Grand Forks

Status
Not open for further replies.

justinglawe

Newbie
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4
Greetings,
Forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but I'm new to using this site in any capacity other than to access frequencies. I'm also new to the Grand Forks area.

I've programmed in virtually all police, fire and EMS frequencies I've found on here into my Radio Shack Pro-164 portable. Still, hardly anything.

I had a Pro-96 in Bemidji that worked great by just programming in frequencies but, alas, it was stolen. The Pro-164 came with a ton of frequencies programmed so I wiped it and started over.

I'm hardly getting anything.

I don't think Grand Forks and EGF are on a trunked system, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
JG
 

ofd8001

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
7,890
Location
Louisville, KY
Bad news I'm afraid - as best as I can tell, the Radio Shack 164 doesn't receive digital (aka P25) transmissions. I believe most everything in Grand Forks is digital. On the "East Side" EGF PD appears to have converted to a digital system, but the fire department remains analog.

They are all conventional systems (a few years ago, Grand Forks had been on a trunked system, but they switched back to conventional).

Based on my trips to the area in 2012, you'll find the GF PD to be the most talkative, GF Fire makes a couple of calls each day, EGF PD is a typical small town with not a lot of radio traffic and the EGF fire has even less radio traffic.

On the sheriff side, the Grand Forks SO will do some traffic stops every now and then and I don't recall hearing much out of the Polk SO. (Polk SO did have a patch on their VHF frequency to the ARMER system and I did catch some transmissions on the associated talkgroup).

For the State Patrols, you could go hours and not hear much, especially MSP. However since I've been up there, MSP may have migrated to the ARMER system for the Thief River District and a little more radio traffic may be heard.

At least for me, this time of year was fascinating to visit East Grand Forks. It was so interesting to watch the farmers dig sugar beets and haul them to the beet factory.

Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:

justinglawe

Newbie
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4
Thank you

I actually learned a lot of this today, and am getting a Uniden scanner that picks up both p25 digital and analog frequencies.

That being said, thank you for your reply. It's always frustrating to not be getting traffic when you need it. And thank you for the insights as far as the amount of traffic goes, I appreciate it.
 

justinglawe

Newbie
Joined
Dec 27, 2012
Messages
4
Talk Group IDs

I'm now getting some traffic thanks to a new scanner, but still am missing out on some. I think this is because I don't have the talk group IDs for the Grand Forks PD and county sheriff's new digital trunking system.

The P25 frequencies are available here, but the company that works on law enforcement equipment would not give up the talk group IDs. He said "they're available on the state website," whatever that means.

Again, any help is appreciated....
 

gunmasternd

Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2012
Messages
146
Location
Fargo,ND
I'm now getting some traffic thanks to a new scanner, but still am missing out on some. I think this is because I don't have the talk group IDs for the Grand Forks PD and county sheriff's new digital trunking system.

The P25 frequencies are available here, but the company that works on law enforcement equipment would not give up the talk group IDs. He said "they're available on the state website," whatever that means.

Again, any help is appreciated....

Your not missing anything. When theres nothing to listen to you cant miss it. I visit grand forks about a dozen times a year? to see my cousins and concerts etc...

Invest in a preamp and see if you can pick up other counties and upgrade you antenna.
 

ofd8001

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
7,890
Location
Louisville, KY
As noted from previous posts, I kind of keep up with the radio stuff in the Grand Forks area. I was unaware that the Grand Forks Sheriff has a trunked radio system. The RR database shows the SO on conventional - Grand Forks County, North Dakota (ND) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Having said that and being a rare visitor to the area, I'm not a current listener and things may have changed since my last listening opportunity.

So I'm at a loss for information on Talk Group IDs for the sheriff's office. I see you are relatively new to this forum and I'm presuming you may be new to scanning (or at least in it's modern forms). "Talk Group IDs" are something associated with trunked systems, and NOT for conventional systems (presuming the Grand Forks Sheriff is still conventional).

If you are meaning Unit IDs you may be interested in visiting the site listed below for the North Dakota state radio system. In the documents section you'll see "Current Unitbook". That's a listing of all the radio call numbers or unit IDs that have been recorded with the state radio folks. (There are none listed for the Grand Forks Sheriff, however).

ND Department of Emergency Services: State Radio : State Radio Unit Book

There is also another document on this webpage which shows the digital radio IDs, which is sort of/kind of, like a cellular telephone number. That is a unique identification number associated with with a piece of electronic communications equipment and when the unit is transmitting that number is displayed on the receiving radio to give the receive some idea of who is calling.

Also, for my own curiosity, have your programmed the Minnesota ARMER system's East Grand Forks and Crookston sites in your scanner? If so, have you received much traffic particularly for the state patrol's Thief River District?
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top