Seeking advice/opinion

[Hazy]

Hello!
I'm brand new to the site, but am familiar with general 2 way radio comms, etc. I would like to find a handheld scanner that can pick up Cook County Sherrifs dept. in Illinois, however there are some terms that I don't quite understand. The site here says that CCPD has recently moved to starcom 21. My first question is what is this? Does it mean it's no longer available for civilian scanning? Further, I'd like to know, based off of the info on the site, ( Cook County Sheriff/Corrections (*Moved to STARCOM21) Trunking System, Cook County, Illinois - Scanner Frequencies) which scanners would pick up the transmissions. Looking to spend no more than around $300-350. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Note: I have a few friends and also a contact in the CCPD. My friends are divided as to weather or not I can pick up CCPD, and the officer I know says that I cannot. While I have no reason to doubt the officer, I'd still like to hear a definite yes/no from a complete third party. Thanks again!

 

[MFD4305]

No Joy!

Hi Hazy,
To quote from the link you provided yourself: " All Cook County operations (TGID’s in the 25000 series) are encrypted." Cook County Sheriff has been all-encrypted / non-monitorable for several years now, even before the move to SC-21. There are semi-regular reports of limited transmissions in the clear, but they are the exception that proves the rule.

 

[Hazy]

Thanks for the info. I guess my question was more is there anything to decrypt the encryption. I just didn't really know what I was looking for there because there was so much info just bombarding my eyes. So I'm assuming that there's no way to pick them up, right? It's unfortunate that not all comms are able to be heard. Do you think that this is going to be the road all emergency frequencies eventually travel? Because if so, I might as well not purchase a scanner, and just get something like amature ham radio unit. Thanks for the info again, though, and have a great day.