moving to DC

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the_expatriate

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I'm moving to DC soon and have been checking out the database and this forum to figure out how to program my scanners (GRE psr-500 & pro-97 for non-digital), and I feel I'm getting in over my head. Are there any stores I can go to, and they can program all the PD and FD freq.? I'd like to do it on my own, but I've got pretty limited experience at it. Thanks for any suggestions. ~ Jeff
 

jim202

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I'm moving to DC soon and have been checking out the database and this forum to figure out how to program my scanners (GRE psr-500 & pro-97 for non-digital), and I feel I'm getting in over my head. Are there any stores I can go to, and they can program all the PD and FD freq.? I'd like to do it on my own, but I've got pretty limited experience at it. Thanks for any suggestions. ~ Jeff


I hope the job you have pays very well. It is very expensive to live anyplace near DC. If you plan on commuting, you had better be patient. The traffic flow is not much better than riding a bike. It's heavy and very slow.

On to your radio questions. Most of what is in the DC area for radio systems is trunking and digital at that. There is not much that is analog. Even most of the federal radio systems are digital. Many of the federal systems are also encrypted.
 

W2NJS

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Almost all of the FDs in the DC area, though P25 digital, also still transmit their dispatches on FM analog using their legacy (old) channels. Montgomery County MD also transmits their first fireground channel on the old secondary channel of 153.95/5A(156.7), with the FM dispatch on 154.16/5A. I'm not aware of any PDs that still transmit on FM analog except for a few in PG County MD. The DC MPD is a 460 mHz P25 digital trunked system that does not transmit in analog any longer. US Park Police is in process of converting to P25 digital but still transmits dispatches on 166.925/3A(127.3).

Most of the stuff you would need to start out is here:

http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=315
 
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ka3jjz

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The PRO-97 will also serve you well in the realm of milair, of which there is a TON in the DC metro area. To get just a small sampling of what you can hear, go to the Sticky Thread for Milair in the Maryland forum.

There are no stores, apart from RS (which I wouldn't trust further than I could throw an employee), that do programming for this area. You didn't say anything about what software you are using, and what specifically you want to hear. Without these two very important points, no one can really help you with files. There's a ton of stuff to hear in the DC area - you need to be much more specific. You're really going to need to become more familiar with programming your own radios, but that's just my opinion. There's enough help in the wiki and here to get you started (even with getting a file from someone), but learning it yourself is where the real education gets done.

As for programming the DC 460/800 mhz system, here's a wiki article that covers that subject...(look at the technical notes section for a couple of tips)

Programming the MPDC in Digital Scanners - The RadioReference Wiki

I'm sure we have more than a few of the GRE/RS digitals in the area to help out with that. There's also the Scan-DC group on QTH.net which is quite active.

best regards..Mike
 

brownlab

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All of the these anwsers above to your question are very good. The only thing I can add is that it really is going to depend where you choose to live. DC metro is very big and there is almost too much to monitor. DC has a population of over 600K and somthing is always going on. In DC, your scanner will seldom be idle. The close in countries are also very large and very busy. PG and Montgomery in MD are both close to a million people each and Fairfax, Alexandria and Arlington in Northern VA are well over a million combined. The good news is that these large counties all have central public saftey radio systems so you do not have to programs a lot of different freg for the various police and fire departments in each county. Your GRE will work in most areas except PG County MD which uses TDMA. If you end up moving to Suburban MD, you may consider upgrading to the GRE PRS 800 which handles the PG TDMA. If you move to Northern VA, your GRE 500 should work fine everywhere except if you move way out to Loundoun (about 40 miles west of the White House) There you will again have to deal with the TDMA issue . BTW, DC is a litte trickey to program becuse the police (or MPD) is a different setup than Fire/EMS but you will figure it out plus there are lots of people here who will help you out as well. Good luck and welcome to the area.
 

the_expatriate

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Thanks all for the suggetstions and Radio Reference does have a lot of information to help. I guess I was just hoping to take the easy way out!

My plan is to monitor just what will be my local neighborhood (Brookland) for fire and police. Just need to do a little research.

Thanks again for all the links.
 

W2NJS

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Problem with monitoring DCFD is that the audio to the old FM transmitter on 154.19/PL 77.0 is vox operated, so it cuts in and out but also misses the beginning of words. No one ever took the time and trouble to construct a decent interface between the digital system's audio and the analog input to the legacy transmitter. As far as monitoring the MPD what most of us do is just program in the 460 mHz channels (there about 8 of them) for P25 and then scan them. In operation, the calls and responses seem to stick to the same channel they start off on, so if you learn the vehicle and officer designators you can usually figure out who you're listening to.
 

Dewey

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Thanks all for the suggetstions and Radio Reference does have a lot of information to help. I guess I was just hoping to take the easy way out!

My plan is to monitor just what will be my local neighborhood (Brookland) for fire and police. Just need to do a little research.

Thanks again for all the links.

Brookland is 5th District, PSA 502. 5D Zone: 16528 / 5D Tac: 16912.

Dewey
 
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