SDS100/SDS200: Not hearing calls on county green channel

[Mongoosmike]

I have been enjoying the SDS-100 for a short while now and trying to learn more of the programming of it. I have the areas set up and have been hearing everything pretty much OK, but I recently noticed that I have not heard any calls when the PD's transfer to the county wide green channel, 488.887500, listed with other county mutual aid channels. There are 5 channels under this heading such as car-to-car, North, Central and South areas and they are all unchecked and not set to avoid, so they should be working. The San Mateo County PD's, sheriff and fire are on a P-25 system and all seem to be working since I hear calls all over the county. Recently there heva been a lot of grab and runs, 459 calls, and many cat converter chases in my city , (South San Francisco), and also adjacent cities, San Bruno, Millbrae and Daly City, that have switched to the green after a few minutes, and then I hear nothing. I have heard the green channel before over the last 10-15 years with my older Pro-92, but not since I have been listening to the newer digital channels on P-25 system. After finding my PRO-92 several months ago, which had been hidden in storage for quite some time, I was rudely awakened to find that I could only hear a couple of calls during the day and that was spotty, only hearing partial calls every hour or so, and found that it was a new digital world out here. LOL I will try and get the log file attached from sentinel and hopefully someone might be able to advise what I did wron, or what might have happened. I do need to update the database since I have not since June I think, but also need to find out how I update the favorites list also so everything is up to date. Thank you for any and all help and I will keep enjoying the SDS-100.

 

[tvengr]

In the profile, is Law Tac service type enabled? When you first install Sentinel, only the Dispatch service types are enabled. I don't see any errors in the programming that would affect the Green channel.

 

[Mongoosmike]

Hi and thank you for the info. When I went through all the listings in Sentinel I pretty much set everything to void that didn't say law tac, PD, Fire or CHP, except one's that were not where I wanted to listen to. All PD, Fire CHP, in the entire county seem to have been working since I started listening. I have in past gone into scanner after downloading and found a few law talk, all talk and a few fire and pd talk off and enabled them. You mentioneed that you didn't see any errors in the programming that would affect the green channel. Does that mean it should be working then? I have heard other mutual aid calls in the county over the last few months involving serious injury, and other major PD/Fire interaction, but they were not on the green channel as the channe, did not say green. But all the PD calls that switched to the green involving theft, robberies or cat conv, or grab and runs have not been heard on the green. I have not heard anythinig on the green since I have had the scanner. There have literally been many serious inter-city chase calls this past 3 weeks in my city, SSF, and 3 adjoining cities, San Bruno, Millbrae and Burlingame, like chasing cat converter thieves, grab and runs from stores, gas station robberies, and they had all switched to the green but never heard a peep after they switched. I will listen the next few days since I just turned on a few selections that were turned off in the scanner and see if the green pops up. Another problem I need to fix is update the database, since last time I did was june after they had the problem with the database. I need to figure out how to update the favorites as well, since they don't get updated automatically. Thank you very much again fro youe help

 

[sfb88]

I don't have any specific information but is it possible that the green channel is a car to car channel that doesn't use a repeater and the signal is too weak to receive at your location?

 

[tvengr]

In Sentinel, you need to click on the Edit tab and Edit Profile. Click on the Service Types tab. For Public Safety, you need the following service types enabled:
Corrections
Emergency Ops
EMS Dispatch
EMS Tac
EMS Talk
Fire Dispatch
Fire Tac
Fire Talk
Hospital
Interop
Law Dispatch
Law Tac
Law Talk
Multi Dispatch
Multi Tac
Multi Talk
Security
If you look at the Tag column for each frequency or talkgroup in the database, you will see which Service Type needs to be enabled to receive that particular frequency or talkgroup. If you enable all of the service types, you will be able to receive everything you program.

