Scanning killed in nova scotia

[UFOMAN]

Other than the odd fire (analog?) and EHS transmissions , scanning has been effectively killed in this area.HRM Police and the RCMP have gone encrypted. I'm pulling the plug on my scanners and packing them up to join the other three that used to monitor previous radio systems/frequencies.
Unless the people who design and build the scanners can stay ahead of this penchant by the SECRET Police to deny law abiding scanner owners who simply like to know where and what's going on, scanning, as a hobby, is going the way of the dodo bird. This story out of Michigan, tells it like it is and will continue to be as this trend continues. I also believe the streaming audio of HRM police exacerbated the move to secrecy by showing police just how much detail was available to the scanning public in this area. You should not flaunt it.
In Hamtramck, police scanners are now a thing of the past | Hamtramck Review

I have my own opinions as to the reasons for the secrecy and anyone interested can view them in the Newfoundland section of this site.

 

[ve1sef]

? That's odd.
I was in the city on Wednseday, seems like there's active vhf marine and aircraft frequenices still on the air.
I've picked up vhf fire from parts of Hants County without effort.
HRFE has 800mHz conventional frequencies.
Yes, the HRPS & RCMP are using digital which is scanable with the newer scanners.
Althought some special enforcement that is encrypted, likely for officer saftey,
DNR, DTIR,EMO, have analog talkgroups on the Trunk System. as well as 800Mhz Simplexs
Scanning in Nova Scotia isn't in the grave just yet. It's not even on life support.

 

[frazpo]

I agree with UFOMAN. I have posted similar comments to this in the past and usually get the same response as ve1sef. I live in SW Missouri and the largest town near me encrypts or encodes the p25 traffic. There is plenty of other stuff to listen to like ve1sef said but I am not sure why we go into denial mode. If given the choice, as radio systems with these capabilities become more widespread and cheaper, departments will choose to encrypt. Scanning has been a hobby since I was a kid using my dads Regency 8 channel crystal scanner. I hate to see it fade away also.

 

[UFOMAN]

The Parrot is DEAD

I will try to be respectful here but I don't think the ham licensee (ve1sef) is a "scanner" in the sense of the word as we mere mortals. If I wanted to listen to VHF marine and air, I wouldn't have bothered to purchase two new (digital) scanners ... there is virtually nothing of interest on marine and pretty much the same can be said for air. The last time there was any activity of interest was, unfortunately, the Swissair disaster. I still have my old Radio Shack Pro-60 and a couple of others that were capable then, and today, of monitoring those frequencies the ham mentions. I did not buy my scanners to listen to fisherman report the size of their catches, nor am I interested in what altitude Air Canada flight ( insert number here) is at or going to ... because that, to me, and many others who contribute to this site,is not scanning as we have known it.
I will not belabor the point or bother to get into a shouting match with people who are prepared to deny reality. I KNOW what I'm NOT hearing ... and, unless the people who build the scanners can crack the encryption code, scanning is effectively dead, or dying, as the darkening veil of secrecy falls heavily over us all. And the argument about endangering police personnel is hogwash. I've learned by listening to Halifax Regional police transmissions that they don't even like it when media shows up at events they're working ... and the news media use the same scanners as the rest of us.Granted, some reporters can be dolts, but they are the exception. The RCMP, especially, would prefer as much secrecy as they can get for themselves .... it helps a lot when their explanations are not confronted by the light of truth ...or have Canadians forgotten so quickly about the Polish man who was tasered to death by RCMP officers who later lied and perjured themselves jn court? I'm not saying that someone with a scanner could prevent such things but this is a good example of why police don't like witnesses or, perhaps recordings of radio transmissions that might give a truer perspective on their activities if they got out. Keeping the law abiding scanners in the dark certainly contributes to that end. By listening on the scanner, I've learned that, within a half mile radius of my residence there are at least three of what anyone would consider dangerous, ... people under "house arrest" or on parole. People, who, according to their pedigrees ... (provided for the safety of police officers who had to deal with them) .... I should be wary of. I wonder if I could justifiably hold police or the people who employ them liable in the event that any of these should harm my family?
If there's danger for a cop (with a gun) ... then the danger is doubled for the average citizen whose only armament is a SCANNER.
The public does NOT win with this kind of secrecy. PERIOD!

