Fire Frequencies in central maine interfering with each other

[2000nesman]

Hey fellas,

Have my police scanner in central Maine and I'm hearing Belgrade on the Farmingdale channel. Looked up Balgrade's freq and they're on 155.085 where Farmingdale is on 155.0925, pretty close huh. I'm getting Belgrade creeping in on my BC125at, wondering how others have solved this.

 

[RaleighGuy]

wondering how others have solved this.

They have two different PL codes, if you use the PL code in the programming of the scanner it should help.

Kennebec County, Maine (ME) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Kennebec County, Maine (ME)

www.radioreference.com

 

[2000nesman]

Huh, never actually used that but I can give it a shot and see if it helps

 

[2000nesman]

Wow ok this actually might solve all my problems assuming the Farmingdale CTCSS is up to date. Never knew what it did.

 

[ecps92]

Hey fellas,

Have my police scanner in central Maine and I'm hearing Belgrade on the Farmingdale channel. Looked up Balgrade's freq and they're on 155.085 where Farmingdale is on 155.0925, pretty close huh. I'm getting Belgrade creeping in on my BC125at, wondering how others have solved this.

Adjacent Freqs will/tend to bleed over, as already suggested, if they both use different PL/DPL that will resolve your issue.

IF they are the same PL/DPL - then you are out of luck due to being so close of an adjacent channel

PL/DPL will minimize, never eliminate interference.
Another use of it would be you have two stations you hear, but you only want to hear one of them.
ie: My Dept uses 131.8, but the neighboring user (25 mi away) uses 156.7 - rather than having no tone, I put in 131.8 and poof, I don't hear that other station

 

[W1KNE]

And don't forget. You're using a consumer radio with a low end receiver. The "NFM" mode on scanners is garbage.
You hear the adjacent channel on the scanner, but those with commercial grade radios, like those fire departments use, they do not.
Even without a PL.

 

[WRQI583]

I listened to the whole Lewiston shooting incident go down over the Androscoggin County SO channel (154.8225) on the Somerset SO channel (154.830) because the two are so close. PL tone decode on scanners does help immensely. Wait until spring and fall comes around, if you happen to live in a sweet spot like me, you will start hearing distant stations coming in over the frequencies you normally listen to when the tropospheric ducting kicks in. I pick up a good chunk of the state of New Hampshire when that happens and I am close to 100 or more from most of the stations I hear.

A lot of the issue with frequencies being so close is that, because they can only use the VHF high band to effectively communicate in the state of Maine due to the terrain, Maine with all of its departments has used up just about every available VHF high band frequency that they possibly could. So, things are a bit crunched together. No issue for the user, but for the person with a scanner, it can be bothersome in some cases.