Montgomery County

[bumkin1216]

I was wondering if anyone would happen to know if any of the Montgomery County Digital Channels are re-broad cast over any conventional frequencies. I am specifically looking for:

West Fire Dispatch
East Fire Dispatch
Fire Police East
Fire Police West
Fire Region 1
Fire Region 2
Fire Region 3
Fire Region 4
Fire Region 5
Fire Region 6

I know that the above 10 channels are all digital but I was wondering if there was any way to monitor them. Unfortunately, I do not have a digital scanner (I use a Pro-97). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I was wondering if anyone would happen to know if Montgomery County Station 99 (Willow Grove Joint Air Base) has been decommissioned as part of the base closure. They were dispatched along with Horsham Station 15 on all reported fires but I no longer hear them anymore. Anyone have any ideas?

Once again – thanks for your help and time.

 

[DELCOLHFC]

Have you looked in the Database?

Hello, as was the case in your earlier request for Monroe County frequencies you should check out the Database here at RR. There is a ton of valuable info here for your listening pleasure! Give a look here http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=2286 at the Montco page and you will find some help with the requested patches.

Welcome aboard!

 

[scanjunkie]

There are several conventional repeaters in use. Depends on where you are as to what you will pick up. Check the database to see what's out there. Check the main county freqs and each of the townships listed for all of the repeaters. They are all listed.

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&ctid=2286

WGNAS Fire is still operational. When they respond with Horsham or other county units they operate off of the MontCo 800 system.

 

[bumkin1216]

Thank you guys for all the help as I get my scanning hobby off the ground once again. Until this summer, I had not listed to a scanner in almost ten years and boy has the world of scanning changed in that time span! I do have to say that now that I am listening to a scanner again I am really enjoying the hobby once more and have found it to be quit fun.

I do have another question about scanning in Montgomery County if you guys do not mind? I live in Abington Township, Montgomery County and have been listening to the Montgomery County Trunked 800 MHz Radio System with my Pro-97 for the past few weeks and I seem to be able to listen to the East System just fine, but for some reason, I am unable to pick up any activity on the West System? I do know and understand that with the Pro-97 I cannot listen to any of the digital channel talk groups and I also have all the 800 MHz frequencies programmed into the scanner as per the Radio Reference Database for the Montgomery County TRS. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why the West System does not come in for me.

Once again, I thank the community in advance for your time and help.

 

[HM1529]

I do have another question about scanning in Montgomery County if you guys do not mind? I live in Abington Township, Montgomery County and have been listening to the Montgomery County Trunked 800 MHz Radio System with my Pro-97 for the past few weeks and I seem to be able to listen to the East System just fine, but for some reason, I am unable to pick up any activity on the West System? I do know and understand that with the Pro-97 I cannot listen to any of the digital channel talk groups and I also have all the 800 MHz frequencies programmed into the scanner as per the Radio Reference Database for the Montgomery County TRS. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why the West System does not come in for me.

Once again, I thank the community in advance for your time and help.

Geography is your enemy. I sometimes I have trouble receiving the west system from the Norristown and Conshy areas. Being further east, you're simply out of range. The west system, as the name implies, was designed to cover only the western portion of Montco.

 

[bumkin1216]

Thanks for the reply. Geography always seems to be getting in the way. But like I said, the East System (in Abington Township where I live) comes in great, so if it is simply geography then so be it.

As for inputting the East and West system into my Pro-97, I should mention that they are in the same band (bank 0), does that make a difference. I have been reading a lot about not having the control channels of different systems in the same bank, but I do have the East and West System in the same bank. I have inputted them as per the RR database in the order that is listed in the RR database as well (all the East and West frequencies, not just the control channels). So my Bank 0 looks like this (is this acceptable for monitoring the MontCo System):


