HFD bids aloha to provoice?

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wh6diq

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Himages, you are right...I have not heard EMS at all today. They must have completely switched over to the new system.

I do still hear action on the HFD tac channels tonight however (in addition to Dispatch). So far HPD is still up also...really ticks me off how much time they are spending giving out covid tickets the past few days!

Maybe through the holidays I will spend some time figuring out how to search and capture activity on the new P25 system. Apparently at least during some of the early testing, conversations were heard on a couple talkgroups. Maybe some is not encrypted... maybe just need another "upgrade" like DMR or the NXDN for my SDS200. Hopefully.

Scanvin...there's still plenty to listen to, maybe just not exactly the area you are interested in. The MP's, Federal Fire, and Mil Air can get interesting; Marine, Amateur Radio, Commercial Air, even CB and FMR get active occasionally also, depending on your area. My preference certainly is First Responders in my neighborhood, but I won't be selling off my scanner for half price!
 

himages

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Pawaa Ambulance (or you can say 1010) vanished since last week or so....so was thinking if they DID move to those freqs that uniden also is selling....but I want to MAKE SURE they are on those freqs. Tell you one thing for sure, IF HFD moves alongside Pawaa 1010, the thrill is gone. Yeah...only thing I hear from HPD is covid violations (I have my opinion about this but its personal....but I DO agree with the govt so I only take it off when at home). I could hear HFD dispatch 1st alarm for that Hi Kai senior residence which per news (photos by folks with iphones)....but I was in Oreillys without my rig when the 3rd alarm struck.....(I subscribed to that phone text message system before buying the sds).
Can any of the unidens sds100, 200 and or the 436 monitor p25?
 

himages

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but since the 200 is mobile/base...its not handheld :(.....so I will see....was thinking if I should get that real shorty antenna and see what happens....the RS one is kinda tall and gets in the way of my tshirt sorta.....
 

himages

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ProVoice is the only upgrade I have activated on my SDS200...no DMR or TRBO.
Up until about the last 3 or 4 months, I received ALL "at scene" HFD traffic. I do still hear traffic on the Tac channels at scene, but it is clear there have been recent changes. I do not usually hear their initial acknowledgement to a dispatch as in recent past.

As I stated earlier in this thread, Ocean Safety has switched over to the new system and unable to be monitored, except for when they are on interops. Prior to losing them, I did hear them announce several times over their main channels that they would be switching, as a reminder for staff to be sure their new radios were charged and ready for the changeover date.

I never heard similar announcements prior to EMS disappearing, however I was not monitoring them as frequently. As of this morning, I still receive HPD dispatch and cars no problem. I'm only monitoring District 1 generally...
aloha! any new news about the "silent treatment" from CnC EMTS? I still receive HFD fire but no working freqs....so I have to tune to HPD in their "district" where the incident is so I can validate if its a working incident or minor.....
 

BCFlash

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HFD dispatch seems to have disappeared in the last couple of days. Have checked with two different radios that were receiving them fine earlier in the week. HPD still active on their usual channels.
 

himages

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oh yeah....I am not dreaming then....I was planning to uninstall/install my favorite freqs again and this time, dedicate the sds100 to only HFD.....but then, if HFD is going to become like EMS......well, it was a fun expensive rig to own for a few months.....who knows, maybe there IS HFD dispatch "watching" RR too and so they decided to give us radio enthusiasts a final WAKEUP CALL and bid ALOHA!
 

wh6diq

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HFD is gone now. I have heard nothing the past few days on dispatch, and only a couple tx on tac channel, with no response heard from dispatch. Also, no HFD Air or Ocean Safety on interops have been heard. I am assuming this means HPD will be making transition also, probably by summer.:mad:
 

himages

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if they are tryna 'get away' from the "eavesdroppers" and newshounds, they are NOT doing it the right way! As long as ordinary citizens here, carry their iphones and smartphones or drones, they will still have folks "busting out" to record a rescue or fire (example: Marco Polo inferno).....I know a "few" in the media....I will try talk to them and find out if HFD is history. If so....you guys might just be seeing a sds100 advertised shortly. I also have the 911 paging thing subscribed on my phone BUT the page delays a few minutes AFTER the initial alarm and at scene. As for media, I doubt the news crews carry rigs (on a past mililani brush fire, Ch2 videoman had his harris p7100 hooked onto his battery pack on his camera)....now probably the "desk" will be monitoring and then TEXTING the incident to all available news crews to see who can respond.
Absolutely SUCKS!!! oh......if you are in town one day and SEE a capt or other firefighters holding onto their portables, try take a good peek at their system.....is it a 2 toned black/gray harris hand held? btw......you mentioned you got only provoice in your systems yeah......just a wild thought if HFD did move into the other systems (the 2 other ones that uniden sells)....and IF they did, I will go buy that and keep the sds100.
 

