Need help with Pinellas County System

Status
Not open for further replies.

konflikt

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2004
Messages
18
I am looking for help with the specific freqs used by the Pinellas County Sheriff office. I have a Pro-95 and have programmed all the freqs for the Ridgecrest and the Toytown sites. From what I can tell St. Pete PD and south county for the most part use the Toytown freqs and Pinellas Park area north are using the Ridgecrest freqs. I am only interested in listening to law enforcement not EMS or Fire. It does not seem like I am picking up much traffic from the talkgroup ids listed as the Sheriff office. It seems like I have alot of unused freqs programmed into the scanner which even in closed mode is causing me to miss alot of traffic. I seem to pick up Largo, Pinellas Park and the Pasadena talkgroup ids but do not seem to be getting good traffic on any of the talk group IDs for the sheriffs office. Anyone with updated information on the system that cares to help would be very much appreciated. Ideally I would like to have the scanner set up in closed mode with one bank for the clearwater EDACS system, one for PCSO, one for Largo and PP area, one for St. Pete PD and so on.
 

tampabaynews

Keeping your PIO busy
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 26, 2007
Messages
1,344
Location
Tampa, FL
I have all the agencies in Pinellas (excluding Clearwater PD of course) programmed using the Ridgecrest site frequencies, and all are working fine for me. Perhaps check your settings? I'm not sure what else the problem could be, the data on RR is correct as far as I know.
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Lock out Ridgecrest. Hold down the up arrow on your scanner to display freq with talk group Id. This will flash back and forth between the freq and group ID. Listen for rescue and emergency . Write down the freqs that show up with EMS/rescue. However the County rescue and police will share some freqs. Once you identify the freqs that the EMS use (IG Sunstar) Lock out the freqs. Once the freqs are identified and locked out, you will get a tons of police talk and action. HAve fun
 

rmiller818

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
506
Location
Marietta GA
Lock out Ridgecrest. Hold down the up arrow on your scanner to display freq with talk group Id. This will flash back and forth between the freq and group ID. Listen for rescue and emergency . Write down the freqs that show up with EMS/rescue. However the County rescue and police will share some freqs. Once you identify the freqs that the EMS use (IG Sunstar) Lock out the freqs. Once the freqs are identified and locked out, you will get a tons of police talk and action. HAve fun

This doesn't make sense, it is a trunking system, all the frequencies should be shared. If you lockout a frequency you happen to hear a fire or ems unit on you could miss the next transmission on that frequency which may be a PD or SO unit. Unless you meant to say lock out talkgroup ids that are used by FD and EMS, that is a different story. An easier way would be only program the talkgroup ids you want to hear and then scan the bank in closed mode (minus sign under the bank number)

This is what I would suggest doing. Program the Ridgecrest site in one bank and the Toy Town site in another. You only need to program the control channels (the red and blue ones in the database). Program the talkgroup IDs you want to hear, you will need to program the same ids in both banks. Close both banks and scan away.
 

konflikt

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2004
Messages
18
I think he meant to say lockout certain talkgroups rather than frequencies. I do have the ridgecrest site on 1 bank and toytown on another. It appears to me that St. Pete police talk using the Toytown site. My question now is that if I program Ridgcrest site I only need to program the red ad blue control channels? Meaning I only have to program the 4 or 5 different freqs that are listed in red and blue rather than all 27 on the ridgecrest site?
 

rmiller818

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
506
Location
Marietta GA
I think he meant to say lockout certain talkgroups rather than frequencies. I do have the ridgecrest site on 1 bank and toytown on another. It appears to me that St. Pete police talk using the Toytown site. My question now is that if I program Ridgcrest site I only need to program the red ad blue control channels? Meaning I only have to program the 4 or 5 different freqs that are listed in red and blue rather than all 27 on the ridgecrest site?

Correct, only the control channels.
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Control channels

As far as the control channels, all 27 need to be program first, right?
 

rmiller818

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
506
Location
Marietta GA
Thank you so much for the help Mr. Rmiller

Your welcome, hope it works for you now.

As far as the control channels, all 27 need to be program first, right?

Only the control channels are needed (that is for a scanner that supports control channel only scanning such as the Pro-95). The control channels are denoted in the database by being highlighted in red or blue.

So for Pinellas, on the Ridgecrest site you should program:
857.23750, 858.23750, 859.23750, 860.23750

For the Toy Town site:
859.71250 and 860.71250.

I am not familiar what the 2 cell sites are used for or if they are a part of the Toy Town site, maybe a local can shed some light on those.
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Any Tips

Thank you. I stand corrected. I met lock out ID groups not Freqs. By the way, why are there so many channels? I have two scanners 1000 each. Is there an idea or tip for manual programming? Can identical freqs be repeated in order in the same bank, and can different freq groups from other areas share the same bank? Will this interrupt Trunking? Just asking because it takes time to experiment and I am short of spare time. Thanks. Doug
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Only the control channels are needed (that is for a scanner that supports control channel only scanning such as the Pro-95). The control channels are denoted in the database by being highlighted in red or blue.

