n00b with some questions

[MikeyB09]

Group,
I'm very new to this and very intrested in it. I searched the forum for a beginners guide but didn't really find one. If someone could point me to an easy one, that would be appreciated. Also, I want to start trunking. I heard that some new Bearcats can pick up transponders from police radios. Anyone know what models offer that?
Thanks for the help,
Mike B.

 

[loumaag]

Group,
I'm very new to this and very intrested in it. I searched the forum for a beginners guide but didn't really find one. If someone could point me to an easy one, that would be appreciated. Also, I want to start trunking. I heard that some new Bearcats can pick up transponders from police radios. Anyone know what models offer that?
Thanks for the help,
Mike B.

Mike, first welcome. As for a "beginners" guide, there really isn't one here per se; however, almost every topic has been covered at one time or another. Except maybe this one, and that may be because I have never heard of a "transponder" on a police radio. Maybe a matter of terminology, what are you talking about specifically?

 

[crayon]

Howdy ho there MikeyB09!

Welcome to the group .. all noob's are welcome.

First things first. There really isnt a 'beginners guide' per se here at radioreference.com, I would guess because it is really ez to get going.

I assume that you do not own a radio currently, correct? If not .. the trunking option really narrows down your selection to what type of radios you would be looking at. Before you start talking what type of radio to buy .. you will need to figure out how much you can spend, then buy the most radio for you money.

The is some hub-bub about that Bearcat police thingy. But trust me .. it is really a non-feature. Here is the skinny: When an officer is out of the car he will couple his low powered handheld to a higher powered repeater in the unit. This uses a different frequency that the Bearcat can sense supposedly giving you a 'proximity warning'.

Anyone serious about scanning will not even consider this 'feature' when choosing a radio to buy.

Hope this helps to get you going .. if you have more questions surf back and ask.

 

[crayon]

LOU!!!

What the heck are you doing using my trademarked words of "per se"!!

j/k ya beat me on that post ... /me sneaks over and unplugs Lou's internet connection.

 

[INDY72]

Educated Guess: Simular to cellular locator systems? Or are you referring to the AVL transponders on the Patrol Cruisers? If its the cruisers: Most run in iether 800/900 MHz range or use satellite. Very few run the old LoJack type systems. As to individual radios with transponders I am not sure, but I don't think that any of the current Motorola Radios have this yet. ANyone else got any ideas?

 

[loumaag]

LOU!!!

What the heck are you doing using my trademarked words of "per se"!!

j/k ya beat me on that post ...

I put them properly in italics hence trumping your trademark. :lol: I can't believe I actually beat you to one.

 

[INDY72]

Hmmm /me????? A fellow irc user??? Be careful you maight just mistakenly type in /msg instead of PMing with the button lol.

 

[kikito]

I heard that some new Bearcats can pick up transponders from police radios. Anyone know what models offer that?

Except maybe this one, and that may be because I have never heard of a "transponder" on a police radio. Maybe a matter of terminology, what are you talking about specifically?

Off the top of my head, the BCT-7 and BCT-8.

Here's a good thread about "mobile extenders":

http://www.radioreference.com/modul...pic&t=9578&highlight=mobile+extenders

 

[loumaag]

I heard that some new Bearcats can pick up transponders from police radios. Anyone know what models offer that?

Except maybe this one, and that may be because I have never heard of a "transponder" on a police radio. Maybe a matter of terminology, what are you talking about specifically?

Off the top of my head, the BCT-7 and BCT-8.

Here's a good thread about "mobile extenders":

http://www.radioreference.com/modul...pic&t=9578&highlight=mobile+extenders

Okay, but since we were not discussing "mobile extenders" and MikeyB09 was asking about Transponders, what is the purpose of your post? The word "transponder" does not appear on the post you referenced, mobile extenders was a guess by crayon as to what MikeyB09 was asking about. Before posters correct other posters or assume they know what is being talked about, why don't we wait for MikeyB09 to respond as to what he meant by the question.

By the way referring to mobile extenders as Transponders is stretching a point. Mobile extenders are better referred to as repeaters, not transponders, please see this link.

 

[kikito]

Okay, but since we were not discussing "mobile extenders" and MikeyB09 was asking about Transponders, what is the purpose of your post?

The purpose of my post was to try and help the guy (MikeyB09), which is the MAIN purpose of this boards.

Like you said yourself, it might be a matter of terminology, and that's maybe what he meant to ask about when he said "transponders".

Since "mobile extenders" is the closest thing I can imagine that he meant AND he also mentioned Bearcats which are the only ones that offer something like that, that's why I offer that post and link.

Maybe I should've left your quote out of my reply and that way we wouldn't be discussing this off-topic subject instead of helping the guy....


By the way, last I heard, the mobile extenders ARE some sort of transponder since they have to transmit AND receive.... how else are they going to relay the transmissions.

 

[waynesewell]

Wouldn't that be transceiver rather than transponder?

 

[kikito]

Wouldn't that be transceiver rather than transponder?

Either way you look at it, they both do some sort of receive and transmit function....



waynesewell and loumaag:

You are both right, I agree with both of you, you both win.... :roll:

 

[crayon]

Wouldn't that be transceiver rather than transponder?

I would not use transceiver in this particular conversation ..

Transponder is a contraction of the words transmitter and responder, and they can be either passive or active. We are splitting hairs here since both words are roughly interchangeable because they both are automated transmitters.

Transponder is the word to use in the context of space communications, and Repeater is for reference to terrestrial comm's.

 

[spot2112]

BCT8 user

Regarding the questionable Beartracker feature of the BCT8, et al....

Being new to scanning myself, I dont know if other scanners do this too, but the BCT8 has lots of _correctly_ programed highway patrol trunking frequencies and id groups (for Oklahoma, at least). This has come in very handy for me, since i can experiment with trying to correctly program the private banks all i want and still be able to switch over to the beartracker mode (HWY button on BCT8) and get highway reports. I thought I would mention this because of all the posts I have seen from other new BCT8 users who are having trouble (like me) programing trunking banks.

 

[MikeyB09]

Sorry for the late reply. I was talking to a guy not too long ago and this is what he wrote/said.

About Digital Trunking, basically is a long range computer connection. The voice is changed into digital 1 and 0's, encrypted, and sent out through a powerful radio mounted in the cop car. In addition, the cop usually has a personal radio with a mike mounted on his chest. This radio is pretty weak so what they do is the personal radio transmits to the cop car only, and a repeater in the cop car re-broadcasts that over the digital line.

The thing is, the small radio has a transponder signal it sends out whenever the radio is on, regardless of whether there is any talking going on. The newer Bearcat's can recieve the transponder and give you a warning if a cop is in the vicinity.

This is what is intresting me.
Thanks.

 

[INDY72]

OK: That is just the wrong terminology for the land usage lol. For land mobile, you call it a mobile extender, or vehicular repeater. The BCT8 types do pick up the me's but remember that me's are low power and can only be picked up at short range, maximum usually only ten or so miles for the higher power settings, and around half a mile or so for the lowest settings. Now when your dealing with trunked radio systems, its much easier to just monitor the main radio system vias trunk tracking. As to digital capable systems, you cant trunk track APCO-P-25 with the BCT8 types that are on the market right now. Maybe Uniden and RS will make one like this that is digital capable in the future, as some folks find the me monitoring helpful for some systems. This could be a good thing for when a conventional system goes digital, because they would also have to install digital me's.