 

[Mongoosmike]

Hi and thank you again for the clarification. As I mentioned in last post, I went into the scanner before I went out for some food and looked at the services and when I mentioned that I found some were not checked off, I enabled them, and now, looking at your latest post I realized where you were mentioning the services tab in Sentinel. Your list matches what I enabled earlier following what you said about services on the scanner, but now I know I need to check those in Sentinel. I never realized that before and that explains why I have been missing a few channels, including the green. I have never been in the services tab in Sentinel and thought that is was automatically checked and you cleared that up. You said not all are turned on by default. Funny thing also, when I returned home this evening I caught a call on the scanner from San Bruno PD, my neighboring city, pursuing a car that was wanted for shooting at police on the Bay Bridge earlier in the morning, and they switched to green and it came up on the scanner. lol. They pursued him all the way up to and all through SF and ended up on the coast highway, and eventually using drones to find him after he bailed. The PD, Fire, Sheriff and county wide mutual aid are all on the P-25 system, and strangely, a few of the cities are usinig the frequancies as they were 25 years ago, but they are intertwined and simulcast with the p-25 system. You explained to me what I wasn't aware of, and that info helped me get the profile set up correctly and the green channel plus a couple of others. Now I need to find the best way to update the database, which haven't done since June, and also get the favorites updated as well. This was a most awesome and very helpful evening thanks to your expert help. Thank you very much again. Then, maybe figure out how to program the SFO airport channels in, and maybe weather on my older, and digital useless PRO 92 LOL ☺

 

[tvengr]

All you need to do to update the database is to click on the Update tab in Sentinel and Update Master Database(HPDB). That will update the database in your computer. The database in the scanner will not be updated until you write to it. Updating the database does not update favorites lists. You need to do that manually.

 

[Mongoosmike]

OK, I will do the update on database but I didn't realize that the favorite lists needed to be updated seperately. Someone a while ago mentioned something about that but I don't reccall all of what they had mentioned. How do we update the favorites list then, I have updated the database once as I mentioned and that was end of June or just after they fixed a database error. I Have never updated favorites at all. I feel as though I am being helped to the point that I will be an exppert at some future time. LOL Thank you for all your help again.

 

[Mongoosmike]

Sorry I forgot to ask about the updating info. I updated the database in Sentinel and now would like to know where I look to see if there are any changes in the updated database that I need to update in favorites. I read somewhere that there will be different colors on something that shows something was updated. Not sure where the colors would be but I went through several sections to see if I could see any colors, in Sentinel but I see everythiing like normal, black printing and red for the voids.. Unless, we have to look at the main database on RR, where there ARE different colors for different sections of the various departments and section listings? Thank you again for helping with this, at lease I have the greeen channel. This area is so full of police activity, and there is a wide variety of calls that come about for cat conv thefts, robberies, grab and runs. A real exciting county, and the first call I have ever heard on the green channel, thanks to your awesome help, was the earlier call about San Bruno chasing a car that was wanted for shooting at CHP on the SF Bay Bridge. Thank you again for you help overall. I am not an expert but the info you provided me has been most helpful and getting me closer to that level. Stay safe and well,.

 

[tvengr]

Just keep an eye on the RR database. Green means updated in the last 24 hours. Yellow means updated in the last week. It may take a week for the Sentinel database to be updated after changes appear in the RR database.

 

[chief21]

Is it possible that the "Green Channel" that you're talking about might be encrypted... as in the phrase "in the green"?

 

[tvengr]

Funny thing also, when I returned home this evening I caught a call on the scanner from San Bruno PD, my neighboring city, pursuing a car that was wanted for shooting at police on the Bay Bridge earlier in the morning, and they switched to green and it came up on the scanner.

Is it possible that the "Green Channel" that you're talking about might be encrypted... as in the phrase "in the green"?

OP has green channel working now. It was a service type issue.

 

[Mongoosmike]

Nothing in San Mateo or Contra Costa County that I listen to is encrypted... YET☺ And I just saw the mention of a service type issue on the green channel that was fixed. Where would we find that info, unless it wouldn't be known until after it was fixed? I want in to that email database. LOL
And thank you for that info.