Montgomery County DEC/HEX

[153JohnM]

Hello!

I am interested in listening to PD region 3 in Montgomery County. As I understand it, in order to do this I have to input one of the "West Simulcast" frequencies and then input a decimal or hex code specific of the talk group I want to listen to and this has to be programmed via software. Would I be correct in this understanding? If so, how do you input this decimal and hex and what scanners do you recommend (preferably under $100). I know that one of the departments in the area uses MCS2000 radios. So I am hoping that if I am correct I would be able to program a frequency and dec/hex to listen to specific channels in the area with a MCS2000. Any help is much appreciated and I look forward to responses.

Thanks!

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Hi and welcome to RR! You'd be hard pressed to find a scanner under $100 that will properly trunk track the Montgomery County trunked radio system. Also the county is making the move to migrate to a new P25 phase-II system in the near future. Not certain on a timeframe on that but once they do, all law enforcement I'm told will be encrypted so there won't be a scanner on the market that will be able to pick them up. With that said and the county still in the clear (also ruling out Uniden 436/536 and the SDS series scanners, Whistler TRX, etc that most of us use and are priced from $400-700), here is a (dated) scanner comparison chart. Every scanner listed on the chart will be able to track Montco's present-day system but again, expect to pay $150-300 minimum for a decent second-hand scanner radio. I'm not familiar with how the MCS2000 works but most of today's scanner radios are software programmable so you need not worry about having to enter hex codes

 

[153JohnM]

You are the absolute best!! Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I have been in contact with members of the dispatch center recently and officers from my local department. As far as I am aware there is not a certain timeframe for encryption (hopefully not too soon). Glad I was able to get some answers, I have a lot to think about, look into, and spend money on.

Thanks!

 

[Drachen_Fire]

Referring to MontCo's old trunk, a Motorola Type II 800MHz. The agency you are seeing using MCS2000's tells me that they don't use any of the digital talkgroups on that system, using only analog ones. The MCS2000 is capable of operation on conventional, Type I, Type II, and Type IIi systems.

Any trunking scanner capable of analog Type II 800MHz operation will be able to receive the same talkgroups those MCS radios can.

 

[royldean]

How busy is the new PII system? I installed SDRTrunk on one of my linux boxes last night, and can clearly see the control channel coming in strong, but I appear to be getting no decodes at all. Digging around, I'm getting conflicting answers as to how to set up a PII channel (one guy said to set it up as a P1 system, unless it was a single untrunked PII channel???).

Has anybody used SDRTrunk on this new system? Or does anybody have any advice getting it to work?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

They're still building the system, agencies have yet to receive new radios. I've sat on it from time to time and have yet to hear a peep nor radio testing

 

[153JohnM]

I purchased a Uniden BC355N a few months back which is capable of listening to the montgomery county west simulcast frequencies. More of a preference is to be able to listen to specific talk groups with the help of programming the dec/hex codes that way I can listen just to the traffic in my area and not something happening 25/30 minutes away. I originally started to look into getting the MCS2000 because they are currently up for auction from a local department. Assuming that I could just buy a new(used) $30 radio and program it so that I could listen to just certain talk groups. However, since I am cheap, I may just stay with the BC355N and listen to everything on the frequency. If it aint broke dont fix it. I have looked but if anyone knows of software to program the BC355N, I would love to hear about it. Again, thank you all so much for your time and effort responding to my questions!

Thanks!

 

[n8jsw]

The BC355N is analog only and will not pick up a P25 Phase 2 system when they get it up and running. You would need a uniden sds series scanner to listen or a whistler p2 scanner which are not that cheap

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

The aforementioned scanner can not trunk track. If you program the frequencies conventionally (which it sounds like you have) you'll only pick up traffic from talkgroups listed with mode "A" here but you won't be able to follow a single talkgroup's traffic

 

[royldean]

They're still building the system, agencies have yet to receive new radios. I've sat on it from time to time and have yet to hear a peep nor radio testing

Ok. In looking at it now, it's showing "idle". If I use the same settings on Chesco's control channel (which I can only barely receive here on my pizza plate mag antenna) - it shows activity. So I think it's set up correctly, just nothing to decode. Thanks.

 

[153JohnM]

The aforementioned scanner can not trunk track. If you program the frequencies conventionally (which it sounds like you have) you'll only pick up traffic from talkgroups listed with mode "A" here but you won't be able to follow a single talkgroup's traffic

That sounds about right. I am only hearing dispatch chatter with the Uniden BC355N. Thanks again for all of your help. I know where to go if I have any more questions.

 

[kh11]

They are still working out problems with the microwave links between sites. My understanding is there is still no estimate of when the system might finally be ready. (Bear in mind that the contract with Motorola for this system was signed 7 years ago.)

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Fine

My understanding is there is still no estimate of when the system might finally be ready.

Fine by me, I'll continue to enjoy everything "in the clear" as long as possible

 

[maus92]

They are still working out problems with the microwave links between sites. My understanding is there is still no estimate of when the system might finally be ready. (Bear in mind that the contract with Motorola for this system was signed 7 years ago.)

Lots of elements can cause delays. Usually starts with bad / inexperienced consultants - or not using a consultant at all. Then there are funding issues...

 

[scanjunkie]

I purchased a Uniden BC355N a few months back which is capable of listening to the montgomery county west simulcast frequencies. More of a preference is to be able to listen to specific talk groups with the help of programming the dec/hex codes that way I can listen just to the traffic in my area and not something happening 25/30 minutes away. I originally started to look into getting the MCS2000 because they are currently up for auction from a local department. Assuming that I could just buy a new(used) $30 radio and program it so that I could listen to just certain talk groups. However, since I am cheap, I may just stay with the BC355N and listen to everything on the frequency. If it aint broke dont fix it. I have looked but if anyone knows of software to program the BC355N, I would love to hear about it. Again, thank you all so much for your time and effort responding to my questions!

Thanks!

Hey Friend! Are you sure about them using the MCS2000?? That is a VHF/UHF radio and would not work on MontCo's current system. Some agencies, Police/Fire/EMS use VHF/UHF for local talk around...That may be what is causing your confusion. There are several VHF channels used throughout the county that re-broadcast the trunked system to a conventional freq. Those freqs can be picked up on almost any regular analog scanner. Hope this helps!

 

[kh11]

MCS2000s were in use on the County system. See, for example: Blue Wing's PDF on the Montco MCS2000s. But not something you should play with for monitoring purposes. Much easier with a scanner, and less likely to get into legal trouble. Unfortunately, the BC355N doesn't do trunking, so you would be limited to the analog simplex talk groups, like the Fireground channels (or, as scanjunkie points out, the re-broadcasts on VHF).