STARCOM21 Cook Co.

[DanKC8PAE]

Hello everyone in the Chicago area from Butler County Ohio. In the next several months I am going to be spending a long weekend in Hammond IN. Because we will be so close to Chicago I will be doing some scanner listening in both IL and IN. I am in the fire service and my primary target for Cook Co. will be Fire/EMS. We will be doing a day trip to Cook County. I thought it might also be nice to listen in on the air medical flight and ISP in the Chicago area. Will I be fine by just putting the simulcast sites for Cook Co. or should I list every site for Cook Co. in my SDS Radios? I know we will be in Chicago and in Barrington that day.


Thanks Dan

 

[Premises2972]

Hello everyone in the Chicago area from Butler County Ohio. In the next several months I am going to be spending a long weekend in Hammond IN. Because we will be so close to Chicago I will be doing some scanner listening in both IL and IN. I am in the fire service and my primary target for Cook Co. will be Fire/EMS. We will be doing a day trip to Cook County. I thought it might also be nice to listen in on the air medical flight and ISP in the Chicago area. Will I be fine by just putting the simulcast sites for Cook Co. or should I list every site for Cook Co. in my SDS Radios? I know we will be in Chicago and in Barrington that day.


Thanks Dan

yes, if you put the Cook County North, South, and NWCD Simulcast sites into your SDS, that will get you all the starcom21 traffic you want. Also, if you like air med, look at programming the UCAN - University of Chicago Aeromedical Network. Also note that quite a few of the Fire/EMS in Cook is still on VHF, so you'll have to program that in as well.

 

[W9WSS]

Please be advised that most of the Cook County law enforcement agencies (with the exception of the Illinois State Police) are encrypted. Some entities encrypt their fire/EMS services (Kane County, Lake County, etc.), whereas others keep their VHF multi-cast channels in the clear.

 

[ChicagoRadio736]

Please be advised that most of the Cook County law enforcement agencies (with the exception of the Illinois State Police) are encrypted. Some entities encrypt their fire/EMS services (Kane County, Lake County, etc.), whereas others keep their VHF multi-cast channels in the clear.

Kane County Fire encrypts?

 

[DanKC8PAE]

yes, if you put the Cook County North, South, and NWCD Simulcast sites into your SDS, that will get you all the starcom21 traffic you want. Also, if you like air med, look at programming the UCAN - University of Chicago Aeromedical Network. Also note that quite a few of the Fire/EMS in Cook is still on VHF, so you'll have to program that in as well.

Thank you.

 

[Premises2972]

The only active FD encryption i'm aware of in/around Chicago is Napreville/Aurora (I don't think its encrypted but its OpenSky so it might as well be), Joliet (Will co) and Waukegan (lake co).

 

[Chicago2210]

You can also listen to CPD Citywide s as those are in the clear. If your scanner does P25 phase II then you should be able to listen to CFD

 

[W9WSS]

Kane County Fire encrypts?

Yes. Very close friend of mine is the radio engineer for Kanecomm and informed me that ALL entities for Kane County using Starcom21 are encrypted full-time. The VHF repeaters are in the clear.

 

[Chicago2210]

Yes. Very close friend of mine is the radio engineer for Kanecomm and informed me that ALL entities for Kane County using Starcom21 are encrypted full-time. The VHF repeaters are in the clear.

Are the VHE repeaters still in use?

 

[W9WSS]

Are the VHE repeaters still in use?

If you meant VHF, they are up and operational but only for backup and not generally deployed for everyday use.

 

[Bri112233445]

If you meant VHF, they are up and operational but only for backup and not generally deployed for everyday use.

Fire may be patched but they're definitely not using it. No sort of "digital sounding" when they talk on the VHF channels such as Wescom and there analog channels where you can actually hear the digital patch. If you were referencing law enforcement then yes they are encrypted and on starcom nothing on there analog patches. Also to note I'm monitoring the Kane site and when any of the kanecomm fire units talk there is no encrypted group that comes up on my SDRTrunk.

 

[Chicago2210]

Fire may be patched but they're definitely not using it. No sort of "digital sounding" when they talk on the VHF channels such as Wescom and there analog channels where you can actually hear the digital patch. If you were referencing law enforcement then yes they are encrypted and on starcom nothing on there analog patches. Also to note I'm monitoring the Kane site and when any of the kanecomm fire units talk there is no encrypted group that comes up on my SDRTrunk.

So Kanecom fire talk groups are still in the Clear?

 

[Bri112233445]

So Kanecom fire talk groups are still in the Clear?

They aren't even using them. They're still on the analog channels

 

[ChicagoRadio736]

So Kanecom fire talk groups are still in the Clear?

Thats why I asked because I've never heard or saw encryption on Kane County FD TGs

 

[mr10pt]

Hello everyone in the Chicago area from Butler County Ohio. In the next several months I am going to be spending a long weekend in Hammond IN. Because we will be so close to Chicago I will be doing some scanner listening in both IL and IN. I am in the fire service and my primary target for Cook Co. will be Fire/EMS. We will be doing a day trip to Cook County. I thought it might also be nice to listen in on the air medical flight and ISP in the Chicago area. Will I be fine by just putting the simulcast sites for Cook Co. or should I list every site for Cook Co. in my SDS Radios? I know we will be in Chicago and in Barrington that day.


Thanks Dan

On the Indiana side, Hammond and all other cities and towns within the county use Lake County Public Safety/Lake County Simulcast. Many PD's share talkgroups. FD's are split between 3 TG's. There are 18 different departments, most are volunteer. Would recommend addiing FD Ops 1-5. On the Statewide system - Hooisier Safe-T, you'll probably want to include Air Medical Helicopters and regional mutual aid. We are in region "A". A-MA channels 1-4. State PD - we are district 13

 

[Chicago2210]

They aren't even using them. They're still on the analog channels

So Kane County FD's dispatched by Kanecom are still on VHF?

 

[Bri112233445]

So Kane County FD's dispatched by Kanecom are still on VHF?

Correct

 

[Mex]

Yes. Very close friend of mine is the radio engineer for Kanecomm and informed me that ALL entities for Kane County using Starcom21 are encrypted full-time. The VHF repeaters are in the clear.

Yea, no. Fire talkgroups definately are not encrypted, they do have 1 or 2 encrypted tac channels but everything else is clean. I'm not sure where you came up with that

 

[ILjim]

If you're putting in the Cook County sites for StarCom21, don't bother putting in the 500-series sites used by the Cook County Sheriff's since activity is 99% encrypted. Definitely put in Sites 1-002 (Cook South - Simulcast) and 1-049 (Cook North/NWCD) since they will carry the traffic you're interested in.

 

[Starcom21]

Please folks, help us help you, any of this information that needs changed on the database page for the County, or for STARCOM21, please make submissions so we can clarify, deprecate, etc. these that don't appear to match what is in the database.