would sound better from my house but it isn't. Heck, it sounds better all the way out in Lebanon county because there are less signals on the same frequency, I think.

 

[wackywaves]

Hey, Where are you located?

I'm fortunate enough to be near the simulcast tower on blue mtn and always have a good signal, dont know the conditions from any of the other towers or anything..

 

[Twister_2]

I'm off of Nyes road. I have great signals on multiple sites. I think that is the problem. It just can't decode it with all the signals possibly doing multipath.