help with scanner selection

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Ronnierozier2

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I am new to scanning and have zero knowledge of what is required to listen to these new departments digital frequencies. The last time i had my hands on a scanner was 20 years ago with a 100.00 bearcat analog scanner. What im wanting to do is listen to the frequencies listed below and whatever else is in my area. What im requesting is someone post 3-4 handheld scanners that will work with what im trying to do. The only scanner im currently looking at is the Uniden HomePatrol II. I just found it by looking on amazon, I'm not even sure if it will work. Thats why im reaching out to you guys to get some remomendations on what handheld scanner I need.

Thanks in advance on those that are willing to help me find a scanner to suite my needs. I just want to sit on my front porch and listen to the police,fire,sheriff,and whatever else I can pickup in my area....Leflore County Mississippi

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fredva

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There are a number of talkgroups (channels) on the statewide digital trunking system for your county, so I'd suspect that is where a lot of the action is. The screen shots you have are of legacy frequencies, some of which may be still used in parallel with the statewide system, or might not be used anymore. Probably any P25 Phase II scanner will meet your needs. You don't have digital simulcast in your area, so you do not need the more expensive SDS series of scanners, although one of those would do the job.

Options for you would include the Uniden BCD325P2, Uniden BCD436HP, and the Whistler TRX-1, in addition to the HomePatrol2. Do not get a Whistler WS-1040, because that model only handles P25 Phase I, and you need Phase II to monitor the statewide system.
 
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EMwaves54

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I was in the same boat recently.
Bluetail P25rx-II. It does everyone I could ever want and the support is awesome. Its truly an awesome unit.
 

Reconrider

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Firstly, what is your budget?
If it's under 300, then I would probably say the 325p2 is great at that price.
If it's between 300-500$, i would say get you a used TRX1 or uniden 436.
500$+, get an sds100/sds200 which will do basically everything.

Words of advice I didn't know.
Most uniden scanners you MUST purchase dmr, provoice and edacs separately for another charge on top of the scanners purchase(do this through unidens website not a 3rd party so you're not paying more than needed)

whistlers TRX1 / TRX2 do NOT trunk track NXDN and DMR, it scans the voice channels so tracking a single talkgroup isn't real easy.


With all this in mind, if you want to listen to only your states/county/town trunk system - pick up yourself a 40$ rtl sdr dongle from amazon. It won't work super well acting as a "scanner" but it will track trunk systems greatly and cheap as heck.

I own the sds100, trx1 and my trx1 sits on an edacs system and my sds100 is my main scanner.
 

Ronnierozier2

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Thanks for the info guys I went ahead and ordered the BCD436HP hope this will work for my needs. Now I have to figure out how to set it all up lol
 

Ronnierozier2

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ok guys, i purchased the bcd436hp and i entered my zip code and its been scanning for over an hour and i hear nothing. from my understanding my local Police,sheriff, EMS...etc all use the Mississippi MSWIN network not the frequencies listed on radioreference database. I spoke to a guy today that has access to the system and he said there are a couple hundred frequencies that these departments use from 770mhz to 803mhz is what I remember him saying. I am totally confused on how im going to get this to work. He also said all are P25 phase II unencrypted. this is about all the information I have. can someone walk me through setting this up? right now this 500.00 scanner is useless because i cant hear a thing.

someone please help LOL im in Leflore county (Greenwood) Mississippi
 

hiegtx

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ok guys, i purchased the bcd436hp and i entered my zip code and its been scanning for over an hour and i hear nothing. from my understanding my local Police,sheriff, EMS...etc all use the Mississippi MSWIN network not the frequencies listed on radioreference database. I spoke to a guy today that has access to the system and he said there are a couple hundred frequencies that these departments use from 770mhz to 803mhz is what I remember him saying. I am totally confused on how im going to get this to work. He also said all are P25 phase II unencrypted. this is about all the information I have. can someone walk me through setting this up? right now this 500.00 scanner is useless because i cant hear a thing.

someone please help LOL im in Leflore county (Greenwood) Mississippi
When you received the scanner, did you also install Sentinel on your PC & update the database? When shipped, the database in the scanner is well out of date, possibly even several years out. So, if all you did was take the scanner out, install the batteries & connect the antenna, you're using outdated information.

To verify what is the database on your scanner, press the Menu key. That's the key on the left side of the scanner, on the bottom.
On the scanner's display, scroll down and select Manage Full Database by pressing the E (enter) key.
On the next screen, scroll down & select Information.
1652999313879.png

If what you see on your scanner is significantly older, then you need to install Sentinel to update it.

Install Sentinel on your PC.

There is an Easier to Read manual for Sentinel available online.

Look down in the lower left corner of Sentinel on your PC & see what date is shown, After first installing, it's almost certainly out of date. On Sentinel's main screen, click on the small icon directly under the Tools drop-down menu. (You can also select Update main database from the drop-down Update menu.)
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Sentinel will connect via the Internet & get the most recent update available. (Currently, that is 5/15/2022).

