Several short static blurbs on TPD CH's

[bth]

I am pretty new to the scanning world, just this weekend in fact. I got a Radioshack pro-433 desktop scanner and listened in all weekend to Tulsa Police/Fire. Several times an hour I would hear a transmission consisting of several short static blurbs at quick intervals. These would come in anywhere between 3-20 at a time during a single transmission. No one talking seemed to acknowledge this so I assumed it must be some sort of data transmission like packet radio or something. Am I way off in this assumption?

 

[car2back]

did you happen to see what talk group this was on? some tg's are dedicated for data, but if you heard voice traffic mixed with it, it could have been someone opearting their radio in digital mode.

 

[peterjmag]

I am pretty new to the scanning world, just this weekend in fact. I got a Radioshack pro-433 desktop scanner and listened in all weekend to Tulsa Police/Fire. Several times an hour I would hear a transmission consisting of several short static blurbs at quick intervals. These would come in anywhere between 3-20 at a time during a single transmission. No one talking seemed to acknowledge this so I assumed it must be some sort of data transmission like packet radio or something. Am I way off in this assumption?

Welcome to RR and the scanning world!No you are not off at all! What you are hearing is what is called MOSCAD data. On the City of Tulsa 800 site there are 2 IDs aka TGs that need to be locked out if you want to search the system like you are doing. They are...
39312 MOSCAD Data
41584 MOSCAD Data

MOSCAD data is used to gather information from a site and send it back to a computer via radio. One of the TGs listed above is to measure reservoir water levels and I think the other is for flood control but don't quote me on it. They are not related to anything law enforcement.

What Phil was referring to was a long buzzsaw noise which is in fact digital communications and most of that will come from EMSA so it might be a good idea to lock those out when you hear them.

Proabably the best way to scan is compile a list of TGs that your favorite agency uses and enter them into a scan bank on your scanner and scan them and not search the whole the city because that can get real busy and confusing. Hope this helps...

P.J. Maguire

 

[bth]

Thanks for the help and great information Phil and Peter. I was using 857.9875 and 858.9875 which seemed to be the two main active channels in Tulsa. I think there was another at 858.41something, but not many people talked. I will definately be researching MOSCAD data and how to lock it out on my scanner. Thanks again.

 

[car2back]

bth are you scanning the Tulsa 800 freqs like regular (conventional) ones or are you "trunk tracking" them?

 

[bth]

Conventional, I am still reading through the manual about the trunking stuff. I expect to get to that tonight though. We use an E2-800 Motorala Type II for TPD right? I think I am reading the database on this site correct on that.

 

[car2back]

I see... and yes you're correct Tulsa has a Motorola 800mhz Type II system