New to the Scanner World

[Cawagula]

Hey everyone,

My Grandfather passed away a couple weeks ago and while cleaning out the house I came across an old 855 XLT scanner. Now, I've looked at the frequency list and noticed their all XXX.XXXXX while the radio only allows me to enter XXX.XXX As I said I'm new to the radio world so I may just be stupid and not have any clue of what I'm doing. But I also know most places are going digital now, is there any hope of picking up any type of law enforcement radio around here or is this model just about useless now?

Sorry, I'm sure you get this a lot from people and it must get quite monotonous to answer it over and over. Any tips in getting started are appreciated.

Location is South Jersey; Mt. Ephraim NJ; about 10 minutes out of Cherry Hill, 5 out of Camden.

 

[DJ88]

I don't monitor Camden County at all, but based on the information on the database here, you can do SOME monitoring.

Camden County uses a conventional analog (not digital) radio system, which you can monitor on your scanner. The information from the database is here:
Camden County, New Jersey (NJ) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference
The only municipality listed as using digital is Pennsauken. You can monitor the rest of them providing you are within receivng range.

Camden City Police operate on an EDACS trunk system, with AEGIS as the system voice, which is not monitorable by any scanner. The information from the database is here:
Scanner Frequencies: Camden City Police / Public Works Trunking System, Camden, New Jersey
Fire and EMS are analog, which you can monitor.

The Cherry Hill Police Department operates on an EDACS trunk system with Pro Voice as the system, voice, which is not monitorable by any scanner. I beleive their fire and EMS are dispatched by Camden County. Information from the database is here:
Scanner Frequencies: Cherry Hill Trunking System, Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Hope this helps a little, and maybe someone who monitors the area can add to this.

 

[Bentley]

Sorry to hear about your grandfather. Your scanner will not pick up digital frequencies or trunked frequencies. But in looking at your area in the database there are a few departments that appear to be just regular FM channels. HERE is a link to the camden county database section of radio reference, look under the "mode" column and if it says FM you "should" be able to enter it into your scanner. I'm not familiar with aegis, but as far as I know there is no scanner that will be able to pick them up. As for the ammount of digits your scanner will allow you to enter. I'm not 100% sure how this will work, but if you look at the last two digits in each frequency are always either 00 or 50. If you find a frequency that you want to enter into your scanner that ends in 00 you should not have any problems, I'm not sure what will happen with the freq's that end in 50. Give it a shot and see what happens. Good Luck!

 

[Danny6569]

? for DJ88

hey DJ what talkgroups in camden police are not monitorable ? i listen to camden police all the time you can hear them on their system are you talking about their tac channels is that what they dont let you hear ?

 

[DJ88]

As I said in my original post, I don't monitor Camden County at all. I'm too far away to receive anything from there. I was just posting the information from the database. The system voice for Camden City is listed as AEGIS and analog and I just assumed that the PD used the AEGIS, being that it can't be monitored. It's a moot point for Cawagula anyway, because, according to Bentley, his scanner doesn't trunk. But, thanks for clafrifying it anyway.

 

[Cawagula]

Hey, thanks for the reply.. The only other question I have is how I enter these frequencies... The problem is when I hit manual and enter, for example, 154.31000 it enters 154.310 and stops. How to I get it to accept the other 0's?

 

[Danny6569]

to cawagula

hey cawagula you dont need the rest of the oooo s usually the basic frequencies are only 6 numbers like if youre trying to put in a frequency that says 154.2200 it will just be 154.220 most scanners either use 5 or 6 numbers the basic scanners do anyway for instance if you were trying to listen to lower vhf channels it would be something like 27.185 or for a six number frequency it would be like the one i out up there 154.220 but anyways i would recommend if you were really trying to listen to a lot more out there to get a newer scanner one thats capable of picking up the digital stuff its worth the money it will gve you a lot more access to more systems though Danny...

 

[johnyvico]

grrrrrr

hey i also listen to camden city and pick it up just fine , i dont think anything on the system is encripted . and as for pensauken it is digital but it is encripted so all u hears is junk in it . but there is alot to listne to in analog in camden county , and gloucster county , there are many towns on the zones like say camden cuonty zone 3 is used by clementon, lindenwold, laural springs, pine hill ,stratford , and they are also sperated by districs this web site might help u out better with zoning Camden County - Radio - http://maxpages.com/frequencies/Camden_County

 

[ampulman]

hey DJ what talkgroups in camden police are not monitorable ? i listen to camden police all the time you can hear them on their system are you talking about their tac channels is that what they dont let you hear ?

Ditto with Cherry Hill. Have listened to C.H. traffic for years; even a 'rolling stakeout'.

There might have been one incident a while back where they went encrypted, as the radio was kind of silent for some time. But, then again, C.H. can have long periods of silence.

Does anyone know whether Provoice or Aegis will cause the receiver to be 'silent' as opposed to producing 'unintelligent' sounds, i.e., gobbledegook, buzzes, etc.?

Amp

 

[W2SJW]

Just to clear it up for the OP:

#1 - You scanner just rounds the frequency to fit the display. If you enter 501.2375, and the screen only shows 501.237, it still knows you meant 501.2375!

#2 - Camden & Cherry Hill do have the digital features enabled on their systems, but most of the regular dispatch talkgroups are still in analog in the 'clear'.