So for Pinellas, on the Ridgecrest site you should program:
857.23750, 858.23750, 859.23750, 860.23750

For the Toy Town site:
859.71250 and 860.71250.

I am not familiar what the 2 cell sites are used for or if they are a part of the Toy Town site, maybe a local can shed some light on those.[/QUOTE]

Question: I just purchased a Pro-95 for 30 bucks. Found it on Craigs list. So by what I have gathered from you response to this forum, I need not to programe all 27 freqs but only the red and blue ones? How does that work?
 

rmiller818

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
506
Location
Marietta GA
Question: I just purchased a Pro-95 for 30 bucks. Found it on Craigs list. So by what I have gathered from you response to this forum, I need not to programe all 27 freqs but only the red and blue ones? How does that work?

Correct, only the red and blue ones.

Those marked in red or blue have been found to be the different frequencies that the system uses for a control channel. Only 1 frequency will be in use as the control channel. You scanner will scan the 4 frequencies until it detects the control channel. It then listens to the control channel data and when the scanner receives data that there is a transmission on one of the talkgroups you have programmed it switches to the frequency assigned for that talkgroup at that moment.
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Yes Finally

I want to learn by osmosis with instant gratification. It takes time to sit down and study the guide with trial and error. I had to rest my Pro-95 twice but I am finally understanding how it works. Its pretty complicated. I wonder how much time I can save with a USP wire and the Win software? I know nothing about this but I am learning how to manually configure the sub banks, banks, and channels.
 

rmiller818

Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2003
Messages
506
Location
Marietta GA
I want to learn by osmosis with instant gratification. It takes time to sit down and study the guide with trial and error. I had to rest my Pro-95 twice but I am finally understanding how it works. Its pretty complicated. I wonder how much time I can save with a USP wire and the Win software? I know nothing about this but I am learning how to manually configure the sub banks, banks, and channels.

I find it much easier with software as you can use the keyboard to type in the information rather than having to do it on the keypad of your scanner. Plus you can see everything in it rather easily and I have found that helps me understand better how the scanner is setup. That and you can share the files with others.
 

Bucephalus

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
81
Location
Florida
Hey dude. I purchased the cable and disc from Radio Shack today, but for some reason I can not upload the existing data on my scanner to the free Win95 download on my computer. I keep getting and error that says," Unable to open the port\\.\COM1". Can I upload my data from the Pro-95 to Win95 program? Do you have any advice as to what may be causing this error?
 

KI4VBR

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 4, 2009
Messages
218
Location
Palm Harbor, FL
Your PC's com port is probably on another com assignment like com:3 or something. You can usually change this in the setup/BIOS screen or in device manager/ports section.

Or you can find out what port number your PC is set up for now and tell the software to use that port.

Hopefully you have a pinellas county data file. If not, let me know and I will try to help out as I have a pro 95 loaded up. Best to send me an email....my call sign below @yahoo.com

Vince _/\_ KI4VBR
Palm Harbor, FL EL88ob
 

konflikt

Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2004
Messages
18
Has anyone ever heard traffic on these either of the cell 3 or cell 4 sites?
Cell 3 866.30000c
Cell 4 866.16250c
 

fjl43

Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2002
Messages
15
Location
Connecticut
RE: Pinellas TRS Set Up

Hello to all and thank you for reading my post. I like many others, logged on RR and transferred freq's and talkgroups into my Pro-96. I did this while at home in CT. I am now at the Beachcomber Resort Hotel in St. Pete Beach. As others noted, I also am receiving a lot of EMS traffic...and missing St. Pete Beach PD , Sheriff,and FD traffic. I am not familiar with the talkgroup designations as listed RR. Obviously, I know EMS, and have deleted those talkgtroups. I have all Ridgecrest, Toytown, code 3,4 frequencies plugged in using Win96.
Does anyone have a .p96 file that I could download??? or advice on how to concentrate on St. Pete Beach
Sheriff, PD and FD frequencies.
BTW, I will be in the area ubtil Feb 3rd, 2010
Thank You,
Regards,
Fred Liedke callsign W1POP)
fjl43@yahoo.com
 

kayleesdad

Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2007
Messages
663
some good digital on sheriff's TG 45792. haven't heard that much open digital voice in awhile. training session, I suppose.
 

webley445

Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
Messages
203
Location
Pinellas county, Fl
For what its worth, I used to have a Pro 95 last year and had 4 control freqs programmed in and picked up everything I wanted to hear using TG's from RR database.
Just have to make sure you set the bank up for MOT system and same for TG's. The four freqs I use are:
857.2375
858.2375
859.2375
860.2375

This is also the setup I have in my current receiver. I'm getting all the LEO/ FD/EMS traffic, all seems to be in order as far as I can tell.

BTW, if you want to hear some interesting traffic try City of St. Pete, especially south dist and their Tac channels.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top