 

[VA3JWO]

i dont know why you guys worry about the police in halifax and nova scotia..ITS P25 DIGITAL!!! WHICH IS MONITORABLE!!!!! .. as far as i see on the RR page you guys have NOTHING to worry about.. all you need is a digital scanner..
People in the St.johns area HAVE something to complain about because the RNC (royal newfoundland constabulary) are PROVOICE which is not monitorable on any scanner (even the digital ones) plus the RCMP have very seldom traffic stops and anything worth listening to throughout the island (newfoundland)..
People in vancouver HAVE something to worry about. They're Police is (Once again) PROVOICE Digital which is currently unmonitorable by ANY scanner. the rest of the provoince is ok i believe
Calgary and the rest of alberta have mixed P25 and analog police which is monitorable
Manitoba and Ontario are P25 digital with some analog which is monitorabe
Quebec Police are digital and Encrypted so they hurt a bit
We are not DOOMED quite yet

 

[frazpo]

Sorry, I wasn't speaking about a specific area. I was mainly talking about scanning in general.

 

[VA3JWO]

Scanning in general is OK with the exception of the towns and cities that have switched to ENC.. the vast majority of WARS (Wide Area Radio Systems) across this country are either P25 digital with ENC for delicate police services.. or analog. as long as you have a P25 capable radio you should be ok with the exception of some areas where either ENC or provoice (EDACS) has been implememted.
there is nothing we can do about ENC.. we'll just have to make do.. remember :good things come to those who wait
ENC standing for Encryption obviously
will

 

[UFOMAN]

Scanning is STILL Dead in Nova Scotia

You're in Ontario and you're telling me we have nothing to complain about? You must be in Ottawa.
I've been under the delusion then, that GRECOM's PSR 500 and 600 were able to pick up digital. I don't recall any firmware updates that will negate the current lack of sensitivity I'm apparently experiencing with both units which ,for no known reason, have gone down. I am aware of the P25 system as well and I am certainly impressed by your facility in describing its technical points. That said, the reality then is HRM police and the RCMP now rely on mental telepathy and cell phones to communicate,apparently bypassing P25 altogether.

 

[VA3JWO]

Yes im from ontario currently visiting st.johns until next tuesday..
okay.. i agree with you that the police services (HRM and RCMP) use cell phones to communicate under either of the situations
-special details about a person thats pulled over being runned under their database not suitable to be sent over the radio
-the current radio system they are using is under repairs or too much traffic on the system or system failure

BUT
for the time being you can listen to both HRM and RCMP as they pull people over, search for people, and other operations EXCEPT Delicate Operations in which they have the right to switch to encryption... theres nothing you can do with the cellular thing. scanners will NEVER be made to listen to and decode cellular communications.

as for your sensitivity or reception problem, try relocating your antenna and moving your radio around if your having reception problems. also program the tower CLOSEST TO YOU towers undergo repairs sometimes and system failures..
That is all
-----
Im from the belleville area which is 2 or more hours away from ottawa i can listen to belleville police, and the Ontario Provincial Police.. even if i was from ottawa, i cant listen to their police as they use a cirtan type of modulation current gen scanners cannot decode
will

 

[UFOMAN]

No Scanning in Nova Scotia

Your latest explains much. If you're driving, try the N.S. P25 system when you hit the dock in Cape Breton and when you're passing through Amherst or Truro as you pick up the Trans Canada for Ontario, you should be able to hear HRM and the RCMP based on your explanations ... but you wont get anything out of the Halifax area. It must be that the P25 system in this area is currently down for cleaning and maintenance ... perhaps, at some point it will come back up, but I doubt it.

 

[Citywide173]

i dont know why you guys worry about the police in halifax and nova scotia..ITS P25 DIGITAL!!! WHICH IS MONITORABLE!!!!! ..

Did you miss the second line of the OP's post?

HRM Police and the RCMP have gone encrypted.

Last time I checked, you can't monitor encrypted traffic, even with a P25 capable radio.

 

[CBFD]

my ufo friend... I'm in Lunenburg County Nova and RCMP are alive on my scanner... I was in halifax Friday and the HRM PD are alive as well... EHS, DNR and everyone else seems to be where they have been for the past 10 years...

you're head is clouded.

 

[VA3JWO]

i dont know what you mean by "OP's post"
expand
will

 

[Citywide173]

i dont know what you mean by "OP's post"
expand
will

OP=Original Poster

 

[VA3JWO]

If you are talking about the RCMP and other police going ENC then please take the time to look at the RR page on halifax/nova scotia...DISPATCH HAS NOT GONE ENC...like most police tacs and special ops/surveillence channels on other systems they are enc for a good reason.
as for mr UFOMAN, i dont know where this infos coming from about them currently being ENC.. yes it will happen someday but for now, sit back and enjoy the dispatch channels while you can... please take a good
look at the RR page for your info
obviously i know that you can not monitor p25 ENC or other ENC traffic with any scanner..
that is all
im done with this thread as it seems to be getting nowhere
will
lets let the admins settle this

