Monitoring kenton, boone and Campbell counties

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kymarkh

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Good morning all, and happy veterans day.

I am getting back into the hobby after a 10 year break and have been having fun using a 75xlt that was gifted to me recently. I am getting some of the local traffic but wonder if I would be able to pick up much more activity using a homepatrol 1? Listening to Cincinnati would be a bonus but Kenton County police is my primary focus to include Kenton County police as well as fort wright and Fort Mitchell.

Would a home patrol 1 be a worthwhile upgrade or will I not notice much difference in the local signals that I receive with the 75xlt? I really like the 75xlt form factor as I can take it with me anywhere easily, it has decent reception with the stock duck and battery life is good. That said the hp1 touch screen interface really appeals to me. If there is another radio that works better in NKY please let me know as this would help cut down my research time.

Thanks in advance.
 

W8RMH

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With a HP scanner you would have digital capability which will allow you to receive the KSP. Everything else is conventional for now so you should be able to receive all the analog channels on your scanner.

Covington PD also has P25 digital listed in the database for their channels so they may be switching in the near future. There are also Northern Kentucky interop talk groups on the Cincinnati digital system.

With the HP you would also be able to listen/track trunked systems such as the CVG Airport and Delta Airlines systems, as well as the Kenton Sanitation District #1 system, the Campbell County Board of Education system, and of course the Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and State Of Ohio systems (MARCS-IP).

I have the Home Patrol 2 which I use when in the Tri-state area and I love the full color touch screen. I use the zip code database feature which is already in the scanner so no programming is required. It has great reception with a mobile antenna and I start receiving Kentucky channels around Kings Island.
 
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JStemann

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The Hp1 is a very good scanner, but probably overkill for what you're wanting to monitor. It's much better for use as a base or mobile scanner vs. portable. Between the form factor and battery life, it's been best for me to just have mine plugged in all the time. If you don't mind the limited portability of the Hp1, it's probably the best bang for the buck upgrade for the area.

As the other poster said, an upgrade will get you KSP, Cincinnati and CVG. Covington pd does use P25 sometimes, however it is encrypted more often than not. There is not a lot of activity from KSP in the Boone county area, but more in Campbell and Pendleton counties.

If you're still wanting upgrade and stay with a handheld style scanner, you'll want to look at the bc325 and 436hp as well as the whistler scanners. The 436 is preprogrammed and is updated similar to the Hp1, whistler has some preprogrammed scanners, as well, but I'm not too familiar with them.

Jeff.
 

scannerboy02

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It should be noted that the northern Kentucky counties, Boone, Campbell and Kenton are in the beginning stages of building a P25 Phase 2 trunking system. If everything stays on schedule it should be online sometime in 2018.

CVG is also actively moving to a new P25 Phase 2 system. CVG PD and FD are currently operating on the new system.

You may want to look into a P25 Phase 2 capable scanner if you are looking to upgrade in the near future.
 

kymarkh

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That helps me greatly, appreciate the heads up. Does anyone know if local agencies are currently using encryption? Thanks.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

JStemann

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It should be noted that the northern Kentucky counties, Boone, Campbell and Kenton are in the beginning stages of building a P25 Phase 2 trunking system. If everything stays on schedule it should be online sometime in 2018.

CVG is also actively moving to a new P25 Phase 2 system. CVG PD and FD are currently operating on the new system.

You may want to look into a P25 Phase 2 capable scanner if you are looking to upgrade in the near future.

I'll admit I haven't been paying much attention lately, but I thought I heard them recently still on the old edacs system. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the maintenance guys were still carrying old radios as of Monday 12/5. Did they add freqs or just convert the old ones over to the new system?

Jeff.
 

scannerboy02

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I'll admit I haven't been paying much attention lately, but I thought I heard them recently still on the old edacs system. Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the maintenance guys were still carrying old radios as of Monday 12/5. Did they add freqs or just convert the old ones over to the new system?

Jeff.

They are currently in transition to the new system. Both systems are being used right now.

CVG PD Main seems to be on the new system full-time. CVG PD 2 seems to still be on the old system.

CVG FD Main is simulcast on both systems and CVG Main was simulcast but now seems to only be on the old system. Everything else is still on the old system for now.

They took a few frequencies from the old system and moved them to the new system.
 

JStemann

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They are currently in transition to the new system. Both systems are being used right now.

CVG PD Main seems to be on the new system full-time. CVG PD 2 seems to still be on the old system.

CVG FD Main is simulcast on both systems and CVG Main was simulcast but now seems to only be on the old system. Everything else is still on the old system for now.

They took a few frequencies from the old system and moved them to the new system.

Thanks, caught me by surprise. I'd heard they were looking at p25 a few years ago, but nothing recent. Now, I'm going to have to try to work in "work" around my research on the new system.

