Your lucky day - I'm at work and extra bored, so you're getting an extra long answer
If you're in Ingonish, you're within spitting distance (well almost) of the Cape Smokey site. You mentioned you're hearing things on 862.1625, which belongs to the site at Boularderie, so you're getting that site as well. You'll probably hear more "action" on the Boularderie site since it services the western part of CBRM, however you'll want to program Cape Smokey as well, since it's technically the local site for the Ingonish area.
However, you don't have your scanner programmed yet. The provincial system, the Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile Radio System, is what's called a trunked system. With the type of system the province is using, you don't just enter and listen to the individual frequencies. You can, but it's ineffective as it won't allow you to select who you listen to or who you don't listen to, because on a trunked system individual frequencies are shared by a larger number of different users - RCMP, EMS/EHS, maybe local fire departments, provincial Department of Natural Resources, Emergency Measures Organization, and probably a host of commercial users (such as delivery trucks, couriers and private snowplows) who rent out space on the system. So to keep everything in order, the system uses a control channel for each site in the province, which is a data stream telling the users' radios (and our scanners) who is using the system and what frequency to tune to so you can listen. Each agency is assigned a talkgroup ID, or more if they need more than one channel to use.
This all happens automatically in the background when your scanner, and their radios are programmed properly. All you need to know to listen to the system is: what type of system is it, what frequency is the control channel for the site you want to listen to, and what are the talkgroup IDs for the different users you want to listen to.
The type of system is a
Motorola Type II (SmartZone Omnilink - although all you really need to know is that it's a Motorola Type II system to program it).
The control channel frequencies you'll need are:
Cape Smokey on 860.0625 - and Boularderie on 861.4125. Try listening to those frequencies to make sure you can receive them, they'll sound like a weird continual noise.
Now you know what you need to know to listen to the system. Since I know nothing about progrmaming Uniden scanners, I suggest you visit the Uniden forum and ask there about how to program your specific model using the information I've given - that it's a Motorola Type II, and that your two control channel frequencies are 860.0625 and 861.4125.
There's a list of talkgroups in the database on the site, under the heading System Talkgroups at the following location:
Aliant Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMRS) Trunking System, Province-Wide, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies
I don't see any RCMP talkgroups listed, and I don't know the RCMP talkgroup IDs they use in Cape Breton (I'm in Dartmouth, so I only know the local talkgroups) - but there's tonnes of other users listed on there you may want to listen to as well.
EHS is the provincial EMS provider, in Cape Breton they use both the CB1 (37104 for CBRM) and CB2 (37136 - for the rest of Cape Breton) talkgroups as their dispatch channels, and the TAC4 (36304) talkgroup as an operational channel.
The Department of Natural Resources talkgroups are organized by office location, so poke through the list and find your local DNR office and that's the talkgroup they'll use for things like fire towers and provincial parks. You'll also want to have the first two talkgroups in that list programmed, Shubie Radio (32048 - the province's main dispatch channel, as well as the channel used by other agencies to request use of certain channels in emergencies) and Central Dispatch (3216 - used by some parks in some areas).
If you want to listen to the provincial
conservation officers - the ones who carry the guns
- you'll need the following talkgroups. Echo1: 7440, Echo2: 7472, Echo3: 7504, Whisky3: 7312. Echo 1, 2 and 3 should be operational channels for eastern Nova Scotia including Cape Breton, Whisky 3 is the "dispatch" channel which is where you'll hear pretty much all of the action.
The Transportation and Public Works talkgroups are similar to the DNR ones, just find the local office in the list and that's the talkgroup for your area. You'll basically hear snow plows in the winter and road crews in the summer. Not a lot of action here...
The Sheriff's Services talkgroups are pretty boring as well - in Nova Scotia, Sheriffs are prisoner transports and courtroom security, so there's no actual police action on those talkgroups. I don't monitor them at all. Same with the Vehicle Compliance talkgroups, they just deal with things like large trucks and buses, and the highway weigh stations/scales.
Plus everything under the heading
Emergency Services should be programmed, they're not used very frequently but when they are it's usually in conjunction with either a major event such as a forest fire or other natural disaster, or a search and rescue operation.
Whoever helps you program your scanner should be able to tell you how to program the talkgroups you want to listen to, as well as let you know how you can search for the RCMP talkgroup and store it once you've found it.
Unfortunately I know nothing about fire services on Cape Breton, except that they do not use the trunked system. Below is a list of frequencies I found for Cape Breton, be sure to ask how you program these as well. Hope this helps in some way!
CBRM North Sydney 169.380
CBRM Sydney 154.310
CBRM Sydney 154.370
CBRM Sydney 154.800
CBRM Sydney Mines 153.890
CBRM Westmount 153.830
Ingonish area 152.210
Baddeck 152.120
Port Hood 153.920
West Bay 153.920
Iona 151.925
Wagmatcook 152.030