 

[Citywide173]

If you are talking about the RCMP and other police going ENC then please take the time to look at the RR page on halifax/nova scotia...DISPATCH HAS NOT GONE ENC...like most police tacs and special ops/surveillence channels on other systems they are enc for a good reason.
as for mr UFOMAN, i dont know where this infos coming from about them currently being ENC.. yes it will happen someday but for now, sit back and enjoy the dispatch channels while you can... please take a good
look at the RR page for your info
obviously i know that you can not monitor p25 ENC or other ENC traffic with any scanner..
that is all
im done with this thread as it seems to be getting nowhere
will
lets let the admins settle this

I'm putting some faith into the theory that the OP is listening to the system, and has first hand knowledge that they have encrypted. The RR Database is not the end all be all of information.

 

[home121]

Power

Other than the odd fire (analog?) and EHS transmissions , scanning has been effectively killed in this area.HRM Police and the RCMP have gone encrypted. I'm pulling the plug on my scanners and packing them up to join the other three that used to monitor previous radio systems/frequencies.
Unless the people who design and build the scanners can stay ahead of this penchant by the SECRET Police to deny law abiding scanner owners who simply like to know where and what's going on, scanning, as a hobby, is going the way of the dodo bird. This story out of Michigan, tells it like it is and will continue to be as this trend continues. I also believe the streaming audio of HRM police exacerbated the move to secrecy by showing police just how much detail was available to the scanning public in this area. You should not flaunt it.
In Hamtramck, police scanners are now a thing of the past | Hamtramck Review

I have my own opinions as to the reasons for the secrecy and anyone interested can view them in the Newfoundland section of this site.

I recently read from a moderator's post that there's over 470,000 thousand members here, thats alot of voting power. Not to mention the non-members count...

 

[ve1sef]

If my earlier posting rubbed people the wrong way that was not my intent.
My point was to look at the glass as half full, rather than half empty.
Having say that;yes, as communication systems change there will come a time
that we may no longer be able to hear police, for example.
Looking back to the mid 80's the city of Halifax went UHF radios(411-415Mhz range) which the Crystal scanners of the day could not pick up.
A couple years later the first "programmable" scanners came out that could monitor that frequency range.
Once again we could hear HPD and HFD, life is good.
About 1988-1990 the city of Halifax switchs to 800Mhz trunking system, oh no gone again. Within a year local scanner retailers had conventional scnners that included 800Mhz. Although one had to put up with listening to Metro Transit and City Field,
we had HFD and HPD back, life is good.
Trunk tracking scanner soon followed, life getting better.
Then around 2000 the RCMP go digital, on no here we go again. Within 2 years Motorola allows the release of P25 decoding.
The Pro-2096 and Beatcat 785 are born. Once again life is good.
One day there may be a ENC system in the province, but I suspect that in time a scanner or monitoring device will appear on the market to listen to it.
I say this(and this is my opinion) because the radio communication companies survive on sales; once you flood a market with the XYZ super radio how do you make money? By creating the XZZ Super radio. Then you have to convince costumers to buy it. Something has to make
the XYZ less attractive. Best and simplest way to do it is to release or "leak" the super secert format to the scanner manufacturs.
I consider myself to be optomistic, the glass is still half full to me.

 

[hfxChris]

I'm putting some faith into the theory that the OP is listening to the system, and has first hand knowledge that they have encrypted. The RR Database is not the end all be all of information.

I wouldn't put too much faith in the OP... While I may currently be visiting in Ontario and unable to personally verify that Halifax police and RCMP dispatching talkgroups are still unencrypted, had they actually switched to 100% encryption I would have received a bunch of database submissions by now stating such. More people other than just UFOMAN, both on here and on another local scanning message board I frequent, would also be complaining.
UFOMAN has been saying for months now that HRM police and RCMP are now 100% encrypted and unmonitorable. I have no idea what his technical issue is with his setup, but I can assure you nothing has changed in Nova Scotia.

 

[abear27]

Most certainly, "scanning" as a hobby is not going the way of the dodo bird.

There are people in this hobby like the OP: Hung up on the fact that if they can't listen in on the cops, it's all over. I think monitoring the police is their real hobby, not "scanning".

The city police where I am are 100% encrypted. While you can argue for and against encryption (as other areas of the RR forums do), and it is one service here that I cannot monitor (no denying that), it doesn't "end scanning" at all.

This hobby is made up of people that love monitoring all kinds of communications across the radio spectrum. This group is what "scanning" is all about... It's more than just listening to the cops.