StarCom21 2021 Official Thread

[Awesomeman92]

Hello all,
Have been wanting to get a scanner for a while. Thinking about ordering a BCD325P2. I am in Lake County IL and would like to monitor the police agencies around here. I see that the lake county Sherriff is encrypted, however I am having a hard time understanding if this would mean I would not be able to receive any other city/village police agencies such as Antioch, Round Lake Beach, Lake Villa, etc... If those are all encrypted as well than I would rather save my money. My main wish is to monitor police transmissions.

The short answer: save your money.

There are only a handful of PDs that aren't encrypted (Gurnee, Barrington off the top of my head, Round Lake Beach and anyone CENCOM may not be but I can't remember for sure), most of the big ones are and anyone on StarCom is guaranteed encrypted.

 

[Jordan151]

Thank you, appreciate the answer. That is disappointing though..

 

[FFPM571]

Hello all,
Have been wanting to get a scanner for a while. Thinking about ordering a BCD325P2. I am in Lake County IL and would like to monitor the police agencies around here. I see that the lake county Sherriff is encrypted, however I am having a hard time understanding if this would mean I would not be able to receive any other city/village police agencies such as Antioch, Round Lake Beach, Lake Villa, etc... If those are all encrypted as well than I would rather save my money. My main wish is to monitor police transmissions.

Yes most of all of Lake County is Police and Sheriff is Encrypted. Round Lake MAY still be on VHF but that probably change soon if it has not already. Fire is still mostly VHF with some simulcasting on Starcomm and VHF for tone outs

 

[N9JCQ]

Jordan, you can still receive fire & EMS across the county as well as ISP too. I have a 325P2 and I can easily also pick up Chicago PD and that is always jumping.

 

[werinshades]

I've been hearing ISPERN VHF traffic being patched on the District-Chicago Priority talk group (TGID 9051) over the past couple of days.

 

[ILjim]

I've been hearing ISPERN VHF traffic being patched on the District-Chicago Priority talk group (TGID 9051) over the past couple of days.

I just thought of something. Why isn't activity from 155.475 patched to TG 9051 all the time? Not to sound ignorant or anything, but when I go to Will Co and monitor the county P25 system, their ISPERN Patch TG is pretty active (along with their IFERN Patch). It always baffled me as to why I only hear 1 side of the conversation most of the time on Chicago Priority.

 

[RoninJoliet]

That's a very good point plus onVHF 155.475 I have monitored different PLs and DCS , Cook Co is one that is different......

 

[Jordan151]

So I went ahead and grabbed a BCD325P2, just received it today. Took me a little bit to figure the programming out, but I just decided to get PROSCAN and radioreference premium subscription and that made it fairly easy. Although I am sure I do not have it all figured out. I am picking up CENCOM round Lake PD (not sure if its beach/park/heights or what). I also am picking up Gurnee PD from my house in west Antioch. This is my first time ever using a digital scanner or any scanner really pretty much. Hoping to continue to learn more about it and get more into this type of stuff.

 

[N9JCQ]

Jordan, don't forget our friends across the "Cheddar Curtain." Using my 325P2 and a discone, I can hear the WSP down here in Buffalo Grove. Look at their site map. I bet you can get several locations.

 

[RoninJoliet]

If your familiar with radio reference.com it can be a big help for talk groups and the encryption in Lake county.....

 

[Jordan151]

Jordan, don't forget our friends across the "Cheddar Curtain." Using my 325P2 and a discone, I can hear the WSP down here in Buffalo Grove. Look at their site map. I bet you can get several locations.

Hahah the Cheddar Curtain, I like that. Yes, as I was out last night driving along the border of WI I thought to myself that I need to add in Kenosha County etc.. So now I did that as well.

 

[Jordan151]

If your familiar with radio reference.com it can be a big help for talk groups and the encryption in Lake county.....

Thanks, I have been a member on this site for a long time but honestly am not all that familiar with it yet. This is the first time I owned a scanner personally (digital at least), but have always been intrigued by the hobby. The premium subscription along with PROScan definitely made the setup of the scanner extremely easy.