Bank 0:
00 - MontCo TRS East 868.762500 (Primary) 01 - MontCo TRS East 867.375000 (Secondary) 02 - MontCo TRS East 867.262500 (Secondary) 03 - MontCo TRS East 866.887500 (Secondary) 04 - MontCo TRS East 866.637500 05 - MontCo TRS East 866.262500 06 - MontCo TRS East 856.737500 07 - MontCo TRS East 855.937500 08 - MontCo TRS East 855.237500
09 - MontCo TRS East 854.962500 10 - MontCo TRS West 868.450000 (Primary) 11 - MontCo TRS West 867.650000 (Secondary) 12 - MontCo TRS West 867.137500 (Secondary) 13 - MontCo TRS West 866.775000 (Secondary) 14 - MontCo TRS West 866.550000 15 - MontCo TRS West 866.325000 16 - MontCo TRS West 866.037500 17 - MontCo TRS West 859.062500


Thanks for the continued help and support.

 

[HM1529]

Thanks for the reply. Geography always seems to be getting in the way. But like I said, the East System (in Abington Township where I live) comes in great, so if it is simply geography then so be it.

As for inputting the East and West system into my Pro-97, I should mention that they are in the same band (bank 0), does that make a difference. I have been reading a lot about not having the control channels of different systems in the same bank, but I do have the East and West System in the same bank. I have inputted them as per the RR database in the order that is listed in the RR database as well (all the East and West frequencies, not just the control channels). So my Bank 0 looks like this (is this acceptable for monitoring the MontCo System):

It may or may not matter. In your case, however, it's not going to make a difference. You are too far from any of the west system tower sites. Unless you use an outside antenna you're not going to hear the west system. Even then, there's no garuntee you'd be able to hear the west system without a directional outside antenna (like a yagi). You can hear the east system so well because it was designed to cover the portion of Montco where you live...there are tower sites nearby.

This is where the towers are:
http://www.montcopa.org/eoc/EDS/Maps/New_System.pdf

This is what the two systems (east and west) are designed to cover:
http://www.montcopa.org/eoc/EDS/Maps/EastWest.pdf

Even then, Fire Regions 3 (west) and 4 (east) are carried on both the east and west systems due to coverage gaps on either the east or the west along the "dividing line". Fire Regions 1 and 2 are carried solely on the west system and Fire Regions 5 and 6 are carried solely on the east system.

The only crossband repeater that repeats all six regions is Lower Providence's 152.945 which you most likely will not be able to hear from Abington. The best you'll probably be able to do is a Region 5 crossband and a Region 6 crossband (check the database).

 

[scanjunkie]

Bumkin...The PRO-97 does not do well with multiple systems in one bank. Like Ben said, it doesn't matter much because of the geography issue, but for travel purposes you may want to put West in a separate bank.
Also, you do not need to program all of the systems freqs. You only need the control channels. Enjoy!!

EAST
868.76250
867.37500
867.26250
866.88750

WEST
868.45000
867.65000
867.13750
866.77500

 

[bumkin1216]

Thank you both very much for the help and support; I (think) that I have a hold on scanning the MontCo TRS system now. Living in Abington, it does appear that geography is my biggest enemy as I will only be able to hear Regions 5 and 6 on the East system (and the rebroadcasts of Regions 3 and 4 on the East System for cross coverage purposes) and will not be able to pick up Regions 1 and 2 on the West System, hence the purpose of the East and West Systems in Montgomery County. I did search the RR database and was able to find a bunch of good conventional frequencies, including the Region 5 and 6 cross band channels and a bunch of different dispatch channels (I did also input the Lower Providence repeater but I am doubting that I will be able to pick much up on it, as you suggested Ben). Even though I am not going to pick up the West System in Abington, I did move it into its own bank for traveling purposes. Not that it really matters or that I have the means to do so, but would it make a difference if I had a digital Pro-96 instead of my Pro-97?

Once again, thank you both for the help and the time.

 

[scanjunkie]

The PRO-96 would just allow you to hear the digital Fire traffic from the East, but would not have any affect on your being able to receive the west. Sorry...

 

[HM1529]

The PRO-96 would just allow you to hear the digital Fire traffic from the East, but would not have any affect on your being able to receive the west. Sorry...

The PRO-96 would also allow you to listen to Philadelphia which may or may not be of interest to you since Abington is very close to the city.