Newish to Indiana, a bit stymied in Hendricks County

[KI2K]

Hi All,
moved to Indiana from a much less sophisticated radio systems environment in rural upstate NY, now trying to get a handle on the local scanning landscape. I’m in Hendricks County, and I believe the Sheriff comms are now encrypted. I also understand the general makeup of the SAFE-T framework. On my SDS100, if I simply pull down the RR SAFE-T system as a whole, I pick up all kinds of stuff like the State Police, Boone County Sheriff, and the occasional local fire dispatch. But if I set the majority of SAFE-T systems to Avoid in the same Favorites List with the goal of just leaving Hendricks County, I end up with the dreaded Nothing to Scan, despite 32 systems being there. I realize this may also be an SDS100 question, but it’s odd to me that same favorites list for SAFE-T is somewhat happy until I avoid most of it.

Basically trying to get Avon, Plainfield, Danville, and Brownsburg fire and police to the extent they can be gotten. I. Doing great with neighboring counties, but my own new home county is stumping me.

I have searched the forums, BTW. Not seeing anything to get me going in right direction. Thanks!

 

[cubn]

You should be able to hear all the fire activity by listening to the Hendricks County site on SAFE-T but the city and county police are all encrypted.

I do hear BOLO advisories on HMA-1 from Hendricks County 911.

For police, your best bet is to to listen to the Broadcastify stream (which runs on a delay).

 

[KI2K]

You should be able to hear all the fire activity by listening to the Hendricks County site on SAFE-T but the city and county police are all encrypted.

I do hear BOLO advisories on HMA-1 from Hendricks County 911.

For police, your best bet is to to listen to the Broadcastify stream (which runs on a delay).

Thanks on all. I understand on the encryption for police. Still trying to figure out why other SAFE-T systems are just fine to hear, but when I narrow down to just Hendricks I get Nothing to Scan despite 32 entries being there, and all system types enabled. Thats the crux of my question.

 

[cubn]

I put my scanner on Hendricks County and pretty much all I was hearing was TMC and ISP talk groups.

I did finally hear one fire dispatch.

Not sure if it's a setting in your scanner just a really slow morning.

You can view recent activity at.

County Fire/EMS Dispatch/Hendricks County (32) Group Calls Live

10359 Group Calls Live

www.broadcastify.com

County Fire Operations 1/Hendricks County (32) Group Calls Live

10361 Group Calls Live

www.broadcastify.com

 

[bdub5]

Thanks on all. I understand on the encryption for police. Still trying to figure out why other SAFE-T systems are just fine to hear, but when I narrow down to just Hendricks I get Nothing to Scan despite 32 entries being there, and all system types enabled. Thats the crux of my question.

I normally use a Favorite List (FL) when I want to be selective on what I want to monitor. A FL can let you narrow down to the sites and TG's that you want to listen to. You can even set up quick keys to add additional granularity to your monitoring experience.

 

[KI2K]

I normally use a Favorite List (FL) when I want to be selective on what I want to monitor. A FL can let you narrow down to the sites and TG's that you want to listen to. You can even set up quick keys to add additional granularity to your monitoring experience.

Hi bdub5,

Thanks for the reply. Thats actually what I’m trying to do a couple of different ways. I’ve tried each of these to get just Hendricks County into its own FL:

1. In Sentinel database, select JUST USA\Indiana\Hendricks\Statewide\Indiana Project Hoosier\SAFE-T\Hendricks County. This gets me all 32 systems shown as available, but when I select the created FL it shows Nothing to Scan. All service types are enabled. The questions is asked if I have the control channels enabled, but I have no idea where to see them in Sentinel for an imported Apco25 system. This is one place I’m scratching my head.

2. Import entire SAFE-T system into an FL. All surrounding counties are active. If I avoid all of them but Hendricks, back to Nothing to scan message.

3. Build a tiny FL, Apco25 system with site for Hendricks. Set control frequency shown here and enable ID Scan. This time, no “nothing to scan” but also no activity picked up at all either.

I’ll get there. Just feels odd that other counties not doing same in my attempts.

 

[AK9R]

If you lock onto the Hendricks Simulcast site and lock out everything except the Hendricks County talkgroups, you should hear the fire departments in the county. All departments are dispatched on 32F-DSP. After the initial dispatch, they will talk on 32F-CW unless assigned to one of the 32F-OPSn talkgroups. In your SDS100, you may have to enable the "Fire" service types. If they aren't enabled, you'll get the "nothing to scan" message.

Of course, if you add the regional mutual aid talkgroups, you may hear additional county-related traffic.

The Hendricks Simulcast towers are located on the SE side of Plainfield, Belleville, NE side of Danville, and SE side of Brownsburg.

BTW, I live in Brownsburg and I use an SDS100.

 

[KI2K]

If you lock onto the Hendricks Simulcast site and lock out everything except the Hendricks County talkgroups, you should hear the fire departments in the county. All departments are dispatched on 32F-DSP. After the initial dispatch, they will talk on 32F-CW unless assigned to one of the 32F-OPSn talkgroups. In your SDS100, you may have to enable the "Fire" service types. If they aren't enabled, you'll get the "nothing to scan" message.

