N. York County and Mecklenburg County questions

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HandiScratchy

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Charlotte NC
I live in York county a few feet from the NC state line. Until recently I've been more than happy to "scan" using a phone app to stream the sheriff's official feed and my various ham transceivers to listen to other signals of interest. With all the protests going on simultaneously I was unable to access the YoCo stream due to server issues so I think I should move to my own equipment. I'm interested in: York County SC Public Safety, Palmetto 800 and Charlotte USAI primarily.
Do any of these have known plans to upgrade to P2 soon?
Do any of the Police Departments in those systems that aren't already encrypted on their dispatch channel plan to do so soon?
What scanner are you using on these systems?
$400 is the absolute top of my budget and I expect I'll need to spend some on antennae so I'm shopping used as well as new. It looks like a used bcd396XT is about $100 less than a new BCD325P2. Is there any advantage to getting a P2 capable scanner even if you don't need P2?
I see a 436HP that would be $400 delivered. Is it enough of an upgrade to merit spending the whole budget on it?
 

tvengr

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Baltimore County, MD
The York Co and Charlotte systems are simulcast. The ideal scanner would be the SDS100, but that is outside of your budget. That being said, the BCD436HP is better at receiving simulcast systems and has longer battery life than the BCD325P2. I would make sure you order the scanner from someone with a good return policy. How well it works will depend on your location. The SDS100 and SDS200 are the only scanners designed to receive simulcast systems. Any of the systems could be upgraded to Phase 2. All new systems are almost guaranteed to be Phase 2. It makes no sense to purchase a scanner capable of Phase 1 only. The BCD325P2 and BCD436HP can both be upgraded to receive DMR and NXDN. The BCD396XT cannot.
 

JDrisc3480

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Joined
Aug 10, 2010
Messages
198
Location
Fayetteville, North Carolina
I live in York county a few feet from the NC state line. Until recently I've been more than happy to "scan" using a phone app to stream the sheriff's official feed and my various ham transceivers to listen to other signals of interest. With all the protests going on simultaneously I was unable to access the YoCo stream due to server issues so I think I should move to my own equipment. I'm interested in: York County SC Public Safety, Palmetto 800 and Charlotte USAI primarily.
Do any of these have known plans to upgrade to P2 soon?
Do any of the Police Departments in those systems that aren't already encrypted on their dispatch channel plan to do so soon?
What scanner are you using on these systems?
$400 is the absolute top of my budget and I expect I'll need to spend some on antennae so I'm shopping used as well as new. It looks like a used bcd396XT is about $100 less than a new BCD325P2. Is there any advantage to getting a P2 capable scanner even if you don't need P2?
I see a 436HP that would be $400 delivered. Is it enough of an upgrade to merit spending the whole budget on it?
Question. Have you tried your "app" in the last 24-48 hours? Here is why I ask. I currently work overseas and use the Broadcastify app to listen to Fayetteville. I listened one day after work before the protests started, everything was fine. The next day, the protests started, I got off work and went to listen, the server was offline. When I got to work that next day, I checked on here to see if anyone had posted anything about Fayetteville's feed being offline and that is where I say that there were agencies (I think Mecklenburg county was one of them) that switched there communications over to encrypted. Now once things calmed down (a couple days I think), the Fayetteville feed came back online.
 

HandiScratchy

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Charlotte NC
Question. Have you tried your "app" in the last 24-48 hours? Here is why I ask. I currently work overseas and use the Broadcastify app to listen to Fayetteville. I listened one day after work before the protests started, everything was fine. The next day, the protests started, I got off work and went to listen, the server was offline. When I got to work that next day, I checked on here to see if anyone had posted anything about Fayetteville's feed being offline and that is where I say that there were agencies (I think Mecklenburg county was one of them) that switched there communications over to encrypted. Now once things calmed down (a couple days I think), the Fayetteville feed came back online.
Yes the feed came back a soon as demand dropped or capacity increased whichever the case was. It seems like our thoughts were similar, I came here looking for an explanation as well.

