opinion of Police Call reference

[Idlemind]

Before I cast judgement on Hollins' radio reference I would like to hear anyone's appraisal of the radio data publication. Is volume9 an accurate reference for SF Bay Area frequencies? Plucking data off the cd is awkward.

Robert

 

[dfoutch]

I always did like info I could put my hands on and back 10/15 years ago I had several copies of Police Call. I found them to be very accurate and otherwise informative. But could be out of date quickly. Today with conputers and the internet, with FCC data at hand, and the RR database. What does Police Call cost now $$. :roll:

on CDs: I also have veveral CDs from Grove Ent, lot of redundancy and out of date in 90 days'

 

[TheKip]

I sell the Police Call books and I haven't cracked one open since I found this site.

 

[crayon]

Welcome to the group Idlemind!

Plucking data off the cd is awkward.

A very good summation. Police Call is dated compared with the nearly real-time updates that one can get from radioreference.com!

If you were considering purchasing Police Call, might I suggest that you make a monetary contribution to this website instead ... By doing so, not only will help keep the site going, you'll also save money!! What a deal!

ps .. we talked about this same exact topic some time back here:

http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=14706

 

[whooey]

I wish the black bag edition would have TG's included on there trunked listings, but I know its only for freq's. But agreed, I havent opened my police call since I have found this awesome awesome site!!! :lol:

 

[mlevin]

While I hardly use Police Call anymore I still find it useful when I'm on the road and my laptop has trouble connecting to the internet. Just look up a freq quickly and plug it in.

Of course I try to have everything plugged in with Win96 before I go on the road, but there are always surprises.

 

[K5MAR]

Yes. Police Call isn't necessarily up to date compared to the Internet, but it is another tool for the serious scanning listener. It's no longer my primary source, but it can be useful when chasing down obscure information, such as when licenses are issued from faulty applications, like misspellings, incorrect locations, etc. If you've ever used Cityfreqs.com, you know how license grants can be screwed up. I personally find this sort of thing easier to track down on paper than online. On numerous ocassions, I've sat down with my copy of Police call and a ruler, and gone through a section of the listings line by line. You'd be amazed at what you might find.

With what most scannists spend on this hobby, you can afford the 20 bucks for Police Call and still make a donation to RR. :lol:

Mark S.

 

[loumaag]

I agree with Mark. The Police Call books are handy for just looking through. Sometimes you find a frequency while scanning that isn't here on the DB. You look it up on the FCC DB and it tells you it belongs to your local town. But you can't figure out who, it may be in the book. Sometimes looking at the Police Call book you get a better overview of a town/county, etc.

Another important thing about the book is its portability. It can go in the truck when we travel, where the wife happily looks things up for me.

 

[JGP]

The only use I have for the Police Call Frequency Guide is keeping track of the large county trunking systems that have many TGID's.

Is the 2005 Police Call Guide better than last years book? No way--to delete whatever you can is the way it is done now.

The 2004 guide is much more complete than this years book, and I am having second thoughts about buying the 2006 guide.

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin :?

 

[K5MAR]

The only use I have for the Police Call Frequency Guide is keeping track of the large county trunking systems that have many TGID's.

Is the 2005 Police Call Guide better than last years book? No way--to delete whatever you can is the way it is done now.

The 2004 guide is much more complete than this years book, and I am having second thoughts about buying the 2006 guide.

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin :?

Not sure exactly what you mean, but I think you are refering to the fact that Police Call drops expired listings. Well, of course they do. They are publishing books for the entire country, and can't verify that Small Town PD is still using 155.000 MHz even though their license expired a year and a half ago. No can they verify that a valid license is not being used. There has to be some culling of the data done, or each volume would now be the size of the New York City Yellow Pages!

I keep each year's book for reference purposes, and buy each new issue to add to the collection. Really, they just aren't that expensive.

Mark S.

 

[Idlemind]

Thank for Your feed-back folks. Listening to police radio is a renewed interest of mine and I have alot of learning to do when it comes to trunking. Sorting through the listings in Police Call by frequency, line by line, seems be the easiest way to mine info. It turned up alot more freqs than listing by state and county. Not as easy as downloading a frequency files (Natcom txt file?) and importing it into Scancat but it does work.

Robert

 

[Joseph11]

You know, inside Police Call 2004 it says, "We also thank www.trunkedradio.net for permission to use selected data from their excellent trunking site." For those of you who don't know, RadioReference used to be TrunkedRadio.net

 

[jbstahr]

You know, inside Police Call 2004 it says, "We also thank www.trunkedradio.net for permission to use selected data from their excellent trunking site." For those of you who don't know, RadioReference used to be TrunkedRadio.net

Good point, Joseph. Every refreence has it's purpose as stated by multiple people. Back in the early 90's I used to contribute very frequently to the info in Police Call for Ventura County, CA. It was fun to find new info that they didn't have and contribute to their success. Nowadays, this can be done through this wonderful site and can reach a great many more people across the world.

