Fairfax County FD P-25

[mikev]

There are much easier ways to find or check the talkgroups than to do wildcard scanning.

I use a program called Pro96Com to keep tabs on P25 systems... The same laptop that I have at home providing my feeds also runs this program. Connected to my PSR-500, it keeps watch on the Loudoun County system's control channel. New TG ID's are labelled with the date/time they were first seen, so I'll go through the Talkgroups file from time to time looking for new ones... then I'll add them to my 800 with recording enabled, and after a few days, go through any recordings there may be to see if I can identify anything. This way I don't have to get stuck listening to all kinds of other things I don't want, since I know exactly what TG ID's I want to hear.

There's another (harder to use, IMHO) program called Unitrunker that can do the same, but it also works with Motorola and other systems. I also don't know if the GRE scanners send control channel data for non-P25 systems, since I've never used Unitrunker.

 

[steve888]

Thanks Mike!

I really appreciate all your help and information. I'll probably just wait for the RR database update but it's good to know there are some options with the PSR-800 when it comes to programming individual channels.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[SCPD]

I also don't know if the GRE scanners send control channel data for non-P25 systems, since I've never used Unitrunker.

They do. Steve's PSR800 will provide control channel data for EDACS, LTR, and Motorola. The PSR800 can also route discriminator audio through the headphone jack to permit decoding protocols the PSR800 doesn't support.

 

[freqhopping]

The issue is that the new system sucks. What's in or might not be in the database is not the issue.
856.2625 is the current control channel FWIW. My scanners are properly programed but receiving comms is hit or miss. My 396XT will display a solid 5 bars, yet half the time the sysid won't even display. Not just at home in Loudoun, but also in Fairfax Co. Also it appears like the signal drops out too. I don't know if it has to with signal strength, the modulation or what.

 

[steve888]

Finally Getting Some Traffic

I just updated my library from 141 to 142 and I'm now finally getting some Fire/EMS traffic on the following channels:

4B Response
49B Inova Fairfax Hospital
49C Mt. Vernon
4K Incident 23
Medcom

Looks like they're getting everything updated pretty quickly...at least some of them. The signal is loud and clear on my PSR-800. Looking forward to update 143. Thanks!