I realize the various departments could flip the encryption switch and make it harder to stay updated but there's a little more than just curiosity driving me towards getting a scanner. I was alerted by friends that a planned riot was supposed to occur on the same parking lot as my daughter's work place in about 30 mins. Thankfully they closed along with all the other area businesses and sent her home. The riot turned out to either be a hoax or the police cut it off before it got started but if course I didn't know that at the time. In the few minutes between getting the heads up and getting in touch with her the app failure contributed significantly to my frustration level. I knew that relying on an app wasn't smart and hopefully there will never be a need but I don't want to repeat that experience.
 

JDrisc3480

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Messages
198
Location
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Yes the feed came back a soon as demand dropped or capacity increased whichever the case was. It seems like our thoughts were similar, I came here looking for an explanation as well.

I realize the various departments could flip the encryption switch and make it harder to stay updated but there's a little more than just curiosity driving me towards getting a scanner. I was alerted by friends that a planned riot was supposed to occur on the same parking lot as my daughter's work place in about 30 mins. Thankfully they closed along with all the other area businesses and sent her home. The riot turned out to either be a hoax or the police cut it off before it got started but if course I didn't know that at the time. In the few minutes between getting the heads up and getting in touch with her the app failure contributed significantly to my frustration level. I knew that relying on an app wasn't smart and hopefully there will never be a need but I don't want to repeat that experience.
The thing is, if they did switch to encrypted communications, no scanner would have been able to decode it. So It would not matter if you used the app or an actual scanner. You would not have heard anything.
 

HandiScratchy

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Charlotte NC
The thing is, if they did switch to encrypted communications, no scanner would have been able to decode it. So It would not matter if you used the app or an actual scanner. You would not have heard anything.
It's unlikely that fire and ems would encrypt so some info would be available but with the app you couldn't get any feed from anywhere.
 

YorkCoPublicSafetyComms

County Government
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York County, SC
HandiScratchy,

York County Public Safety Communications provides the "official" streams for the York County Sheriff's Office as well as the EMS/Fire agencies for whom. We do not have any plans to move forward with a P25 phase 2 implementation, but many of our partner public safety systems are moving forward with preparations for phase 2 at some point in the future.

As for the streams, there was an issue with Broadcastify a couple of weeks ago which included a significant lapse in services. However, we have not interrupted our streams during the recent events.
 

HandiScratchy

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Aug 19, 2018
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72
Location
Charlotte NC
HandiScratchy,

York County Public Safety Communications provides the "official" streams for the York County Sheriff's Office as well as the EMS/Fire agencies for whom. We do not have any plans to move forward with a P25 phase 2 implementation, but many of our partner public safety systems are moving forward with preparations for phase 2 at some point in the future.

As for the streams, there was an issue with Broadcastify a couple of weeks ago which included a significant lapse in services. However, we have not interrupted our streams during the recent events.
Thanks for the reply. I knew the issue was with the massive demand on Broadcastify not York County and I really appreciate the official feed. It's a service to the residents of the county that I hope continues for a long time.
 

yardbird

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Mar 3, 2004
Messages
946
Location
Concord, NC
The last time I heard that Charlotte UASI was going to go to phase 2 would be about the same time the NC Viper System switched to Phase 2.

Time line is supposed to be in 2025.

As far as I know all public safety agencies in Charlotte/Mecklenburg are already carrying APX radios. Police are carrying standard black radios and fire is carrying the high visibility green portables.

There were several new encrypted talkgroups for Charlotte Fire, I believe they were for use during the RNC but now that the RNC is no more then they may not see much usage. Unless they have a need for more sensitive communions for riots and assisting police.

The NC Viper system has stopped allowing anymore non phase 2 radios on the system. That means no more Motorola XTS and XTL portables and mobiles.

David
 

Soundman

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N.C
Has anyone got the word if Charlotte police staying encrypted . I have been looking every were . I have been asking some friends . But thy don't know .I really miss not hearing my police . It nice to know thy are still around .
 

yardbird

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Right now only the Tac channels and special ops channels are encrypted. As far as I know all sheriff channels are clear. Mecklenburg Ems and Charlotte Fire have encrypted channels as well.

David
 

hamstang

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Charlotte NC
CMPD is currently using encrypted talkgroups for most everything. Been that way for several weeks.
 
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