Help Easy Help!

[scapegoati30]

Hi to all! I have a few questions. I want to buy a police scanner and listen in on whats happening in the town. There are a couple of towns i want to listen in on while im in the area.

Im looking to buy this scanner:

http://www.scannermaster.com/store/01-500882.html


I want to listen to a town called Matteson

Frequency Input License Type Tone CH
470.76250 473.76250 KZU919 RM 127.3 PL 1


Is this town digital or analog? Also is the radio above good for listening?

Thanks to all, I need your help, thanks!

 

[eyes00only]

Where is Matteson (state & county)? I will look it up in the database, and get back to you.

Jerry

 

[werinshades]

Matteson Illinois and I think everything out that way is Analog. As far as the scanner goes, I don't know.

 

[fmon]

Welcome to forum

The 72xlt is not a trunk tracking scanner and also tops out at 512Mhz, thus will not cover the two major systems in the area (Joliet Public Safety Motorola Smartnet and Will County Public Safety EDACS Standard). However, a lot of the Will CO EDACS is simulcast on VHF which the 72 can receive.

A better scanner might be the Pro-97 at $180.00 which will cover both systems as well as the VHF simulcast.

 

[scapegoati30]

Thank you all for your prompt replies. When i was a teen back when, I grew up in the country and my grandmother always had her a analog police scanner in Duklin county MO. She used it to hear what was going around town and when the storms came where the tornadoes where headed.

for your replies:

The town is indeed Matteson IL in cook county. Looking at the frequency they share it with their neighboring towns, olympia fields, Richton park, and park forest.

My major concern is if this area will stay analog for a while or are they upgrading it to digital. Also is uniden 99.99 scanner good for this area or should i go to the 180.00 scanner as the gentlemen suggested?


Thanks to all, can't wait to hear from ya'll.

Oh and thanks for the welcome!

 

[fmon]

CARMA may be a great resource for info regarding any pending changes in your area.

 

[ILbandit]

For getting started the $99 scanner will pull in a ton of stuff, you could probably hear a ton of stuff on the Chicago Police 460.xxx bands, they are always busy. That is a busy area your in, shouldn't have any problem picking up plenty of things to listen to.
After you do that for a while, then you can decide on if you want to get something that will track the trunk systems, & let me tell you, you'll be amazed at all that your missing!

But like I said before,if your just wanting to get your feet wet, the 72xlt will definately get you going.

If you don't want to make the jump from 100 to 200 dollars, you might check out the BCT8. It's a base/mobile style scanner, if I remember right you can pick one up for about 150 - 160 $, and it already has a ton of the local police/fire freqs. pre-programmed in it, The Illinois State Police trunk system for the Chicago area is preprogrammed into it already also. Lots of good listening, right out of the box!

Good luck!

 

[scapegoati30]

Hey guys got the scanner today and man its working good. The only thing is in the town im tunning in and the near by are borning they are on the radio it seems every 1 to 2 minutes. But I did find a 460.200 channel not listed on the Illinois freq list on this site. It appears to be chicago police, channel is very clear... could this be a repeater im picking up?

 

[N9JCQ]

460.200

That's one of the frequencies assigned to Chicao PD. Check out the CARMA web site. That site will bury you in local frequencies including Chicago's frequencies. And yes, it's a repeater. Chicago's frequencies start at 460.025, 460.050, 460.075, etc all the way to 460.475. Then there is Chicago Fire, paramedics, etc..
Also, try programming in 155.475, the common alert frequency all ILL police use commonly refered to as ISPERN.
Good luck and enjoy...

 

[PhilJSmith67]

For Matteson / Richton Park, try these...

154.37 -- Fire
155.025 -- "Band 2" -- Use by police for car-to-car simplex comms
154.115 -- Supposed to be used by Rich Twp. public works, but sometimes carries PD or other traffic
470.6125 -- Mobile data terminals (data only)
470.7625 -- Primary PD comms -- Listed as Cook Co. Suburb Telecom Network #2 by some sources

FYI, all of these frequencies are receivable on any scanner, including the one you inquired about.

Great suggestion about ISPERN (Illinois State Police Emergency Radio Network) at 155.475, which is also repeated by 470.4375. No matter what digital or analog system a community is using, if any situation escalates where other towns are being involved, ISPERN comes alive.

 

[Starcom21]

460.2000 CHICAGO, CITY OF KAZ997 Active IL CHICAGO COOK PW Mobile Relay