 

[Awesomeman92]

McHenry County Sheriff and all the agencies they dispatch for are still open at the county level (for now) and you should be able to get them at least part of the time off the Lake County simulcast. On good days/nights you'll also be able to hear across the lake pretty easily. Was listening to a couple ham repeaters from Grand Rapids earlier today like I was standing right next to them. VHF high will act basically identical when the tropospheric ducting is up, and the further we get into fall the more it will be.

Jordan, don't forget our friends across the "Cheddar Curtain."

I am 100% using the phrase cheddar curtain in the future, I LOVE it and I don't know how I've never heard it before.

 

[N9JCQ]

Hahah the Cheddar Curtain, I like that. Yes, as I was out last night driving along the border of WI I thought to myself that I need to add in Kenosha County etc.. So now I did that as well.

Look up Wisconsin State Police and load the Kenosha site. You may try the walworth county sites as well as Union Grove. Racine PD I believe is encrypted.

 

[Elpato]

Does anyone else in the McHenry county area get bits and pieces of ISP on Ner Com west (3459)

This afternoon I heard a dispatch for Algonquin fire on Nercom East (3451)
Happens maybe few times a day when I'm using my G5 .. its usually one end of a transmission and that's it.

 

[Engine104]

How are things in Dupage and Kane Co? We will probably be moving to Geneva in a couple of years.

 

[Elpato]

How are things in Dupage and Kane Co? We will probably be moving to Geneva in a couple of years.

Great If all you wana hear is fire.. everything in DuPage will probably be encrypted within a year according to the all the Randy's that "know a guy who said"

Aside from that Geneva is a nice place.

 

[FFPM571]

Great If all you wana hear is fire.. everything in DuPage will probably be encrypted within a year according to the all the Randy's that "know a guy who said"

Aside from that Geneva is a nice place.

The " I know a guy's" are well connected with the local dispatch agencies so there is merit to their claims

 

[Awesomeman92]

Police chiefs in DuPage County want it and have requested it from ETSB, and ETSB sent out a survey to member departments confirming most chiefs want it at some level. If you look at the meeting minutes for the ETSB Policy Advisory Committee from April and May and since there has been a lot of discussion of it at their meetings since then, mostly the issues of AES vs. ADP, single key vs. multi key, how to handle outside agencies with TG access agreements, and different radio models. As far as I can tell the new radios haven't actually been bought yet, so it'll be a while before it's rolled out. There is also talk of if they can get enough fire radios on SC21 to make VHF backup only, as patching to VHF was only a "semi permanent" (their words) solution.

Kane County police...yeah, you're out of luck there. Fire is starting to test SC21 but is the last holdout regularly on VHF, sheriff can and does occasionally simulcast dispatch side only on IREACH during mutual aid situations and I've heard rare simulcasts to the old dispatch channels, OHSEM can simulcast to their old VHF channels and during the 3 days of constant storms last week was sending out storm warnings on these. Tri-Com is all on SC21 except for fire paging now I believe.

On the bright side, DeKalb County is open if you can get their trunked system-from Geneva you probably should be able to with a good antenna. Kendall County is switching to UHF conventional digital eventually and unless something has changed at least the sheriff will be in the clear. You'll be able to hear some Grundy County traffic off the Kane Simulcast periodically, as well as McHenry County Sheriff and all the towns they dispatch for. Same for Will County, although some of their agencies are switching encryption on, Bolingbrook being the first.

And ISP is also open. You won't get much if anything from District Chicago off Kane County, but you'll get District 2, District 5, District 15, and sometimes districts 1, 16, or 17.

There are still things to listen to, it just depends on what you want to hear.

 

[werinshades]

Police chiefs in DuPage County want it and have requested it from ETSB, and ETSB sent out a survey to member departments confirming most chiefs want it at some level.

What was the reason for this? Could it be officer safety, public's "accessibility", or the elephant in the thread..streaming?