New to scanning

[s8nlovesme]

Hi all. I love in Pewaukee Wiscosnin, and just bought a pro-97 on sale at rat shack. Can someone tell me if the surrounding communities use digital? I plan on listening to Pewaukee, waukesha police fire. Also Id like to try and listen to aircraft communications from crites field or mitchell. I just have no idea if anyone is using digital around here. I kept my box and receipt if this scanner is outdated. Thank you in Advance.

 

[djeplett]

Looks like just about everything in Waukesha county is analog so you should be able to monitor anything you want to including the Waukesha county TRS. Milwaukee 440th Air Wing is analog and digital so some comms you will not be able to monitor. Regular air comms you should be OK with.

HOWEVER, when/if rebanding occurs, the Waukesha TRS will have to be moved which means you will not be able to monitor it anymore with your 97 unless Radio Shack does have the CPU exchange that I've heard mentioned. It means sending your 97 in to Radio Shack and they replace the CPU. The cost I've heard would be around $50. Of course, there's no guarrantee.

If you have the money, the PRO96 should support rebanding by being reflashed which you can do yourself. Might be the best bet. Keep in mind that rebanding may take some time to occur. You may just want to keep your 97 until then.

For me, there is no digital in Waupaca or Outagamie county and there shouldn't be anytime soon. So the 97 will work for me for quite some time.

 

[Tim]

Howdy "s8nlovesme".....

Welcome to the fun hobby of radio scanning.

There are only a few digital systems operating in southeast Wisconsin at the moment. Waukesha County (Motorola), City of Watertown (M/A COM-EDACS), Ozaukee County (M/A COM-EDACS), City of Greenfield (Motorola) and Milwaukee County (Motorola) Trunked Radio Systems around and they are mostly analog. Ozaukee County has some digital (Which is "Pro-Voice"), but that is not monitorable with any scanners on the market. Milwaukee County has a new P25 Trunked Radio System up and running that will be entirely digital, but no main users yet (And that is not listed in your monitoring targets).

All the talkgroups for the 440th ANG UHF TRS down at Mitchell Field are actually digital format. In two plus years in monitoring the system, I have never heard an analog talkgroup.

For you though...rebanding might be an issue, however. It depends on which scanners will work on the new channel plan. Also, I am betting that soon (Within 5 years???) Waukesha County will decide that digital is the way to go.

Tim

 

[RevGary]

Off Topic

Off topic -

Does anyone know of a database which lists the CALLSIGNS of Federal agency systems? I realize that the FCC has nothing to do with those issuances, but I'd be interested in seeing the alternate data set if one is available. (Wasn't there a Federal law enacted in the late 70's which treated that info as classified? If so, there might not be much available??? )

 

[s8nlovesme]

Thanks for all the insight! Hopefully in the next few days i will have some time to actually setup my new scanner, lol.