wh6diq

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The info I've seen on the C&C system is that it's a P25 phase 2 system, which the SDS will decode. I hope to have time over the Holidays to try search/scan for the new freqs/talkgroups to set it up properly. However, some have said C&C is ALSO encrypted. If that is the case, we won't be able to listen on scanners anytime soon, if at all. That means we will need to rely on the media to let us know what is happening in our neighborhoods. I think we already know how well that works...
 

himages

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the thing is.....I usually carry my handheld (sds100) around and cant do that with the 200. As for the decode issue, I got nadas....had the 100 on and working when i was in kaneohe side today.....HPD freqs working but still no HFD or EMS. So at your last comment, if it IS true.....someone will be a happy camper with a sds100 and many extra accesories. I can hear Dan Inouye Airport activity but my main goal was to monitor HFD.
 

ScubaJungle

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The SDS100, 200, and BCD436/536 all decode PS25 Phase 2. They all decode the same exact protocols. You just need to add them to the scanner, and hope theyre not encrypted.
 

kca6720

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My understanding is the new P25 phase 2 system is encrypted. I noticed within the past month or so, HFD will dispatch in ProVoice, Analog EDACS or P25 phase 2. Sometimes they will dispatch only on P25 for several hours then simulcast to ProVoice. Other times they will use ProVoice tac channels. I also noticed that if they used Air 1, 2, or 3, they used a provoice tac channel. All of this seemed to have switched to P25 within the past few days. I have a GRE PSR 800 with DSD dedicated to HFD and it has gone silent. My PSR is set up only to receive digital so I never hear station tones. Station tones were broadcast in Analog EDACS. When they started using P25, they simulcast to ProVoice and that is when I started hearing station tones. I also have a 436 and that will pick up both analog EDACS and ProVoice. So if my PSR800 is silent and my 436 hears a call, I know they were dispatching in analog.

I also have a Radio Shack Pro 668 (was really cheap when RS was going out of business) with the Whistler upgrade. Although the upgrade is primarily for DMR, it does improve the tracking ability for P25 phase 2. I uploaded the info from the RR database and have been monitoring the P25 system periodically. From what I understand, the 436/536 and SDS series will skip over encrypted TGs, while the 668 can be set to display active encrypted TGs. It can't decode the encrypted transmission but instead plays a telephone busy tone and displays an "E" when the TG is active. When they were simulcasting EMS and HFD, I was able to to guess that EMS dispatch is TG 2400 and HFD dispatch is TG 2680. Both TG's are pretty active now and I am hearing nothing on my PSR or 436 so it seems they made the switch.

Heard HPD D8 testing the P25 system a few weeks ago but seems like they stopped for now. Intercepting encrypted communications is illegal so it seems for now, scanning on Oahu will be very limited.
 

himages

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to give you all an update, just saw my smartphone txs....I have the IPN (incident page network) 911 added.....they probably know and have HFD and EMS upgrades because on each incident message, they DO have types of 1st responder units going to the scene.....but the only thing is that IPNs response is delayed a few minutes from the actual dispatch call.
 

himages

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My understanding is the new P25 phase 2 system is encrypted. I noticed within the past month or so, HFD will dispatch in ProVoice, Analog EDACS or P25 phase 2. Sometimes they will dispatch only on P25 for several hours then simulcast to ProVoice. Other times they will use ProVoice tac channels. I also noticed that if they used Air 1, 2, or 3, they used a provoice tac channel. All of this seemed to have switched to P25 within the past few days. I have a GRE PSR 800 with DSD dedicated to HFD and it has gone silent. My PSR is set up only to receive digital so I never hear station tones. Station tones were broadcast in Analog EDACS. When they started using P25, they simulcast to ProVoice and that is when I started hearing station tones. I also have a 436 and that will pick up both analog EDACS and ProVoice. So if my PSR800 is silent and my 436 hears a call, I know they were dispatching in analog.

