loud beeps on montgomery county trunk

[blutarsky]

i just turned on my scanner today, and it's the first time i've ever heard this... once in a while, after a transmission is finished, i hear 5 loud beeps/tones. i've been listening to this system for a long time and never heard this before. it's not always on the same talk group, so far i've noticed it on at least 5 separate talkgroups, all of which seem totally unrelated.

i'm using a pro-97 now, and have used it for at least a couple months... this is very new to me :?

i've recorded one instance of it and have attached the file below:

**EDIT: i also turned on my old pro-94 and i get the same thing... so it's apparently not the scanner.

**EDIT 2: i'm not crazy... it happened. but i haven't heard it in a while now, even though it was happening quite frequently before and after i posted initially. at the time, there were lots of power outages happening every few minutes, which is why i turned it on to see if it would give any clue as to why, but now it *seems* to be back to normal. now watch -- probably after i post this it'll start doing it again

 

[epfdtracktrunker]

Sounds like those annoying EDACS Anti-Scanning tones. What systems try to do is occupy your scanner with these tones, while the conversation moves on. The only thing you can do is keep hitting the SCAN button until the scanner moves on.

 

[bwillcox]

Ah, I know these tones well--- these are the wonderful EDACS anti-scanner tones! Just be thankful your system doesn't play the even more evil "we bring good things to life" tones like the EDACS system I am most familar with does.

I'll also add you shouldn't hear this noise at all with a properly-programmed EDACS capable scanner, only if you're having to scan it in conventional mode. Double check to make sure you have the channels put in in the proper LCN order (starting with channel 1 in the bank, not zero!) and all in EDACS mode, and that you're getting solid reception of the control channel.

The power failures may have affected the system although that would be *very* unusual as public-safety systems are usually very well protected against power failures and lightning strikes.

 

[blutarsky]

I'll also add you shouldn't hear this noise at all with a properly-programmed EDACS capable scanner, only if you're having to scan it in conventional mode. Double check to make sure you have the channels put in in the proper LCN order (starting with channel 1 in the bank, not zero!) and all in EDACS mode, and that you're getting solid reception of the control channel.

it's programmed correctly, and has worked flawlessly up until then with no changes at all. even during that time, when i'd hear the beeps, it was in trunk mode and not scanning conventionally (it'd show the talkgroup, and for that matter it'd only do the beeps occassionally while scanning properly 75% of the time). since then, though (thankfully), it's worked fine again. i didn't make any changes to my scanner programming before or after the beeps started or stopped (and i also tested on another scanner at same time and it had same results).

it was most bizarre.

 

[Chris-M]

I've heard those beeps before. It's been a few months though. I haven't been listening much lately, but on the way to work today, around 2PM, it wasn't happening while listening with my PRO-93.