How to scan the SC Highway Patrol

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mortician2005

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Please forgive the post, but I am planning a trip to South Carolina in the next week. I will be traveling from North Carolina on I-77 and using I-85 and I-26. I am going to Newberry County. I have programmed the radio using the Radio Reference database, but with all the tower locations and frequencies I want to make sure that I get it right, or at least as close to right as I can. I also need to know if I can use control channels for any of the systems, and if not which system(s) should I use. If anyone can assist me I would be grateful.

Thanx in advance for any help.

Dave
 

brian

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I think I understand the gist of your question and I'll try to answer. These are the towers you should program for a trip on I-85 South from NC to I-26 East to Newberry.

Site 18 Thicketty 868.4250 Cherokee County
Site 19 Fairforest 860.9375 Spartanburg County
Site 36 Stone Station 868.7000 Southern Spartanburg County
Site 16 Laurens 860.8125 Northern Laurens County
Site 21 Joanna 868.9000 Southern Laurens County/Newberry County
Site 4 Newberry/Prosperity 868.8000 Newberry County

Assuming you have a scanner that supports control-channel-only trunktracking (and just about all the newer models do) you should be fine using the frequencies listed above. Assuming you're limiting yourself to scanning SCHP and other public safety agencies during your trip, these are the only control channels you'll need. There are,of course, plenty of conventional channels that you can program as well, and those are listed on the database pages for the counties you'll pass through.

Hope that helps answer your question. Have a nice trip.
 

mortician2005

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Thanks Brian! I use a Pro 96 which I mount in the vehicle for trips. I also hook up to an outside antenna. Up to this point it has worked great.

I thank you again for your help.

Dave
 

brian

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You're welcome.

I used a PRO-96 for quite a while. My recommendation is to create a v-folder for SC, and use 1 bank per county. You can enter control channels for multiple sites into a single bank if you leave a conventional frequency (in FM mode, not CT or DC or MOT mode) between them and it will scan each tower site on each pass through the bank.

Spartanburg Co. talkgroups are carried on Sites, 18, 19, 36 and 16, so you can add each one of those to a single bank and scan Spartanburg Co. from about 20 miles into NC on I-85 all the way to south of Laruens on I-26. Same with SCHP. Then use the rest of the channels for conventional frequencies.

By the way, for people who are interested in this sort of thing, you can see the Site 19 tower site off to the left of I-85 South just as you exit onto I-26.

Good luck, and again, have a nice trip.
 

proinv

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SCHP on GRE600

I have Palmetto 800 programed in my GRE600 via the ARC500 software and downloading from RadioRef. BUT, I do not hear SCHP, I hear everyone else i.e. Darlington, DNR etc. No SCHP.

Can anyone w/same scanner or ideas help?

David
 

BRabbit

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SC highway patrol

hi am still new at this scanner stuff.last night on 17A and College Park Rd i was on 866.9125 and heard trafiic coming across it.i was right down the street at the time.we drove down there and it was unmarked charger highway patrol.can anyone help me figure out other channels to program in to listen to them on my BCT8,or am i just out of luck?i am finding i think the old 42.1000 channels i guess they used to use.any help would be appreciated.i live in Goose Creek,i get them Berkeley County and 866.9125.if anyone can help me figure out what else i can listen to around here i would be grateful.

Thanx,
Brian
 

iceman17984

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I looking for 800 Frequency for Chester County Sheriff South Carolina

I looking for 800 Frequency for Chester County Sheriff South Carolina
 

brian

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Reply to iceman:

As Larry mentioned in the other thread, 867.8625 is the control channel frequency for the Palmetto 800 site that covers the Chester area. That's the system that, as far as I know, Chester County is still using for their comms. You'll need a digital trunk-tracking scanner to monitor the talkgroup used by Chester Co. SO. Look at the Palmetto 800 database page (link below) and find Site #46 - that is the list of all the channels used by the system site that covers Chester County. Scroll farther down in the talkgroup list and find Chester County's list of talkgroups.

Palmetto 800 Trunking System, Various, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies

Reply to BRabbit:
That's a curious situation, double-check the frequency you referenced. 866.9125 is only licensed to Jasper County and York County in SC, and it's doubtful you'd hear either of those from your location in Goose Creek. You should be able to monitor Berkeley County SO and SCHP with your BCT-8. Use the same link listed above, and find site #52. These are the frequencies used by the Palmetto 800 site in the Moncks Corner area. Site #1 is located in St. Stephens, and Site #12 is in Summerville, but site 52 will be closer to Goose Creek. Program those as a Motorola Type II 800MHz TRS, then program the talkgroups listed for Berkeley County farther down the page. SCHP in the Berkeley County area uses Ch. 81 29712 as its dispatch talkgroup.

