Helena/Lewis&Clark

[KaitlynP]

Hey all!
im new to the scanning world and this has proved to be harder than I thought it would be. It has made me out to be a liar when I said I could do this. 🤣

Anyway, heres my situation..
I am in Lewis and clark county just outside Helena city limits.
Im mainly interested in listening to Helena PD, L&C Sherrifs, Dispatches for area, and Montana HP.
I have used freeScan to program in what I wanted. However, i can only hear maybe half of the conversations. Cannot hear officers, or dispatch for HP. I can hear a form of dispatch from Helena PD, but thats it.

Any tips or tricks?
Id be greatful!!

 

[aprswatcher]

First off Welcome to Radio Reference! Great place for information and of course questions.

What type scanner are you using to listen to Lewis & Clark county?
some handle encryption differently.

What siites are you monitoring, Hogback, Downtown, E. Helena, etc?
Are you receiving good signals from these sites?

A little more information will help greatly!

73, Rex

 

[KaitlynP]

Thanks so much for getting back to me!
I have a bcd325p2.
I am currently monitoring Downtown, and E Helena.
Downtown comes through great, but everything else is pretty garbled.
Ill be programming Hogback.

 

[aprswatcher]

I lived in Helena for about 18 months, 6 years ago, while I was there Helena PD dispatch was always “encrypted ”
the mobile units were sometimes encrypted, most of time not encrypted.
With Uniden scanners if a station is “encrypted “ it just continues to scan, it will not stop and you won’t hear anything.
Thats why you’re only hearing half the conversation. I own a Whistler TRX-1 scanner with it when a station is encrypted it stops and you hear a “busy signal” to let you know it is encrypted.
I would program in all the tower sites around the valley and see which ones give you the best signal, then delete the ones that are poor or no reception. There is a reason there are so many towers around the valley.
If your using the stock antenna that came with the 325 you might consider upgrading to a Remtronixs or I have had good luck with a Diamond RH 77 if they still make them.
73, Rex

 

[KaitlynP]

You have been the biggest help so far!! Thank you beyond words. I appreciate your time!!
Ill look into an upgraded atenna and reprogram to all the towers!

 

[aprswatcher]

Glad to be able to help!
Here is another suggestion. Get the software “Proscan“ for programming the scanner it is very easy to use, is supported very well and the author is here on RR to answer questions and he keeps it up to date.
It has a free trial period to try it an out, 30 days. It can be installed on 2 different computers.
Best of all it can log all the radio traffic by frequency for conventional systems or by Talkgroup id’s (TGid) for the Trunked system.
You can see which system/ TGid is active and which site it came from (ie Hogback, Downtown).
Check it out!
One last thing is make sure your 325 when scanning the Trunked system is in “ID search” not ”ID scan” while in “ID search“ it will look for TGid’s that are not programmed, so it is searching for new TGids, thats how you find new departments and users!
73, Rex