S.E. Wisconsin area Listening Kenosha County Milwaukee to Chicago?

[MikeyBeeUSA]

Greetings all,

Having recently relocated to Kenosha County, I'm needing to upgrade from my analog setup that worked well for me me "up north" to an SDS. I'm leaning towards the 200 for inside the home with direct LAN hookup. I'm looking for specific recommendations from folks in/around my area based on local system(s) knowledge and terrain, plus anticipated listening frequencies.

My primary interest is public safety comms, and occasionally ATC. Not really interested in anything railroad or marine. I have a dedicated weather/HAM radio (listening only as not yet licensed).

Theoretically, with an SDS200, property configured, and an appropriate roof mounted antenna setup, say, about 15 to 20 feet from ground level with no serious obstruction (such as the house, for example) any guesses on what the reception range may be? I'm in the northeastern part of the county, but slightly west of the interstate.

I've heard of folks on the other side of Lake Michigan (in Michigan) being able to regularly receive signals out of Milwaukee or Chicago with not overly complex setups.

I'm learning that there isn't much coming out of Chicagoland and/or Northern Illinois for public safety that isn't encrypted these days. But maybe I could hear Chicago citywides from my location? Milwaukee also the same story, most if not all but encrypted at this point. What is still open up there? Wondering if the SDS200 could even pickup Milwaukee or Chicago from Kenosha County.

I also have no real prior experience with ATC - this is something new I'd be interested in listening to. I'm essentially equidistant from both MKE and ORD. Looking for anyone suggestions and/or insight.

Lastly, I'd also be interested in monitoring storm spotters in the spring once the severe weather begins and I'm wondering what networks they may be using in Southern Wisconsin and/or Northern Illinois.

Thanks everyone, I know this is a lot!

And before anyone says it, yes, I know the more you listen to, the less you hear! My mood on any given day in conjunction with current events will determine what I'm interested in monitoring on that day.

 

[autovon]

Kenosha County and city are all unencrytped for now. So plenty of listening there. Racine sheriff too, but not for much longer. You can also listen to the statewide WISCOM system which is active in the area with state patrol, some hospitals, medical helicopters etc. You might be able to pick up one of the Illinois STARCOM sites and there's still a lot of unencrypted traffic there. Depending on your location you might get the unencrypted Chicago CW channels. If you look at a map you can see the Chicago lakeshore is a bit east of Kenosha's, so the rf can travel somewhat obstacle free up your direction. Plenty to listen to on the airband side. You might be able to hear the Milwaukee ground side of the airport. Likely Kenosha airport. O'Hare arrivals and departures will provide a lot of traffic too. There is a fair amount of military air traffic too on the UHF side with the ranges in the central part of the state.

Reception range is likely the immediate surrounding counties. Hearing anything from across the lake is typically based on atmospheric conditions. During the summer, hearing VHF ham repeaters from Michigan is common. Sometimes UHF too. For storm spotting, the KR9RK repeaters have skywarn. Easily heard as the machine is on the county Ken/Rac county line.

 

[N9JCQ]

As Autovon has said, Illinois State Police Troop three on Starcom through the Lake County Simulcast sites is always fascinating. MCHenry County Sheriff is also available as well as most Fire/EMS in the border counties. I'd also suggest The US Coast Guard as well. Plenty of interesting coms in the Marine Channels in the summer.

 

[Dhubjr]

At night you can hear VHF out of Michigan

Kenosha County and city are all unencrytped for now. So plenty of listening there. Racine sheriff too, but not for much longer. You can also listen to the statewide WISCOM system which is active in the area with state patrol, some hospitals, medical helicopters etc. You might be able to pick up one of the Illinois STARCOM sites and there's still a lot of unencrypted traffic there. Depending on your location you might get the unencrypted Chicago CW channels. If you look at a map you can see the Chicago lakeshore is a bit east of Kenosha's, so the rf can travel somewhat obstacle free up your direction. Plenty to listen to on the airband side. You might be able to hear the Milwaukee ground side of the airport. Likely Kenosha airport. O'Hare arrivals and departures will provide a lot of traffic too. There is a fair amount of military air traffic too on the UHF side with the ranges in the central part of the state.

Reception range is likely the immediate surrounding counties. Hearing anything from across the lake is typically based on atmospheric conditions. During the summer, hearing VHF ham repeaters from Michigan is common. Sometimes UHF too. For storm spotting, the KR9RK repeaters have skywarn. Easily heard as the machine is on the county Ken/Rac county line.

Curious about Racine County. Are they going with encryption, Open Sky or planning on using LSM? Kenosha Sheriff uses LSM so I had to buy an SDS 100 so I am hoping you answer is LSM...

 

[MikeyBeeUSA]

Hey Everyone, thanks for the replies! Yes, I am most curious if anyone has heard a timeline on Racine County as well. Currently only Racine PD is encrypted. Does anyone have any hard information on when the S.O. is going to go to the dark side and/or will this effect Caledonia/Sturtevant/Mt. Pleasant as well?

To "dhubjr" I haven't tried anything out of Michigan yet, but I will try that over the weekend!

To "autovon" nothing from CPD cw(s) yet, but, again, only using the back-of-unit stock antenna (until today). I didn't even think about Marine! I've never lived this close to a major body of water before (since having owned scanners, that is). The first day I had the unit I did plug in ATC and I was able to copy ORD, although weak, so I took it out. I plan to add it back in with the new exterior antenna.

To "N9JCQ" thank you!

