SDS100/SDS200: New P25p2 system coming in my area. How/where do I start listening?

[bradg323]

Hello Everyone!

I've been scanning for almost 20 years, running digital on SDS200 for 2. My locality is currently building a new public safety 700MHz P25p2 system, will be starting testing on it any day now. They are switching from VHF Conventional to this new system as soon as testing checks out. For now, I am holding out hope that when our first responders are offered training that I (being a first responder myself) will receive more info on the system itself.

Get to the point... I have the Sites and Frequencies already, but how would I go about searching and discovering the talkgroups and units?

Here is what I have done so far:

Created a System,
Added the Sites,
Added all of the Freqs based on the FCC license to each Site,
Placed scanner into Discovery mode on the centrally located site(closest to my location),
Still waiting for that first hit.............


Am I even close? I want to help discover the new system as it comes online and feed information into RR.


Bradley

 

[hiegtx]

Hello Everyone!

I've been scanning for almost 20 years, running digital on SDS200 for 2. My locality is currently building a new public safety 700MHz P25p2 system, will be starting testing on it any day now. They are switching from VHF Conventional to this new system as soon as testing checks out. For now, I am holding out hope that when our first responders are offered training that I (being a first responder myself) will receive more info on the system itself.

Get to the point... I have the Sites and Frequencies already, but how would I go about searching and discovering the talkgroups and units?

Here is what I have done so far:

Created a System,
Added the Sites,
Added all of the Freqs based on the FCC license to each Site,
Placed scanner into Discovery mode on the centrally located site(closest to my location),
Still waiting for that first hit.............


Am I even close? I want to help discover the new system as it comes online and feed information into RR.


Bradley

You can leave the scanner "parked" in Discovery mode, focused on the new system. But if, instead, you wanted to hear other radio traffic, in addition to looking for talkgroups to come up on your 'new system', just set that system to ID Search. Your scanner, when that system is being scanned, will then receive any active talkgroup heard on the new system. You could, if you so desired, set the scanner to record all radio traffic. This would record anything active on the new system, as well as activity on any other system you have programmed. If you also have the scanner connected to software such as ProScan (or ARC536), you can look at the logs to see if any new items show up. In the logs, the Department will be tagged as "Unknown", and the channel description will only be the talkgroup, since the scanner would not know what it was being used for.


Once you start to see activity on the new system, then you could set it back up as a Discovery season, to focus on usage on the new system.
You can put the scanner in mass storage mode, (or (since it;s an SDS200 put the SD Card in an external card reader) to review the recordings or copy them to your PC for further evaluation while letting the scanner return to normal usage. Using the Universal Scanner Audio Player, you can sort the talkgroup recordings in any order you want, then listen to the looking for a pattern that indicates who (agency or department) is using that TGID for what purpose. (You could also simply put the scanner in Hold mode on the new system, instead of going back to using discovery.)

 

[BC_Scan]

all of the Freqs based on the FCC license to each Site

the problem might be if you put in the tx freqs that is not needed, only the RX (you probably know this)
if you have a 2nd scanner or put all RX freqs within a given tower you can hear into one bank and listen as they come alive that way you can narrow down how many potential control channels you can hear from your location , if one is miles from you location and not withing ear shot it bogs down the search unnecessarily once you have it all programmed , you would likely be the first to document all this
good luck

 

[mc48]

The waterfall option would give you a look into the system or use an SDR.