Hope that helps both of you.
 

davjrt

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davjrt
i see everyone talk about talkgroups ...but how do u program them into your scanner..Davjrt
 

brian

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i see everyone talk about talkgroups ...but how do u program them into your scanner..Davjrt

Depends on which scanner model you're using. Post your scanner model and we'll try to help. You must have a trunk-tracking scanner in order to program talkgroups.
 

brian

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So, you'll want to follow the instructions in your owners manual starting on page 30. Here's the link:
http://www.uniden.com/pdf/BCT8om.pdf

You'll select a bank to program the trunked information into, and set the bank type to E2-800.

You'll then follow the instructions on page 31 to program a trunked frequency - those are found on the Palmetto 800 database page:
Palmetto 800 Trunking System, Various, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies

Scroll down from the top of the page and find the big grid of frequencies. They are listed by site number - you'll have to use the map above it to find the site closest to your location, and then locate that listing in the grid (or tell us your location and we'll help you find the closest site). You want to program the Red and Blue frequencies for the site closest to you.

Then you'll press Search, then Hold. From there, you can program talkgroups (page 32 in the manual). You'll find the talkgroups for SCHP on that same Palmetto 800 database page, below the frequency grid. Pick the dispatch channel that covers the county you're in. Then press PVT to scan the talkgroups you programmed in.

Alternatively, you could download some computer software to help program your scanner. ARC-8 appears to support RadioReference data importing, which means you don't have to do so much typing. And it looks like it has a 30-day free trial, but you'll need a Premium Subscription to RadioReference to access the data importing feature. Even without that, the software can help "visualize" the layout of the scanner memory.
Butel Software

Hope that helps.
 
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davjrt

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talk groups

I have programed the radio freq. and i can not for the life of me program in the Talk groups....i see on the list of radio freq list and i put in the channels then i cant put in the various talkgroups then i see a DEC and HEX on the top of the page...I am using a UNIDEN BEARCAT BCT8 ...I FEEL SILLY
I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET LOL LOL LOL...DAVJRT IN FLORENCE SOUTH CAROLINA...


THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP
 

brian

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DEC vs. HEX is easy - ignore HEX altogether. You'll only use the DEC values.

Once you program the freqs in TRUNKED mode (ie, holding TRUNK for 1.5 seconds, selecting a bank, selecting the system type, entering freqs, etc), press SEARCH and you should see ----- in the display. If you don't see that, then you've done something wrong programming the frequencies. The procedure for programming trunked frequencies is different than programming conventional frequencies.

Go back and step through each trunked frequency you programmed. One should have a noise that sounds sort of like an idling diesel engine. That's the control channel and it's what the scanner uses to track the system. If you can't hear that, something isn't right - you're not getting a strong enough signal on the tower you're programming maybe. And you're not going to see the -----.

Once you see the -----, you can press HOLD/RESUME and start to program talkgroups.
 

SCPATSFAN

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I LIVE IN GOOSE CREEK SC AND LISTEN ALL THE TIME TO MY SCANNER BUT ALL CHANNELS I FIND FOR TH SCHP NOTHINING HAPPENS IF YOU OR SOMEONE HAS THE frequency please sent to my my email at SCPATSFAN@AOL.COM AND THANKYOU FOR ANY HELP
 

brian

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I haven't seen this useful link posted yet. This is a list of all the counties and which tower and freq would serve that county.

From the SC State Budget and Control Board.

cio.sc.gov - Conventional Repeaters

Yes, thanks. That is a good link.

This link as well as other information and links for SC scanning are in the SC section of the RR Wiki:
South Carolina(US) - The RadioReference Wiki

There are pages dedicated to various state agencies, including ones for SCHP, Interoperability/Mutual Aid and Palmetto 800.
 

acfiredept

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Does anyone know if you can by a 800 MHz anntennas will pick up on a pro 107 that i have? It says that the scanner that covers 700 MHz but i think it will pick up 800 MHz with the correct anntenna.
 

buckent

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receive antenna

When it comes to RECEIVING.. Any antenna can recieve just about any signal. Although the closer the recieved signal is to the resonant frquency, ( the frequency the antenna is cut for) than the more signal strength actually captured by the antenna and sent into the radio.

I've used a AM/.FM splitter and used the regular car radio antenna to drive more than one scanner at a time and had no problems.

As for TRANSMITTING, then you are actually putting out a signal through the antenna, and the antenna MUST be trimmed or tuned to work on that specific frequency, or the radio WILL be damaged by lost energy being reflected back into the radio.

To find the right antenna for your application you need to know the output frequency your radio is tuned to, and what kind of body you are mounting the antenna to.. different antennas, different bodies, different vehicles, all require different mounts.
 

mdtow1

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Dec 19, 2010
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Loris, Sc
okay im not complaining just not understanding i looked at the how to on this and that excel sheet just dont get it can someone help i have the pro 106 and i have horry county down pat but the highyway patrol just cant figure it out i looked at the tower map and i live in loris which i can use the conway or north myrtle beach tower please help im racking my brain here
 
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