Go into the Profile editor and set your Location as well as a Range. (Access the Profile Editor via the drop-down Edit menu.) How location based scanning works (which is what you are doing if just entering your zip code) is explained here:
How it Works: Location, Location, Location

Review the Service types that you want to scan. When first shipped (as well as when Sentinel is first installed), only Dispatch service types are enabled for Public Safety agencies: Law Dispatch, Fire Dispatch, EMS Dispatch, and Multi-Dispatch. You should also enable the Talk and Tac service types. Examples include Law Talk, Law Tac, Fire Talk, Fire Tac, etc.

Once you've entered your desired location and range, as well as selected the Service Types of interest, then connect the scanner to your PC using the cable that came with it. When you connect the scanner with the cable, and plug into your PC, you'll get a prompt on-screen asking you to choose a mode. For updating the database, as well as setting location, range, and service types, select Mass Storage Mode by pressing the E (enter) key.

Once the scanner is in mass storage mode, send the updated database, as well as location & service type data, to the scanner by either selecting "Write to Scanner" from the drop-down Scanner menu, or clicking the icon.
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Once the update is completed, click on the 'Eject USB devices' icon on the lower right portion of the Windows task bar. You need to eject it correctly, since if, instead, you unplugged the cable while the scanner was communicating with the PC, you could corrupt the data on the memory card.
 

Ronnierozier2

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Hey,

thanks for the reply. I did update the database and on the scanner it’s showing 5-15-2022. I have tried everything and I cannot hear any transmissions from my local sheriff and police department
 

dave3825

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I spoke to a guy today that has access to the system and he said there are a couple hundred frequencies that these departments use from 770mhz to 803mhz is what I remember him saying. I am totally confused on how im going to get this to work.

Your local police, fire and ems most likely transmit on just 1 site (could be more) and that would be the Morgan City site in Leflore County. Yes, there are hundreds of freqs on this system but there are only 5 freqs for the site closest to you that's in your county.

3 (3)007 (7)Morgan CityLeflore769.46875c769.71875c769.96875c771.60625772.85625


Is everything you want to listen to listed here? Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) TG Category: Leflore County (42)

With there being so many sites and so many departments, I would use sentinel and for starters, just import site "Morgan City" and Department "Leflore County (42)" and see what happens. You can always add and delete to the scanner anything you wish..


Don't give up. I have the same scanner and it just takes a little getting used to. We will get you there.
 

fredva

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I don't know if this is the case here, but sometimes with zip code scanning, the scanner is scanning too many frequencies. You can miss transmissions on an active channel because the scanner is going through frequencies without any activity. If you do zip code programming, I would suggest limiting your range. I don't remember what the default is, but try limiting the range to maybe 1 mile. The range is based on what should be heard in that circular area. A transmitter doesn't have to be within that 1 mile. It just has to be close enough and powerful enough to put a signal within a mile of you. Another thing I would suggest is to review your service types. Make sure the type of services you want to listen to are turned on, and things that are less important are turned off. You will probably want to turn on things like Law-Tac and Fire-Tac in addition to dispatch.

Zip code programming is a way to check out the scanner and make sure it works. It's not the optimal use of the scanner, and over time, custom programming with Favorites Lists is recommended.
 

fredva

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To be clear, MSWIN is in the RadioReference database and should be in your scanner's database if it is up to date. MSWIN is just on a different web page than the legacy frequencies you were looking at.
 

dave3825

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I have tried everything and I cannot hear any transmissions from my local sheriff and police department
Can you hear anything at all? Is so then definitely reduce your range to 1 mile or even 1/2 mile (0.5). That should weed out much of the unwanted other counties.
 

Ronnierozier2

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Yes. To begin with I would like to get at least Greenwood olive and sheriff department working then branch out from there. From what I’m looking at “Leflore County (42)” does have what I want to listen. To.

min the uniden software I tried just adding Leflore county (42) to my favorites list but it added so much more. So I manually deleted everything except Leflore county (42) then I uploaded to my scanner. I turned everything to OFF and left my group with Leflore county (42) ON and when I went to the Main screen on my scanner it would not scan my favorites list. It acted like it was empty.
Probably something I’m doing in the software so I’m going to try it again and report back.
 

dave3825

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Make sure before you write to scanner, that you hit edit then edit profile. In there you will see that fav list. Make sure download and monitor are set to on. The write to the scanner.
 

fredva

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When you add your talkgroups for the sheriff's dept., police dept., etc to a Favorites List, the sites for the MSWIN system should automatically move over as well. But you want to make sure that site doesn't get deleted or set to Avoid once you have put it in the FL. You can delete all the other sites but ensure Morgan City is still there, along with your county talkgroups. I see you have a second thread where people are trying to assist.
 

Ronnierozier2

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Your right all the sites for MSWIN move over as well as Leflore county including Morgan city. Still can’t hear a single transmission. I know the scanner works because when I just use zip code and set range to 1 mile I can occasionally hear Entergy MS and EMS.

I stayed up until 2am this morning adding things and starting over from factory default time and time again with no success.
 
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