I also have a Radio Shack Pro 668 (was really cheap when RS was going out of business) with the Whistler upgrade. Although the upgrade is primarily for DMR, it does improve the tracking ability for P25 phase 2. I uploaded the info from the RR database and have been monitoring the P25 system periodically. From what I understand, the 436/536 and SDS series will skip over encrypted TGs, while the 668 can be set to display active encrypted TGs. It can't decode the encrypted transmission but instead plays a telephone busy tone and displays an "E" when the TG is active. When they were simulcasting EMS and HFD, I was able to to guess that EMS dispatch is TG 2400 and HFD dispatch is TG 2680. Both TG's are pretty active now and I am hearing nothing on my PSR or 436 so it seems they made the switch.

Heard HPD D8 testing the P25 system a few weeks ago but seems like they stopped for now. Intercepting encrypted communications is illegal so it seems for now, scanning on Oahu will be very limited.
i may inquire with folks from Star Advertiser because i know a few workers there. I dont really know anyone in the tv news side and if I did, they probably give me an "attitude" that may upset me......beleive me, reporters and cameramen can be REAL STUCK UP!!!!
 

kca6720

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I read in the paper back in the mid 1990's that when HPD was switching from VHF to trunked 800 mhz, they were going to make available to authorized news media, receivers that could monitor and track city and county services. Back then there were no off the shelf scanners capable of tracking GE EDACS. I remember using a Uniden 760xlt to receive the transmissions but could not track services, plus it had the scanner annoying beeps after every transmission. I would hope that HPD makes receivers available for news media outlets again.
 

himages

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Wh6diq and Kca6720.....guess what? I dont know if city is working the bugs out of the upgrade, but when I got off work at 5p....turned on my 100 and guess what????.....yup! HFD is back.....but for how long I dont know. My mom hated alot of electronic stores....Remember Lafayette on McCully Street in the 70s? they had a bunch of scanners on the shelf.....I ended up buying one and every weekend I would hang out there. Also, Radio Shack....especially the old one at Ala Moana....everytime another scanner tempted me, my mom would know. I really feel bad about being partly spoiled (hey I admit it) by falling in love with scanners (better than wahines...). Yea...I owned a few with crystals and then programmables....thats why I was so intent to buy MY LAST RIG (which I really thought my harris p7100 would be it.....until it died). I think the city will allow news media (thats their business!) a base setup and when there is breaking news, city desk or tv dispatch will text or call the next available crew to check out the situation. I really dont think the stations will buy expensive handhelds for each crew.
Have a funny joke to tell you....remember this middle aged haole guy in KGMB when they were on Kapiolani Bvd? they hired an "overnight guy", who was Ray Mews (his nickname was "bad news mews"). After he passed away, there was a story about him......his wife told the reporter that besides the tv being on, and the radio blaring, he had scanners galore in the house and he would be listening to all of it......she could not understand how he would be able to know what was going on. Him and George Cabral Jr (SCOOP).....he was VERY WELL RESPECTED with the cops and fire personnel.....thing is, HE and Ray were probably THE best videographers this island had.
 

kca6720

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Yes, about 16:30 on 12/21 HFD was back on ProVoice. Then about 0900 on 12/22, I noticed it being a bit too quiet and they were only on the P25 system.

I liked Lafayette better than RS even though my first scanner was from RS. The first scanner I got from Lafayette was the original Bearcat 210. That was awesome. Found so many new frequencies with that and the sensitivity was so much better than my RS scanner.
 

himages

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the HYPE of the RS crystal base/mobile one with either the black face or silver face, was that it looked pretty COOL.....especially on the tv series, SWAT.....probably if you google Youtube, and type something like introduction of SWAT tv drama, you will see what I mean. I dont know why HFD is bouncing back and forth with their systems.....after work, I did hook up my batt and till now (910p) i been hearing them....I hope they continue til after the new years......oh, another h/h rig was FANON or Fanon Courier brand....they had a 4 ch. red led programming as well as a mobile one.
 
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