New to Forum and need a little help.

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SmallBrownBass

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Hello Everyone.

I will be the first to admit i do not know to much about scanners and freq. yet.

I have been reading up on it alot recently and this is my dilema.

I want a scanner which i can put in my car that will pick up all the trunked police and fire in howard county. but i also want to be able to pick up pg. county fire department too.
they currently are running in the i believe 490-530.

any suggestions on what to look at.

until then. i will continue to read up and understand this stuff better.

thanks
 

fmon

Silent Key Jan. 14, 2012
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Howard county is digital Motorola 3600 Control Channel.

PG county is EDACS Standard.

These Uniden's BC250, 785D, 296, 796, 396 or 996 will do what you require.
Radio Shack Pro's 96 or 2096 will also scan your needs.
 

ka3jjz

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Actually Frank, you're both right; the cops in PG county use a 490 mhz conventional system quite heavily - and they also use a small EDACS system for other uses (most active, from when I hear them, in the weekends; I'd rather not go into specifics...). There's actually a 2nd EDACS system in PG county, of which only a little is known.

Smallbrown, I would avoid the 250 and 785; there's something coming down the pike called rebanding, which will basically change the way a trunktracker has to use to figure out the right frequencies to use. Neither of those 2 radios will be supported when this happens. It was expected that things would be moving in this issue by now, but other things have delayed the implementation - but it's almost sure to happen some time down the road.

Your best bet is to use the Wiki to educate yourself; we have an extensive wiki on rebanding authored by UPMan, and we also have pages on each of the other radios Frank has mentioned. Be sure to check them out; don't be afraid to ask more questions. There are lots of smart folks here 73s Mike

[edit] Here are 3 pages from our Wiki section to get you started; select the models you wish to view from the tables, and go from there...

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Uniden_Scanners

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Radio_Shack_Scanners

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Rebanding
 
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SmallBrownBass

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thanks for the help.

so just one more question.

so it is correct that howard county uses the digital motorola

will the newer released digital trunking scanners also be able to pick up the analog trunking?
 

ka3jjz

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Yes indeed; the newer digitals will have no trouble with the current systems that are analog. Programming them is different, of course. 73s Mike
 

SmallBrownBass

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awesome.

do you have an opinion on the BCD996T.

right now i am thinking im going to buy something cheap to pick up the pg fd freq.
and in a few months get the 996 and put that in the vehicle and keep the cheap one at home so i can monitor the fd while inside too.

thanks for the help
 

ka3jjz

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I don't have one yet, but it looks like one sweet scanner. And I sincerely doubt I would ever run out of memory to put things in - with 6000 channels that you basically allocate yourself - well let's just say that I remember when 100 channels was considered huge.

I'd do some homework on the various forums for folks impressions of the 996. Some have had some issues, I see, and have had to send it back to Uniden for replacement or repair, but by and large, that's to be expected for a new scanner. I don't care how good the beta testers are supposed to be, every new product has glitches when it's first released.

73s Mike
 

jparks29

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PG county's EDACS system is not used for "normal" operations....

a simple scanner from 10 yrs ago is good enough for PG county.....

HOWEVER, you'll need one of the newer digital scanners to pick up Howard County..

the good thing about the 996,although expensive, it's not gonna be outdated anytime soon......and will work on 90% of the systems out there....
 
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fmon

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jparks29 said:
the good thing about the 996,although expensive, it's not gonna be outdated anytime soon......and will work on 90% of the systems out there....
As will my GRE's thus far. I travel through FL, GA, SC, NC, VA (home state) WV, KT, IN, IL, MO, & KS. So far, my 96 and 2096 will scan everything the 396/996 will. However, there is a pesky 700 MHz worm developing in the SAFE-T system and may filter into my I-64 route some day. None the less, the 996 will handle many of the unincrypted 380 MHz systems in the DC area and a few on Navy ships in my area which the 96/2096 will not. ;)
 

maus92

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PG is in the planning stages to discard/reconfigure/upgrade their EDACS and conventional systems to integrate with the rest of the DC region's TRS's. Unfortunately, the politicos gambled that they would be able to finance the system mostly with federal DHS funds, and spend county funds eslewhere. The cutbacks in DC area DHS funding has complicated this plan. In any case, you will need a digital scanner at some point for PG if they elect to implement a P25 (non EDACS ProVoice) TRS, but certainly not anytime soon (years away.)

CA
Annapolis
 

SmallBrownBass

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yea.

i heard a couple of guys at the firehouse saying they were upgrading the system but they its all up in the air as what is really happening.

I figured it would probally take them a few years to get what they wanted in place and all that jazz.


thanks for the info
 
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