Securitas in Sun City Hilton Head

[Smithbrother]

Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this and don't understand many terms, but I live in a large gated community called Sun City Hilton Head. Part of it is in Jasper County and Part is in Bluffton County. We are patrolled by private security called Securitas. They have a security chief, a dispatch center, and many vehicles. They keep everything that happens in the community hush hush. They refuse to let anyone examine their dispatch call sheet, and all incidents are sent to the HOA Board, and they decide what is released and what isn't. I'm looking for a way to monitor their radio traffic. I don't know if it's a trunked system, a private license or what they use for radios. I'm sure there are high end scanners that can search for frequencies and I was also interested in figuring out how to monitor the local police department and Sheriffs transmissions. I'm a retired cop and just sit around most days and there are always sirens everywhere.

Can anyone help me identify the frequencies they are on?
Tell me what equipment I will need to intercept the transmissions and give me any help in setting up a listening station.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[tvengr]

Welcome to the Radio Reference forums! I would be happy to help search for it, but the FCC database seems to be unavailable due to the government shutdown. I believe you meant to say Jasper and Beaufort Counties. I will continue to check when the FCC database becomes available again. In the meantime, hopefully, a member in your area may be able to provide the info you need.

 

[Wnqk784]

Usually the security company that you are referring to runs on UHF that may or may not be digital and as far as law enforcement they are on the pal 800 and encrypted but you should be able to hear fire and EMS and the best scanner to use is the SDS 100 or 200 by uniden

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Welcome to the RR forums. Check the license linked below for activity. I wouldn't rule out DMR as a possibility, although not explicitly listed in the license emissions so be sure to use a receiver that supports it. Ops are simplex. Don't forget to submit your confirmed findings to the RRDB

FCC Callsign WQMB225 (SUN CITY HILTON HEAD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION)

FCC Callsign WQMB225 (SUN CITY HILTON HEAD COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION)

www.radioreference.com

and I was also interested in figuring out how to monitor the local police department and Sheriffs transmissions.

Tell me what equipment I will need to intercept the transmissions and give me any help in setting up a listening station.

See Beaufort County (there's no Bluffton County) and Jasper County talkgroups on Palmetto 800. Mode "D" talkgroups can be monitored. Mode "DE" talkgroups are fully encrypted and cannot be monitored by a scanner. Jasper County sheriff is fully encrypted. Bluffton (town) is between two sites of the Beaufort County Simulcast so I'd recommend picking up a Uniden SDS100 (or SDS200) to compensate for simulcast distortion you'll likely face with any other scanner. Though I'm also seeing a single fill-in site, Bluffton which may carry traffic of interest to you where the aforementioned simulcast distortion wouldn't be an issue

 

[brian]

As others have mentioned, law enforcement in both Beaufort County (including Bluffton PD) and Jasper County are encrypted, which means their radio traffic cannot be monitored. You can monitor other emergency services (Beaufort County Fire Department dispatch and some operations are in the clear, EMS dispatch is typically encrypted) and other county services.

As for your local security service, you would have to do some sleuthing. The license that Whiskey linked to above is a possibility, but there are no repeaters listed on that license, only mobile (direct radio-to-radio) use. I would suspect that license is used for things like golf course maintenance or grounds maintenance in the development. There are no other licenses in a 3-mile radius of that license that would indicate a local radio system (repeater) in the development.

2 possibilities are more likely. The most likely scenario is that the security agency pays a radio system company to provide access and air time on a larger, shared trunked radio system. This is very common in the HHI area. Some of those systems are listed here, Beaufort County, South Carolina (SC) Trunked Systems with the MCA DMR system being the most likely, followed by Fleettalk and Charleston Wireless. There are likely some other system in use that aren't documented here. It's be a while since I've been in that area, and the radio monitoring landscape changes over time. You would have to get a scanner or an SDR set-up, learn how these radio systems operate, and do a good bit of monitoring to figure it out.

The other likely scenario is that they use an LTE-based Push-to-talk service on a commercial wireless service, like AT&T FirstNet. Sea Pines Security moved to a similar platform a few years ago, most likely for the same reasons (privacy) you mentioned in your original post. Unfortunately these systems cannot be passively monitored either.

One suggestion that could help narrow things down - get a picture of one of the security patrol vehicles, that specifically show the antennas on the outside of the vehicle. Even better, a picture of the console inside the car. This would show the radios in use and the antennas would indicate the frequency band in use. Post the pictures here and we can offer insight. It's possible that the security agency only uses portable radios (not using mobile radios in their vehicles), in which case getting a picture of the radio being carried by an officer would ne necessary. That's much more difficult to do while being discrete, unless you're friendly with one of the officers.

Good luck.

 

[AB4BF]

Everyone has given excellent advice! If you know the exact location of their P to P, base or repeater antenna, you could use antenna search.com to see what frequency they may be on.

AntennaSearch - Search for Cell Towers & Antennas

Search for the locations of cell towers and antennas to determine cell reception.

www.antennasearch.com

 

[KE4SZT]

Looks like the first listing under Beaufort County is what you're looking for.

Mobile Communications America Trunking System, Various, Multi-State

Mobile Communications America Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

 

[tvengr]

Looks like the first listing under Beaufort County is what you're looking for.

Thanks! I missed seeing that in the database. Looks like Smithbrother needs a scanner capable of DMR trunking. The least expensive would be a Uniden BCD325P2 handheld or BCD996P2 base/mobile with the DMR upgrade. It is less expensive if you install the upgrade yourself directly from Uniden. Don't have a dealer do it. It would be better to go with a SDS100 handheld or SDS200 base/mobile with the DMR upgrade due to simulcast sites on the Palmetto 800 trunked system if OP wants to monitor fire and EMS. You may have problems with missed transmissions and garbled audio depending upon your location.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Missed that also. Though I was right to not rule out DMR as a possibility