Jeff.
 

scannerboy02

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This is what I have so far. I can hear both systems from my home but I have been spending a good amount of time at the viewing area lately.

System frequencies
856.7375
856.9375
857.7375 - Current Control Channel

Talkgroups
300 - Patched to CVG Main on the EDACS system
301 - CVG PD Main
324 - CVG FD Main
325 - Possibly CVG FD FG 2
326 - Possibly CVG FD FG 3
 

JStemann

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This is what I have so far. I can hear both systems from my home but I have been spending a good amount of time at the viewing area lately.

System frequencies
856.7375
856.9375
857.7375 - Current Control Channel

Talkgroups
300 - Patched to CVG Main on the EDACS system
301 - CVG PD Main
324 - CVG FD Main
325 - Possibly CVG FD FG 2
326 - Possibly CVG FD FG 3

Thanks a bunch, that'll help a lot. I won't be able to check it out until I go to work Monday, but at least I can get it pre-loaded in the scanner.

Jeff.
 

scannerboy02

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I monitored an aircraft emergency at CVG a few days ago and the entire operation on CVG FD Main (TGID 324) occurred in P25 Phase 1 mode and I was able to hear it on my 396T.

I'm not sure if they have changed the system to Phase 1 or if the system reverted to Phase 1 because a non Phase 2 radio affiliated to the talkgroup.

This will be something to keep a look out for.
 

KyFireFreak

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CVG's new system is phase 1. From what i hear the new system isn't sufficient yet, i still hear FD on the old EDACS system and last time i saw any of them, about a month or so ago, they were still carrying the macomm radios. Maybe their simulcasting to the new?

The NKY system will be a build out off of their controller which is tied to Ohio MARCS if that makes sense to anyone. Im not that familiar with P25 trunking stuff to explain how that works. We (NKY depts) were told that we should have roaming capability into Ohio and Ohio depts should have equal capability into NKY. They are pursuing a UASI grant for the system build out, RFP went out already, award will happen March 2017.
 

scannerboy02

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I am 100% sure the system is in Phase 2 mode most of the time, I monitor this system all day long. The only time it has reverted to Phase 1 was during one particular aircraft emergency.

The system is not (currently) tied in with Ohio MARCS, it may have the capability via patching and ISSI but not directly via the controller itself.

I know for sure PD is on the system and fire has at least some radios on the system, as they switch to talkgroups that are only on the new system.

The RFP for the NKY P25 system made no mention of using the CVG controller in its setup. That would be a very smart thing to do but it was not mentioned as even being a possibility in the RFP.
 
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KyFireFreak

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I have no way to monitor P25 as of now. As always, anything is possible.

In the last meetings i went to they discussed all systems being phase 1 with the option to go phase 2 in the future. I understood that was because of having the capability to roam across to Hamilton Co/MARCS which is phase 1. They made specific mention of the controller being tied to MARCS.

They must have dropped that idea, ill find out.
 

scannerboy02

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Anything you can find out would be greatly appreciated.

In the RFP it states that they will operate some talkgroups in phase 1 and others in phase 2 at the discretion of the system users. System testing will be done in phase 2 only.

Phase 2 radios are automatically backwards compatible for phase 1 systems so if you switch a phase 2 radio to a phase 1 talkgroup/system the radio will work. As part of the P25 requirements, phase 2 talkgroups will revert to phase 1 if a phase 1 only radio affiliates to it. So if a Hamilton County (phase 1) radio switches to a NKY (phase 2) talkgroup that talkgroup will operate in phase 1 mode until the Hamilton County radio drops off the talkgroup.

It is possible to have multiple trunking systems programmed into one radio so the radios could be programmed to operate on the NKY, MARCS, SAFE-T and CVG systems by simply switching channels. The system controllers don't need to communicate. This is actually the 'simplest' way to have interoperability.

The RFP asks for the option to have an ISSI interface that can tie multiple systems together. The ISSI requires extra programming and a good amount of continuous coordination across all involved systems.
 

JStemann

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CVG P25 system

I'm still working on identifying talk groups. I've caught a a few not listed, I'll submit them when I get a better idea of what they should be named.

65149 was used to alert Fire for an off airport fire alarm.
65156 was used to alert fire/ems of an ill passenger. This was also simulcast on the EDACS FG-2.


Also, I-calls are actively used on this system, too.

Jeff.
 

scannerboy02

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Thanks Jeff.

I have also noticed the 651xx 'alert' talkgroups. They seem to use a different one for each type of incident. I'm guessing they are using this for station/personnel alerting much the same way as 'two tone' alerting would work.

I noticed that these alerts are also showing up as different talkgroup IDs on the EDACS system, I have seen a 5, 6 and 7 (in decimal mode) so far.

This is the kind of stuff that makes scanning fun, keep up the good work!
 
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