New Glasgow PD

[topdogz401]

I travelled to New Glasgow today and noticed that the New Glasgow PD transmissions sounded digital on my Pro 164 scanner. I'm suspecting they either went P25, or they went encrypted. Anyone have any ideas, or hear anything? About a month ago they came in clear as a bell, just normal conventional analog VHF.


Thanks

 

[Res21cue]

They switched to Kenwood Nexedge (NXDN) on Wednesday or Thursday. Womp Womp...

 

[novascotian]

For Res21cue: How is this working for liaison with the other depts. in the area.. I have lost track of which ones exist anymore.. but I think they had at least one liaison or multi-dept channel and I would have thought that they would have each other's frequencies in their radios... so any sign of NXDN on other freqs in the area or just the one?

 

[Res21cue]

Liaison and interopability between NGPD and other departments was certainly deminished after they made the switch. There is still 3 municipal PDs on VHF in Pictou County.

Westville
Stellarton
New Glasgow.

NGPD is the only department to make a switch to NXDN for regular ops. Stellarton has NX Portables and maybe mobiles so they can atleast have NGPD programmed into the radios. Westville uses Motorola because they deal exclusively with Nova Communications (puke) so they will only be able to talk to NG if NG switched to the Westville channel first. There is still a police mutual aid VHF freq that gets used about once or twice a year so that is still an option.

Interopabolity with the FD is also now non-existent unless again, NGPD switched to their channel first.

Personally I think it was a bad move for NGPD because it was common practice for the other depts to monitor their channel and when something big went down, they responded to assist... thats not possible now unless they also buy NXDN radios.... but that is typical NG attitude..they need to have new everything and do everything different to stand out. They were not even allowed to monitor the other depts for activity while on duty, they had no scan option in their radios.... anyways im ranting now lol.

As a side note, I have an NXDN Portable and I cant monitor them, it still sounds like they are talking under water even with everything programmed correctly to monitor them...so it sounds like they even enabled encryption.

 

[novascotian]

Is NXDN like how it works with a digital scanner... you just tune in the correct frequency (I presume in this case still 154.83) and you can hear the transmissions, or do you have to have a private key or some-such programmed?

 

[Res21cue]

The freq is the same as it always was but sadly...no scanner currently available on the market can decode and allow you to listen to Kenwood Nexedge which is a big reason why they switched, they don't want to be heard, especially online with the feeds. The only way to monitor anyone on NXDN is to have a Nexedge radio and be able to program it yourself...this is relatively easy and I monitor my local FD NXDN channel no problem...but with NGPD they are also using encryption and this "key" or code is unique and will need to be programmed into each radio by an authorized dealer...basically until a scanner is invented to Monitor NXDN...NGPD will be in the dark to all of us.

MotoTrbo ... Basically the same as NXDN just the Motorola Version...also unscanable.

 

[novascotian]

I probably wasn't as clear as I should have been... I realize that you cannot use a scanner, at least not yet, but when you actually have a transceiver for the particular proprietary system, in this case NXDN, do you mean you just program in the frequency or is there more to it? I am here referring to non-encrypted signals. In the case of the NGFD, you mentioned them also being NXDN, so is that the 153.95 frequency??

 

[Res21cue]

Hey there.... it is almost that simple.. the freq is the same yes...but when using NXDN... you get a RAN Code...anywhere from 1 to 63. If you want to be able to transmit on that freq, you will need to know what it is. If you simply want to monitor it...you can set the RAN Code as "none" and you will hear whatever is said on that NXDN freq. Things are alittle more complicated with NGPD because they are also using encryption and you need to know the specific encryption key to be able to even monitor them

NGFD does not use NXDN. When I say local I mean local as in...anywhere in Pictou County

Westville Fire...they have an NXDN Channel....which is the exact same as the regular freq, they just have it programmed twice in their radios....one in VHF Analog and again in VHF NXDN for more sensitive or private conversations. Annoying to the average scanner listener or FF on Westville because when that channel is being used, all they hear is the digital noise come across the airwaves and pagers. Doesnt get used very often...