Scanner Info

[Quadman65]

I live in Nebraska and I am looking to buy a scanner for home use and would like some help choosing the correct system for my area.

I want to scan for all services Fire/Police/ EMS/ and so on. How do I know if I need a Digital or Analog for my area ? Ant links or advice would be great . thanks

 

[Tim-B]

What county? Different cities and counties will have different kinds of systems. The type of system they have will dictate what type of scanner you need. We need to know which county so we can see how that county is set up.

 

[Quadman65]

County

sarpy county, douglas county

 

[Tim-B]

Okay, from what I seeing in the database on this site if you want to monitor all of the public safety agencies in both counties you will need a scanner that will recieve trunked digital APCO Project 25 Phase II transmissions. There are currently only a few of those.

This is a list of the currently available scanners that will receive that type of system:
GRE PSR-800 (with firmware upgrade, not out of the box)
Radio Shack Pro-668
Uniden BCD325P2, BCD436HP, BCD536HP, BCD996P2, HomePatrol-2
Whistler WS1080, WS1088, WS1095, WS1098, TRX-1, TRX-2

See this page for more information: APCO Project 25 - The RadioReference Wiki

Here is a bit of information about each system:

Nebraska State Patrol uses the following system and you will need a scanner that does APCO Project 25 phase I which can be done by all of the above scanners and many others:
Nebraska State Radio System Trunking System, Statewide, Nebraska - Scanner Frequencies
It looks like their channels are not encrypted and they have repeater sites statewide.

Offut uses an APCO P25 system but it looks like all their talkgroups are encrypted (note the letter E in the mode column) so you will not be able to hear the voices.
Offutt Air Force Base Trunking System, Bellevue, Nebraska - Scanner Frequencies

It looks like most if not all of the public safety agencies in Douglas County are on one system and it appears that only a few channels are encrypted like narcotics and such. You will need a scanner that does APCO Project 25 Phase II
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=2361

And for Sarpy County it looks like they use a system that is mixed digital and analog so you will need a scanner that does APCO P25.
http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=622

 

[gonefishn1]

I suggest the Uniden BCD536HP. Its ready for now and for the future of scanning. The PROSCAN software is a great compliment to the Uniden scanners. You can try PROSCAN free to see if you like it.

 

[Tim-B]

Oh yeah, I meant to tell the original poster, make sure you get the software to program your scanner. It will be MUCH faster and easier, like five to ten times faster when programming a trunked system and you can even copy one channel's characteristics like volume offset, service type, modulation, etc. and paste them down the columns to give many channels those same characteristics so that you only have to put in talkgorup numbers and text tags or for a conventional system, frequencies and text tags. If you program manually on the keyboard you will have to put all of that in by hand for each channel. No copy and paste. And for text tags you can just type in the text wth the software. Doing it manually would require turning the scroll knob unitl you find each letter for each word one letter at a time. Maaaan, I wish Uniden would do text tags the way GRE/whistler does them.

 

[ofd8001]

In addition to the ProScan software, any of the later model Unidens (Home Patrol 1/2 and x36 models) also use Sentinel software. That software is free from Uniden. However it is pretty basic, mostly intended to get the scanner running.

These days, with all the complicated radio systems having so many things to enter, doing so by hand is very difficult and time consuming. So that's why there are several different programming software applications.

 

[Quadman65]

Reply

Thanks everyone that helps alot. Looking at the cost of the units worries me a little .Now I really need to get it right,lol