Of course, if you add the regional mutual aid talkgroups, you may hear additional county-related traffic.

The Hendricks Simulcast towers are located on the SE side of Plainfield, Belleville, NE side of Danville, and SE side of Brownsburg.

BTW, I live in Brownsburg and I use an SDS100.

Thanks for all that. I’m obviously doing something wrong here as I do the avoid on all but Hendricks, and with fire dispatch (and everything else in service types) enabled, I get Nothing to Scan, yet it looks like it’s there in the configuration. I’ll keep pecking, I know the issue is something I’m doing but I can’t reproduce it in Marion or Boone, arriving at them the same way.

 

[bdub5]

Hi bdub5,

Thanks for the reply. Thats actually what I’m trying to do a couple of different ways. I’ve tried each of these to get just Hendricks County into its own FL:

1. In Sentinel database, select JUST USA\Indiana\Hendricks\Statewide\Indiana Project Hoosier\SAFE-T\Hendricks County. This gets me all 32 systems shown as available, but when I select the created FL it shows Nothing to Scan. All service types are enabled. The questions is asked if I have the control channels enabled, but I have no idea where to see them in Sentinel for an imported Apco25 system. This is one place I’m scratching my head.

2. Import entire SAFE-T system into an FL. All surrounding counties are active. If I avoid all of them but Hendricks, back to Nothing to scan message.

3. Build a tiny FL, Apco25 system with site for Hendricks. Set control frequency shown here and enable ID Scan. This time, no “nothing to scan” but also no activity picked up at all either.

I’ll get there. Just feels odd that other counties not doing same in my attempts.

I work near the airport and will build a FL for testing tomorrow.

It only takes a wrong check mark or configuration to throw everything out of whack.

 

[KI2K]

I work near the airport and will build a FL for testing tomorrow.

It only takes a wrong check mark or configuration to throw everything out of whack.

Thanks, you’re very kind. For the visuals, I’m building the FL straight from the DB as shown. They all show in the scanner as listed in the DB, but as you say, something is off.

 

[KI2K]

One other thing that is confounding me, I don’t know where to see the actual frequencies involved. As odd as it sounds, I’ve never had to look that deep when building lists from RR, as they generally just work. Here is the List Editor function in Sentinel, but the frequencies aren’t anywhere I can find- like to verify control channel is there. I know they are somewhere but not sure where…

 

[KI2K]

I have this sorted… Basically deleted the first few attempts in the form of FLs that say nothing to scan, and started over. Not sure what I did different in this rather simple process, but I have it working now, the same as the other counties I set up. The problem was me, I have no doubt, but the process is pretty simple and I can’t really see what I did wrong multiple times.

Not why I want to make a joke about “I was actually listening to Hendrix county, and getting nothing but purple haze“ but we can just let that go.

I do appreciate you all offering assistance and information. Nice meeting you local gents who reached out, I hope we can meet in person sometime.

-Lee

 

[cubn]

Thanks for sharing how you fixed your issue. So many times I run into someone explaining the same issue I have online (especially on computer forums) but they never go back and explain how they ended up solving it.

You sure had me stumped as it seemed like you did everything correctly...glad you got it working

 

[AK9R]

Not why I want to make a joke about “I was actually listening to Hendrix county, and getting nothing but purple haze“ but we can just let that go.

Hendricks County, Indiana, was named for Indiana Governor William Hendricks who signed the bill that the legislature had passed creating the county. That bill was passed in 1823 and the county was organized in 1824. Settlers had started moving into the county in 1820. Hendricks County is the only county named Hendricks in the U.S. Home – Hendricks County Historical Museum

 

[bdub5]

The SAFE-T system can be daunting due to the size and complexity which makes it challenging to narrow to a localized listening experience. I have traditionally created a FL for each county and gave it a number that associates with the county number. For instance 32 would turn Hendricks on and off but then you have to learn the county numbers.

I am glad you found a solution and didn't throw in the towel. Enjoy your listening.

 

[kb9klc]

One other thing that is confounding me, I don’t know where to see the actual frequencies involved. As odd as it sounds, I’ve never had to look that deep when building lists from RR, as they generally just work. Here is the List Editor function in Sentinel, but the frequencies aren’t anywhere I can find- like to verify control channel is there. I know they are somewhere but not sure where…

I can't comment on your screen where it is but here is one set of frequencies I have on my stuff. For the one in Madison County not pictured I actually had to add a frequency that wasn't in there when I did the import some time back. It was easier to do that than just re-write the thing at least to me. This is for a BCD 536 but I think the SDS 100 should be the same using the same software.

 

[KI2K]

I can't comment on your screen where it is but here is one set of frequencies I have on my stuff. For the one in Madison County not pictured I actually had to add a frequency that wasn't in there when I did the import some time back. It was easier to do that than just re-write the thing at least to me. This is for a BCD 536 but I think the SDS 100 should be the same using the same software.

Thanks very much for that.

 

[kb9klc]

Thanks very much for that.

You're welcome, hope it helped.