Kent County advice needed

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Barryr

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Kent County, MI
After some research, it appears that the GRE PSR-500 should be my very first scanner. I expect that I would have the selling company program this (and other) Counties for me. The question is: does Kent County have enough digital and trunked frequencies to justify purchasing this specific digital scanner?
In reviewing the list for the County on RadioReference.com, there are numerous school systems and other
City's that I would have no interest in outside of my general living area (NW Grand Rapids). Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Barry
 

rdale

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does Kent County have enough digital and trunked frequencies to justify purchasing this specific digital scanner?

It depends on what you want to listen to... Check the database - if the things you like to hear are digital, then the answer would be yes. If you don't care about those comms, then no.
 

freqs

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warren michigan
After some research, it appears that the GRE PSR-500 should be my very first scanner. I expect that I would have the selling company program this (and other) Counties for me. The question is: does Kent County have enough digital and trunked frequencies to justify purchasing this specific digital scanner?
In reviewing the list for the County on RadioReference.com, there are numerous school systems and other
City's that I would have no interest in outside of my general living area (NW Grand Rapids). Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Barry
Kent Co has enough Digital and Trunked frequencies for it to justify buying that Scanner. I would not go with anything less than a digital scanner and or what the GRE PSR 500 has to offer in features it is a good choice for Michigan .
 

Utah_Viper

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Another thing to look at is not just; what I the system NOW, but remember that many agencies could move to digital in the future. If you can afford to go digital its a wise investment. One other consideration is do you travel? that can also lead you to many places that may have digital.
 

bergg

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Currently in Kent Co MI, only the State Police are digital, but news has it that in 2010 the entire county will start gearing up to go all digital.

If you do not buy a digital scanner now, it may only be good for one or two years.

The MSP patrol all the freeways and State hwys in Kent county. Good to monitor if you want to know
what driving conditions are like. You can hear if there are any closures due to freeway crashes.

There are other digital scanners and Ebay has deals on used ones.

Bob
 

weisej

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Berry,
I live in Ottawa county and my parents live in kent and I can assure you you'll want a digital scanner. I owned just an analog scanner before. Wow until I got a digital scanner I didn't know what I was missing. You should take a look at the MPSCS Database which can be found here:
Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies

Take a look at the talk groups under Kent, Barry, Ottawa to get started... My fav TG to listen to is drug enforcement teams or MSP.
 

weisej

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Jack, they have been saying they are going to all digital for a while now I think the expected date to be on board the MPSCS was set for 2010 but they now pushed that back to 2011. Why they pushed back only one could guess was it due to this economy? Its stated on the Kent country database by the way that they should be digital by early 2011.
 

Thunderbolt

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Since MPSCS TRS has hit the max number of radios allowed on the system, they are currently working with Motorola to upgrade the entire network, which will take 12-18 months. Once completed, significantly more radios will be allowed onto the MPSCS TRS. That being said, Kent County should be onboard in early 2012.

73s

Ron
 

jack3726

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If you search on these on the MPSCS I don't see the same alpha tags that are on the link that was provided, is this because they are not live yet. Looks like Kent County PD, FIRE and DPW, no city of Grand Rapids.
 

n8jsn

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while I'm a bit late to the party.. I can assure you Kent is NOT planning on going to the state system anytime soon.
 

Skud

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From the minutes meeting from the commisoners meeting. Grandville is going to be dispatched from the country. This is a whole move for one central dispatch. Kent is suppose to do some type of change to a different radios systems as they are charging people addition service fees to get the money for this. Like thunderbolt said, unless the upgrade to the MPSCS is done, they cannot join the states system, and at least one new tower need to be installed for additional coverage.
Ingham County did. But there is no way to know until they announce it. I have been watching commissioners meetings and still nothing.
Really only social ops like drug stings are on the states system. All other traffic for the most part is not on the states system,

You can see the post from Dec 2009 about the problems with adding more radios.

Michigan Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS) Trunking System, Statewide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies
 

jack3726

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Could they jump on the 700mhz mpscs or no??

Maybe they will decide to spend money on a new 800 system and forgo MPSCS.

On the Grandville situation, I thought Wyoming and Grandville were brother/sister in there relationship over the years, isn't Wyoming currently dispatching again for them now. If this is the case then maybe wyoming will do the same thing eventually. If there are dollars to be saved and gains to be made on the technology side then they will probably move forward.
 

kasparek

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Yesterday, I heard a fire dispatcher say their city has switched to the "new" county wide numbering scheme. Anybody have info on this? I know Plainfield and some of the other VFD's have a scheme similiar to what Ottawa County uses.
 

bergg

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I heard the same thing last night when they tested all monitors. They advised all depts to check
the posting for the new numbering system for Kent County-wide.

I also heard a dept (couldn't hear which one) in Kent County ask dispatch is they could see
his computer input. Looks like they may all be adding laptops and of course then some
information will be sent direct and we can not monitor.

If anyone else has anything on these two items would really appreciate.

Bob
 

weisej

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I understand this isn't the best place to post but since most are close to kent county I was wondering anyone using a pro 106 or PSR 500 if they have heard any patches with the new update that was released recently? If so on what TG's?
 

rdale

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Full-fledged patches (that required the update on the PSR-500) are rare on MPSCS.
 
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