 

[JGP]

K5MAR,

There are only two places to get correct and complete information for scanning, and the Police Call Guide is not one of the two.

The first is Scan-Wisconsin, Tim's website: http://www.scan-wis.org/, and the second is the RadioReference's database.

The 2005 Police Call Guide gives outdated information such as Greenfield's TRS using a fleet map when it is type 2, missing 3 LCN's for Burlington RC's LTR system, missing LCN 01 856.9625 in UWM's LTR system, and listing Marquette's LTR system that is not used any more.

Some LTR systems were left out, and one of them was the best one for the Milwaukee area, the New Berlin SMR LTR.

This is just to list a few things. I will give my money to RadioReference. It is money well spent.

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin

 

[JGP]

I have to put Tim's web site in again. This is for Scan-Wisconsin.

http://www.scan-wis.org/

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin

 

[radioscan]

Just like radioreference.com here, Police Call is just as dependent on contributions. Especially changes and updates for trunking material.
No single scanning reference is the "end all, be all", apparently most hobbyists would rather ***** and moan about Police Call's inaccurate material then send them the infomation they need to keep up to date.

If there is something you want to see in Police Call, then send it in!!
Its that simple!! :roll:

Mark

 

[JGP]

radioscan,

You make a good point, but I sent updates to the Police Call by e-mail, and the updates were never used. I stoped sending them. :?

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin

 

[radioscan]

radioscan,

You make a good point, but I sent updates to the Police Call by e-mail, and the updates were never used. I stoped sending them. :?

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin

I can understand the frustration, been there done that, but don't let up. :wink:
For information like that it may be best to use US Snail Mail addressed to the Hollins Radio Data address listed
on page 1 and mark it "Attention: Gene Hughes" .

I believe their deadline for submissions is July, but the sooner the better!

From Franklin, Ohio to Franklin, Wisconsin 8)
Mark

 

[K5MAR]

K5MAR,

There are only two places to get correct and complete information for scanning, and the Police Call Guide is not one of the two.

The first is Scan-Wisconsin, Tim's website: http://www.scan-wis.org/,

And this benefits the other 49 states how? :?

and the second is the RadioReference's database.

That's A Fact, Jack! (er, Joel) :lol:

The 2005 Police Call Guide gives outdated information such as Greenfield's TRS using a fleet map when it is type 2, missing 3 LCN's for Burlington RC's LTR system, missing LCN 01 856.9625 in UWM's LTR system, and listing Marquette's LTR system that is not used any more.

Some LTR systems were left out, and one of them was the best one for the Milwaukee area, the New Berlin SMR LTR.

In case you don't understand, Police Call is a printing of the FCC Database, frozen at a particular point in time. Everything else is information contributed by users. The accuracy of the information submitted can not be verified by the publisher. Possibly your accurate information is being disregardied if several users submit the same inaccurate information. As Radioscan said, the best way to submit information is in writing. If I was doing Police Call, I don't know that I'd be able to keep track of all the information if it came in via email. My hat's off to Lindsay and crew for managing the boat-load of information coming in via email to this site!

This is just to list a few things. I will give my money to RadioReference. It is money well spent.

Joel
Franklin, Wisconsin

I'll see your dollarsign and raise you one! :lol: :lol: Seriously, I'm glad you chose to support RR, it's well worth it. My point is, when you limit yourself to just one or two sources of information, you may cut yourself off from some valuable resources. My list of internet sites giving scanning information numbers in the dozens, including a half dozen or so Yahoo Groups, and of course RadioReference. Police Call is the only current printed resource I know of, other than the various scanning magazines, but if I found something else, I'd buy it.

To use an analogy, it's like an auto mechanic saying "I've got a great set of Snap-On wrenches and ratchet/sockets, I'm going to toss my Crescent wrench." Well, once in a while, you need a Crescent wrench!

Do as you like.
Mark S.

 

[radioscan]

Well said Mark!

Now let me see if can show the value of Police Call.
Last week I took a trip to Kulpsville, PA for the 18th Annual Winter SWL Fest.
It took me the better part of a week to set up my p96 files for the trip using my Pro-96.
If one looks through the rr database here for the PA counties that I-70/76 transgresses, it is somewhat lacking in information.
So, I went through the 2005 Police Call Vol. 2 for PA and just started programming stuff in my Pro-96.
If you have noticed the past several days there been a lot of updates for some Pennsylvania counties.
That is stuff I was able to confirm while traveling with info taken from Police Call and the FCC database lookup site.
I find it almost hard to believe that the only listing in Somerset County, PA is the 800 MHz freq I confirmed for the police.

Bottom line is, don't depend on any one source, use them all, they all supplement each other.
Of course, the smart hobbyist starts here with radioreference.com

Mark