New Sac county resident questions

[consys]

After living in and scanning Solano County for 40 years I moved to Carmichael and am trying to figure some things out. Any help appreciated.

1. Fire dispatch district areas (numbers, not Dispatch A, B, C): Is there a map of these I haven't found yet?

2. CHP vs. Sheriff areas: I’ve seen CHP respond to incidents on Cypress east of Walnut near my house. Sheriff seen operating north & south on Walnut. Can any one enlighten me about these jurisdictions? Also noticed Pulsepoint seems to not list incidents on Cypress between Walnut and Manzanita / Fair Oaks, which seems to match where I see CHP.

3. I have very low signal strength here at Cypress & Walnut area. I’m using an amp & 700 Mhz bandpass filter to get usable decodes with a Uniden BCD396T and a P25RXII. A variety of antennas tried both indoor and outside, but nothing directional, elevated, or higher gain yet... Using the site 12 control frequency 853.450.

 

[gmclam]

Hi John,
Fire A = Metro Fire, which is a consolidation of all the county fire departments. Fire B = Sacramento city fire, within the city limits. Fire C is overflow. This can get busy on days like July 4. Fire D is for drills and Fire T is for training. In the hours of little activity, you might find A1 & B1 (the dispatch TGs) to be "patched" (using one [automated] dispatcher). Mutual aid is common, so a fire near the city limit may also get sent to Metro units and visa versa.

The Sacramento county sheriff does not typically handle traffic calls, that is left to CHP. But each city (Folsom, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Sacramento) has its own policy and usually do handle traffic calls. Most of the county is on Black CHP channel (which also covers all of Yolo county). But there's a sector in the northwest part of the county that is on CHP Gold. There are maps showing the boundaries here on RR.

I don't use any web apps/sites and have no clue about how they operate.

The SRRCS is a Simulcast system and there's really only one pair of scanner models that properly pick it up (SDS-100, SDS-200). There are other options for non-scanners. Personally I am using a discone antenna (which many consider to not be all that great but I love) mounted about 15 feet above the ground here in Fair Oaks. I am at about 330 feet of elevation and that helps. With my omni-directional "broadband" antenna, it picks up everything - AM/FM broadcast, cell towers and pagers. While it might seem prudent to feed it into an amplifier, you certainly don't want everything amplified. I run low loss coax from the antenna, employ filtering of AM/FM broadcast and then feed into an amp to feed my myriad of receivers.

As I sit here now monitoring SRRCS, site 12; I see the control channel is presently at 853.450MHz with a NAC of 5FC. So, you should, at least be using a bandpass filter of 700-899MHz. I suspect you are a victim of simulcast. You can dance around the issue or get one of the receivers that can handle it. If you only want reception from this one system, you might get away with a directional antenna. Not sure where to advise you to point it; Carpenter Hill, Station 21, or hwy 50 & Power Inn. Signals coming from multiple directions "simultaneously" are what simulcast is, and your BCD396 can't handle it (neither can my PSR-500, etc.).

 

[claubinger]

I have also noticed that PulsePoint does not seem to show up when the dispatch is involving law enforcement (violent crime assault/ medical aid level 2).
Fire A bank is any and all agencies outside of the city if Sacramento. Not to be confused with Metro fire but the Metro itself.

 

[claubinger]

I have also noticed that PulsePoint does not seem to show up when the dispatch is involving law enforcement (violent crime assault/ medical aid level 2).
Fire A bank is any and all agencies outside of the city if Sacramento. Not to be confused with Metro fire but the Metro itself.

To help with your learning of Fire Department geography
City of Sacramento
1-17,19,20,30,43,60
Station 3,18 Natomas Fire Protection District ( serviced by City of Sacramento)
Stations 56,57 Pacific Fruitridge Fire Protection District ( serviced by City of Sacramento)
Sac Metro Fire
Stations 21-23,25-29 (Antelope, Citrus Heights, Orangevale)
Stations 31-32 (Fair Oaks)
Stations 24,41,42,112,114,115 (North Highlands)
Stations 50-55,58,59 ( Florin, Vineyard, Sloughhouse, Rancho Murieta)
Stations 61-66,68 ( Rosemont, Ranch Cordova, Gold River)
Stations 101-103,105,106,108,110 ( Arden-Arcade, Carmichael)
Stations 111,116,117 ( Rio Linda, Elverta)
City of Folsom
Stations 35-39
Cosumnes CSD
45,46 (Galt)
71-78 (Elk Grove)
Wilton Fire Protection District
Stations 81,83,84
Herald Fire Protection District
Stations 87,88
Courtland Fire Protection District
Stations 91,92
City of Iselton
Station 93
River Delta Fire Protection District
Station 94
Walnut Grove Fire Protection District
Stations 95,96

 

[consys]

WOW!!! Thank you all for replies and level of detail. Going to be very helpful and I really appreciate it. I just printed it all out to make a couple cheat sheets. JS

 

[picscan]

I don't know if you want to spend any more money but I use my Unication G5 to listen to Sac county, Sac city, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Davis, Roseville, CHP black, Rancho Murieta, Elk Grove, Galt, West Sac, Prisons....Police and Fire plus any other county or city agencies all using just the stubby antenna sitting in my chair. I use a Whister TRX-1 for distant CHP with a discone on the roof which brings in Tahoe to San Jose plus all analog agencies from Tahoe to the Bay Area. The TRX-1 just doesn't work well for P25

 

[gmclam]

I don't know if you want to spend any more money but I use my Unication G5 to listen to Sac county, Sac city, Folsom, Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova, Davis, Roseville, CHP black, Rancho Murieta, Elk Grove, Galt, West Sac, Prisons....Police and Fire plus any other county or city agencies all using just the stubby antenna sitting in my chair. I use a Whister TRX-1 for distant CHP with a discone on the roof which brings in Tahoe to San Jose plus all analog agencies from Tahoe to the Bay Area. The TRX-1 just doesn't work well for P25

LOL. I found that the TRX-1 only worked "well" on P25 non-simulcast systems. Low audio on analog such as CHP. Just about any old analog scanner can do well for CHP, if you have the correct antenna. But they're moving soon.

 

[picscan]

LOL. I found that the TRX-1 only worked "well" on P25 non-simulcast systems. Low audio on analog such as CHP. Just about any old analog scanner can do well for CHP, if you have the correct antenna. But they're moving soon.

Yeah, I fell for the TRX P25 thing when they first came out because I had gotten out of scanning when the sheriff switched, I was really excited to start listening again and I was really let down when it didn't work so now I use it for non simulcast, DMR and analog and got the G5 for everything else. The G5 battery lasts up to 20 hours sometimes and only takes a few to recharge and is amazing what that little stubby antenna can do. I do not see CHP moving away anytime soon.

 

[consys]

Thank you for the intel on what is working for you here. The BT P25RX II worked very well on the Solano County Phase 1 system, and the BCD396T worked OK. There were only two “visible towers” at my location, one very close. I thought I was done buying radios… now considering selling some other toys to fund the habit. I appreciate hearing about the Unication. Fired up the old PRO 2006 on CHP for now. Thanks everyone!