Do I not have the correct scanner to pick up my local PD and FD?

[JoshuaHufford]

I have a Uniden BC75XLT scanner, about as basic as you can get. I pretty much have only used it for picking up railroad communication which is my main area of interest, as well as weather radio.

The other day I thought, you know I'm sure there are a lot of other interesting things I could be listening too while driving around or at home, so I programmed in just about every local frequency on this page except for the schools, hospital, and utility frequencies. I live in Jefferson City, which is in northern Cole County.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=1504

So far I haven't picked up a single thing in 3 days of being in and out of the car and scanning at home. While in the car I'm using a mag mount Tram 1094 which is supposedly tuned to these frequencies, 30mhz-50mhz/144mhz-174mhz/430mhz-520mhz/800mhz-950mhz, and I have used it many times for 160MHz stuff as well as 900MHz stuff and it worked very well for that, so I know the antenna works.

At home I'm using a Slim Jim copper pipe antenna tuned to 160MHz-164MHz, about 5 feet above the peak of my roof, I live on the west end of Jefferson City. I know this antenna isn't ideal but I figured I should still get some of the 150MHz stuff. This setup works very well for picking up the rail band and weather radio.

So do I just not have the correct scanner for any of this stuff? Is it encoded now?

Thanks.

 

[simmsrep]

Looks like Cole County is on the Missouri Statewide Wireless Interoperable Network. See here:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6847

It says it is p25 p2 but all talkgroups are using phase 1 so you would need at least a phase 1 scanner but with it being phase 2 capable it would probably be best to get a phase 2 capable scanner.
The Uniden BC75XLT is not setup for this type system.

 

[kruser]

So do I just not have the correct scanner for any of this stuff? Is it encoded now?

Thanks.

As simmsrep said, Cole County has switched over to using Moswin which is a statewide P25 digital system. Your 75XLT will not receive P25 or other digital modes.
Also, most state government level users are also on Moswin now. Many state government users in Jeff City or Cole County fall under the designator of Troop Q on the Moswin system. I hear both State Government users as well as Cole County come up on Moswin here in St Louis. Usually there needs to be a user in this area that is affiliated on one of the local Moswin sites before I'll hear them.

As for Jeff City itself, I don't know. They still have active licenses for standard analog FM that your 75XLT will receive. I'd think they are fairly active also so you should hear them. One possibility is they did switch to another system like Moswin but nobody has updated the RR DB to show that.
If they just upgraded their radios to a digital mode but using the same frequencies, your scanner should still stop and produce the digital signal sound from its speaker when they are talking. Often a digital signal sounds like static to some or even some form of telemetry or other data type sounds.

If railroad signals are still being received on your 75XLT, that pretty much proves the scanner and your antenna are fine.
It is very possible Jeff City has moved to a digital system and likely Moswin if so but I'd think someone would have reported this so the DB is updated.
Moswin itself does not have many city level users on it. It's main use is state level users like the highway patrol and many other state users and then the county level users. Many county governments are now using Moswin for everyday radio communications and have abandoned their old analog V/UHF systems.
Most counties have what is called a Travel channel assigned to them for use when they travel across the state. When they use this channel and are in my area, I can hear them as though they were sitting outside. Any user talking to the person who has travelled to my area will come in perfectly.
I have seen a few unknown or new talkgroups(channels) show up on Moswin lately but who knows who the users are. I doubt Jeff City users would show up on Moswin towers in my area. They limit users to their local towers only so they are not tying up channels across the state.
One exception at times is the City of Sikeston, MO. They are often heard here on the local Moswin towers or sites. That may be because Sikeston was one of the first users of Moswin when it was turned on. Sikeston was more or less the test or guinea pig testers of Moswin as it was being deployed. I suspect they may still be testing things and allow Sikeston's radios on other towers across the state when I hear them.

Also, if you do purchase a scanner capable of today's digital modes, I'd do as simmsrep suggested and make sure it can do P25 Phase 2. Although Moswin is still Phase 1, at some point users will be switched over to Phase 2. One good thing about Moswin is that most of it is in the clear and not encrypted so it can make for some good monitoring!
I don't know if you ever monitored the state patrol back in the low band days but if so, you probably remember that you rarely heard the actual troopers reply. That's no longer true with Moswin, you can now hear the troopers and often from several counties away!
They also let some federal users on Moswin. Mostly used in larger urban areas though. Those users will usually be encrypted.

If you want to satisfy your mind and make sure your equipment is working okay, go ahead and program in some of the local hospital and schools. Schools may be quiet but hospitals should have some activity.
Fire should also be active and still using their VHF frequencies as listed. They rarely change unless Jeff City has installed a digital radio system and nobody from that area has noticed or bother to update the counties DB page here that you linked to. If they did built out a new system, it stands a good chance that all city services including fire, have moved to it. Surely someone would have submitted that info to the DB though.

If you learn nothing, you may want to have a moderator move this thread to the Missouri forum where you may get better help. Or start a new thread with a different topic in the Missouri forum. I know Jeff City did not stop using radios!

Of course, if you learn anything and its not listed in the Cole County page, please submit it for others to use. That's what makes this site thrive.

 

[svrstorm]

Looking at the database Jeff City has a state Trunking site very close to your town.So I bet that everything is on the Trunking system a uniden BCD436hp or Bcd396xt would work great.

 

[kruser]

Looking at the database Jeff City has a state Trunking site very close to your town.So I bet that everything is on the Trunking system a uniden BCD436hp or Bcd396xt would work great.

That's my thought as well. Moswin itself does not even have a handful of cities on the system though. It carries radio comms for many counties but not really cities. Sikeston is one exception I know of. I'd guess there are others.

But... Jeff City is the State Capital for Missouri so Jeff City could have been an exception and allowed on Moswin which is the state trunking site you saw in the DB. I think they may have two sites in or near Jeff City, a VHF site as well as a 700 MHz site if my memory is correct. Moswin itself started as primarily a VHF system but new sites showing up today are almost always 700 MHz it seems.

I'm not positive but I'd assume the main or master control site for Moswin is also located in Jeff City with redundant sites located at key locations across the state. Most new FCC applications for Moswin give a Jeff City address in the applications contact info.

edit: Either x36HP models as well as the models with P2 in the model number would be a good choice as they do P25 Phase 2.

The 396XT or 996XTs are decent radios as well but they will only do Phase 1. All the Moswin sites advertise Phase 2 compatibility over their control channels so it's probably just a matter of time before new talkgroups start showing up that are using Phase 2.

 

[JoshuaHufford]

Thanks everyone, this was very helpful. I'm not that interested in my local PD that I'm going to run out and get a new scanner, but if I decide to get another I might look into something that will pick it up.