Scanner for Douglas County

[safooma]

Hello,

Total newb here and looking to get a scanner for my father. He is retired now and he used to have an old crystal based scanner with the local frequencies installed. Unfortunately it stopped working years ago and he was told it was would take more to fix it than a new one would cost.

I am trying to research what to get, but honestly this is not my hobby and there is some conflicting(I think) information out there about the type of scanner he needs.

He wants to listen to the local police/fire deparments(Sutherlin mostly) as well as the Douglas County sheriff and public works(he was a long time county employee).

The Policescanner website had this to say, which I hope is NOT true:


With the exception of the city of Reedsport, Douglas County uses a more sophisticated radio system called "MPT-1327". This complex radio system can't be programmed easily, however, it can be programmed using a conventional format, so it can be monitored. The city of Reedsport uses a conventional radio system, that can be monitored by any police scanner.

It then links to this page:

Douglas County, Oregon (OR) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

And here it looks like just normal frequencies that could be manually input and monitored.
My mom and I were looking at one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ALNPM2C/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Will this scanner work--that is, can this scanner be programmed to work? I'm not sure if FMN is something this scanner will do?

Thanks!

 

[oregontreehugger]

I think a basic scanner will work just fine for most traffic. Douglas County is good ol' VHF for the most part. Last I knew, the MPT-1327 trunked system was not being used for public safety (although that was the original idea). I know we have more forum members in the area, so hopefully they can chime in with their experiences, too.

 

[DCMon]

The main user of the MPT1327 system is DC Public Works and Douglas Electric (local power company). Once and a while other users do use it for special events. No scanner can monitor it as a trunked system but all you need to do is enter all the channels witch are UHF 453 and 460, all scanners can hear them. When someone talks scan for the best channel to hear them.

All police except the City of Reedsport are dispatched by Douglas County Communications. Law 1 - 155.700 is the main law channel and Law 2 - 155.550 is secondary. Sutherlin Police (155.640), Roseburg Police (155.370), Winston Police (153.800) and Myrtle Creek (155.310) have "city channels" as well. These are lower powered channels they have to use for local officer chatter.

Fire 1 - 154.3700 is the main fire channel and Fire 2 - 154.445 is secondary. All fire except the City of Reedsport are dispatched by Douglas County Communications.

154.815 - Oregon State Police
151.160 - DFPA
155.340 - Ambulances to Mercy ER

Hope this helps.