Fondy County new 800 MHz frequencies

[MarcusDude]

I was in FDL for work today, and I did a little scanning on my way in and on my noon hour, here’s what I got:

854.0375 NAC492 one brief keyup, nothing heard

859.4375 NAC202 lots of chatter, 100% ENC

861.9875 NAC201 this is not native P25 traffic, it is patched in from 155.010/155.625 which are now patched together full time

Unfortunately I was unable to get any radio IDs.

 

[ecps92]

861.9875 is the SO Dispatch - in the RRDB

Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin (WI) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference for Fond Du Lac County, Wisconsin (WI)

www.radioreference.com

the other two are on the same license

FCC Callsign WRUU965 (FOND DU LAC, COUNTY OF)

FCC Callsign WRUU965 (FOND DU LAC, COUNTY OF)

www.radioreference.com

but with N202 being ENC, no true description to be able to make a legit submission

 

[tonyh72]

I finally remembered to punch those new freqs into my scanner thanks to your post MarcusDude.

859.4375 NAC202 lots of chatter, 100% ENC

Was always active at exactly the same times as 155.625 (listening to two scanners side by side). I might venture a guess that it was an encrypted patch of 155.625. Sometime between Jan. 1 and today it has gone quiet however.

These have been active since shortly after 12:30 pm today:
854.5625 NAC 204 patch of City of FDL Police WISCOM TG 20101.
856.9875 NAC 206 patch of City of FDL Fire/EMS WISCOM TG 20107

Also logged two hits today on 854.0375 NAC 203, and one hit on 858.0625 NAC 205. Unattended logging software, take it for what it's worth...

861.9875 is the SO Dispatch - in the RRDB

155.625 is the SO dispatch. 861.9875, and the other freqs on this license are all too new for me to be convinced that anything about any of them is permanent yet. I never take anything in the RDDB as gospel...

 

[aScanner966999]

Anyone in the FDL area notice that starting around Dec 22 2024 that the city PD is partially encrypted? I/E you will hear the dispatcher call out to a unit, you can always here the dispatcher but a lot of the time you cannot hear that officers reply ( and when the officer is replying I hear nothing and on the top screen of my SDS100 it says “encryp”. I kept a log for 3 days and the strange part is that there is zero consistency to the encryption... a certain unit will be clear and then 5 mins later be encrypted again.. & there seems to be no specific rhyme or reason to it, as sometimes things as simple as status checks will be encrypted then ten mins later that same unit will be in the clear.

I messaged the Chief of police for the FDL city PD and this was his answer. Which the answer in itself is definitely not the truth. ( & it’s not just my scanner, I have 2 scanners and also noticed the change on the 5-0 radio app and the RR Feed.. (which is the exact same feed).

If anyone else is noticing this please Reply.

 

[aScanner966999]

Update.
So I pulled out the old Home Patrol 2 to test something based upon the above posts. I put the HP2 on the Traditional FDL City PD 155.7300 .. listed as (Patch of 20101) .. and locked the Sds100 onto the new 854.5625 and I noticed something… it seems as the 854.5625 is now being used as the originating source of emissions… as every time a call went out, the SDS picked it up first, and the HP2 was a 1-2 second delay, there were also times were officers would speak to one another and I’d hear the whole conversation on 854.5625 and only hear half or sometimes none of it on the (now old) 155.7300…. it appears that possibly the city is no longer using Wiscom as their main frequency… this is just an educated guess especially makes sense to me due to the FDL Sheriff now phasing in their 800mhz system … makes more sense for the county and for interoperability as winnebago county is on a 800mhz p25 system as well. . and Outagamie As well as Dodge also being unencrypted..Hopefully they keep these systems in the clear as all the surrounding counties are besides Sheboygan CityPD and they are a STATE of their own to say the least I can see why, having grown up in Sheboygan, why they dont want the public to hear what the police are doing. Going to pray and cross my fingers that FDLPD and FDLSD stay open and transparent.
I LOVE the police, but I also do not want to live in a police state and IMO encrypting dispatch crosses that line in the sand, especially with the mainstream news becoming more “bought off“ and corrupt by the day. It is nice to be able to keep an ear out on your own as these are our communities and we pay for & support our government.

 

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

Encryption is weird sometimes here too up north. You'll hear units that are normally clear on a specific radio go encrypted then back to clear or vice versa. Might just be because of radio programming or maybe the officer doesn't know what the switch does and is trying to find out.

I hope FDL Co is going to spend some time with the 800 system to make it have a similar or better footprint to the old VHF system. Not much of a real reason to switch to 800 unless the county is fairly urban and also newer multi-band/all-band radios that have been on the market for a while now sort of solve that interop issue between bands, at least for those that have them. If coverage is better though then it's likely better for the department.

 

[aScanner966999]

Encryption is weird sometimes here too up north. You'll hear units that are normally clear on a specific radio go encrypted then back to clear or vice versa. Might just be because of radio programming or maybe the officer doesn't know what the switch does and is trying to find out.

I hope FDL Co is going to spend some time with the 800 system to make it have a similar or better footprint to the old VHF system. Not much of a real reason to switch to 800 unless the county is fairly urban and also newer multi-band/all-band radios that have been on the market for a while now sort of solve that interop issue between bands, at least for those that have them. If coverage is better though then it's likely better for the department.

Agreed. & hopefully it stays in the clear !
I like living in a community where the police and citizens work together. Appleton, Oshkosh, Neenah etc are all 800Mhz systems in the clear. Makes sense for interop as many incidents are crossing into those counties .. will also make it easier for state patrol to interop with FDL county and those counties since they are also on p25 unencrypted.

 

[MarcusDude]

Update.
So I pulled out the old Home Patrol 2 to test something based upon the above posts. I put the HP2 on the Traditional FDL City PD 155.7300 .. listed as (Patch of 20101) .. and locked the Sds100 onto the new 854.5625 and I noticed something… it seems as the 854.5625 is now being used as the originating source of emissions… as every time a call went out, the SDS picked it up first, and the HP2 was a 1-2 second delay, there were also times were officers would speak to one another and I’d hear the whole conversation on 854.5625 and only hear half or sometimes none of it on the (now old) 155.7300…. it appears that possibly the city is no longer using Wiscom as their main frequency… this is just an educated guess especially makes sense to me due to the FDL Sheriff now phasing in their 800mhz system … makes more sense for the county and for interoperability as winnebago county is on a 800mhz p25 system as well. . and Outagamie As well as Dodge also being unencrypted..Hopefully they keep these systems in the clear as all the surrounding counties are besides Sheboygan CityPD and they are a STATE of their own to say the least I can see why, having grown up in Sheboygan, why they dont want the public to hear what the police are doing. Going to pray and cross my fingers that FDLPD and FDLSD stay open and transparent.
I LOVE the police, but I also do not want to live in a police state and IMO encrypting dispatch crosses that line in the sand, especially with the mainstream news becoming more “bought off“ and corrupt by the day. It is nice to be able to keep an ear out on your own as these are our communities and we pay for & support our government.

155.730 is not and (since joining WISCOM) was not the origin of the signal traffic. That channel is a patch out from TG 20101, and 854.5625 likely is as well. My guess is that the technicians are currently doing 800 MHz P25 coverage/range testing at this point.