Everything from WiPSN (both Milwaukee Co. and/or Waukesha Co. Simulcast) is coming in crystal clear. As is everything I can hear that's non-encrypted on STARCOMM21 (both Lake Co. & McHenry Co. sites). WISCOM has also been coming in, as used. But I am actually having issues sometimes receiving Racine County depending on conditions. I ALSO MADE A SEPRATE POST UNDER UNIDEN TECH SUPPORT BECAUSE FOR SOME REASON, AFTER I HOOKED UP LAN, RACINE COUNTY STARTING HAVING A HUMMING SOUND AS IN INTERFERENCE FROM THE LAN. It's only on the Racine County channels, and only when the LAN is plugged in. I unplug the LAN and the humming sound over the Racine Co. frequencies goes away.

I have been running the stock (back-of-unit) antenna for the past week or so since I've had the unit up and running. Although I'm not glued to it 24/7, I turned on my ProScan logger a couple days ago and so far it's logged that I've received all of the following just using the stock antenna:

Kenosha County Wisconsin - Campus Police Dispatch (UW-Parkside)
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Kenosha (City) Fire Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Kenosha (City) Police Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Kenosha County Fire Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Kenosha County Sheriff Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Pleasant Prairie Fire Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Pleasant Prairie Police Dispatch
Kenosha County Wisconsin - Twin Lakes Police Dispatch *Weak Signal*
Racine County Wisconsin - Mt Pleasant - Caledonia - Sturtevant Police Dispatch *Weak Signal*
Racine County Wisconsin - Racine (City) Fire Dispatch Patched RAFIR11 460.2875 *Weak Signal*
Racine County Wisconsin - Racine County Sheriff Dispatch *Weak Signal*
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Algonquin-Lake in the Hills FPD- Dispatch
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Crystal Lake Fire Rescue- Dispatch
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Fire- Dispatch-Harvard, Marengo, Union, Woodstock
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Huntley FPD- Dispatch
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Local Police- Main (NSA Non-Sheriff Agency)
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Metra Police- Dispatch
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Middle Patrol [3 Middle]
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - North Patrol [3 North]
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Sheriff- Dispatch (McHenry Co.)
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - South Patrol [3 South]
STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Tollway North Patrol
Walworth County Wisconsin - Genoa City Police Dispatch Linked to WWLAW3 *Weak Signal*
Walworth County Wisconsin - Walworth County Fire Operations *Weak Signal*
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - City of Waukesha Fire Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - City of Waukesha Police Dispatch 1
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Area 1 Law Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Area 2 Law Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Area 3 Law Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Area 4 Law Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Area 5 Law Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Fire Dispatch A
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Fire Page Area E
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - County Fire Page-Alert
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Cudahy Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Elm Grove Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Franklin Fire Page
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Franklin Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Greendale Fire Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Greenfield Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Muskego Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - North Shore Police Dispatch South
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Oak Creek Fire Dispatch 1
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Oak Creek Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Sheriff Dispatch 1 Patrol
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - South Milwaukee Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - St Francis Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - VA Medical Center Police 1 Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - Wauwatosa Police Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - West Allis Fire Dispatch
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - West Allis Fire-EMS Paging
WiPSN (P25) [Milwaukee-Waukesha] - West Allis Police Dispatch
WISCOM (P25) [Wisconsin Interoperability] - MCSODISP1 via ISSI
WISCOM (P25) [Wisconsin Interoperability] - Southeast 1 - Waukesha Post

Can anyone who's local provide more context/info on the channels I've listed in RED? These are P25 system's and I'm not exactly sure what/where I'm listening to on these...

I suspect STARCOM21 (P25) [Illinois Statewide] - Local Police- Main (NSA Non-Sheriff Agency) is McHenry PD, but I'm not sure.

The Waukesha County Area 1,2,3,4,5...Law Dispatch, does anyone know how these TGs are divided up throughout the county?

Can anyone tell me what ISSI is?

There are a few channels not on this log that I know I received, so it must have been before I started logging. Walworth Co. Sheriff has come in, although scratchy, and I've received on MAIN, WEST, and EAST. Walworth is 800mhz, correct? I've never tried to monitor an 800mhz before, so, I could use some advice on that.

I've also never monitored P25 systems before, and I thank ScannerGods that I don't have to manually program a TrunkTracker like I'm sure someone reading this once had to back in the day. But, having said, I have one question about the WISCOM, WiPSN and STARCOMM21 systems in general...

Are all of these systems true simulcast across all sites? For example, if I sometimes pick up on WiPSN Milwaukee Site and other times on WiPSN Waukesha Site, can I eliminate one of those sites and not loose any TGs? Same question for WISCOM: I think I am only picking up from Union Grove site and nothing from Kenosha site thus far. Should I eliminate the Kenosha site to "speed up" scan time? And for STARCOMM21, I am picking up stuff from both Lake & McHenry Co. sites. If I eliminated the McHenry Co. site, would I then loose the McHenry Co. TGs and/or vise versa? Or are those also simulcast across the Lake Co. site as well?

For future reference, I mounted a crappy Tram 1091-BNC today on the corner of the house so at least it's outside now. I do want to get something better but I can't really get a mast in the ground until the ground gets a bit more thawed and until the budget calls for it!

 

[dnelson94]

This link may help with Waukesha Dispatch Areas

Waukesha County (WI) Unit Numbering - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[dnelson94]

ISSI is a (P25) standard that allows different P25 networks, including those from different manufacturers, to interconnect and communicate, enabling first responders to roam and communicate across jurisdictions.

WiPSN ISSI gateways has allowed greatly enhanced daily interoperability between WiPSN, WISCOM and the City of Milwaukee.
Best example Milwaukee suburbs fire departments and City of Milwaukee shared services TAC TG.
All the Profile X Talkgroup X are City of Milwaukee FD
State Patrol and MC Sheriffs on WISCOM.