Hi all.

[smason]

Greetings from Calgary. I just discovered this site, great source of info!
Thought I'd say hello.
I've just returned to scanning after about a 7 year absence.
I'm no noob, having had scanners since the days of ordering xtals.
I also worked at Radio Shack in the late 70s, and recall the first programmable (binary via buttons) scanner. Yes, I'm old

I had been casually using my Pro43 now and then, and recently wanted to monitor some local activity on 926Mhz (ahem )at 30khz steps that the 43 wouldn't do, so I dusted off the 2006, and Probe software, and decided that it's been too long.

I'm presently getting my Pro2006/Opto456 set up for remote operation so I can control/listen from my notebook around the house, or anywhere on the 'net. Other radios in my much neglected radio boxes in storage include:

Pro 2004/CE-232
AOR 1000
Pro 43
Alinco 590T
Kenwood 7950
Yaesu 530
Yaesu 757GXII
A Sangean portable SW receiver I inherited.

1 quick question. In another thread, someone mentioned monitoing HAWC. Aren't they on the encrypted trunk system of CPS?
One of the reasons I drifted away from scanning, was the sad loss of that capability...

Later all.

Steve

 

[DX-300]

Hi there, and welcome aboard!

To fill you in on what you may have missed as simply as I can without losing you hehe, CPS are on a Motorola Type II Smartzone trunked system which they share with EMS and Fire (see the RR database) using an open digital format called APCO-P25 with some encrypted channels, however the Airport Authority and Enmax are other digital users on this system also.

The technology to listen to APCO-P25 is here now so you don't have to be sad about your loss any longer! New trunktracking scanners came out in around 2003 that can "understand" these open digital transmissions. The first models to come out were the Uniden Bearcat 250D handheld and the BC785D base/mobile, which came with a separate "BCi 25D" digital card at first, then they came out with the BC296D HH and the BC796D base/mobile which didn't need the separate card, now the latest scanners out are the BC396T handheld and the BC996 base/mobile. Radio Shack brought out its own models also, which are the Pro-96 handheld and Pro-2096 base/mobile.

I personally own a BC785D and a BC396T. Check out the wikipages on this site as they have a wealth of info that may help you catch up, and of course if you have more questions feel free to ask!

Happy Scanning!

 

[smason]

The technology to listen to APCO-P25 is here now so you don't have to be sad about your loss any longer!

Thanks for the reply.

Man I have been missing out! Most of the local "experts" seem to think it's encrypted. I've listened to EMS since the move to trunked, using conventional scanning, but it's not much fun hitting the scan button constantly. At least they junked the GE system with that stupid tune after every transmission...

It's unfortunate that I have no radio budget right now, as now I'm jonesing for a BCD996T.

 

[DX-300]

Yeah, some people just assume its encrypted because they can't listen with an analogue scanner and/or they just don't know about the mode. There are a few truly encrypted channels however that even the digital scanner cannot get as you might have noticed in the database. The police can also selectively use encryption when they feel its necessary on other channels.

As for your comment on hitting the scan button constantly, been there, just about totally wrecked that button on my first Pro-2037 base trying to keep up when I was just a noob lol but at the time it was all I had to work with.

 

[electricsheep]

As for your comment on hitting the scan button constantly, been there, just about totally wrecked that button on my first Pro-2037 base trying to keep up when I was just a noob lol but at the time it was all I had to work with.

The worst was manually scanning channels of an EDACS trunk with that god damn annoying beep at the end of every transmission. Plus the fact that they keep switching up the channel rotation methods from LCN 1 to x or from x to 1, so you never knew which way to scan... The BC245 was sent by aliens to save us all, I swear.

 

[DX-300]

Yup, *beep beep beep beep beep* and by the time all the beeping was over all of the other half of the convo was over lol. That was most likely another contributing factor with my scan buttons demise, as I had been monitoring the Calgary City EDACS system here conventionally with the same scanner in my early days of scanning.