The JNCR System

[dmi]

FYI.. I also hear Frederick County FD Dispatch 9A (TG 650) on Joint National Capital Region Site: Fort Detrick - Forest Glen Annex (Montgomery County-MD)

I haven't heard much traffic on Joint National Capital Region Site: Germantown
(I have all the control channels programmed)

 

[Chris52]

It has been full time for a while now during my visits to the area. Still nothing on the patches on my SDS100. Full strength on the bars; set to one site. Hearing the Forts police side perfectly. Perhaps Frederick has pulled the plug. I’ll check my setting just to make sure.

 

[maus92]

In the past (aka last year) the Fredrick system "patches" have not been full time. You *could* run DSD to watch if the talk group is now encrypted - that is another possibility.

 

[Chris52]

Unfortunately I don’t have a laptop to bring with me, is there a function in the scanner that could tell me perhaps ?

 

[maus92]

Depends on the scanner.

 

[Chris52]

SDS100

 

[maus92]

The only way I know how to do it is hold on the target System (JNCR,) then hold on the Channel (could be any channel,) then rotate the knob to step through the various TGs that you have programmed and stop on the Frederick Police TG. Leave the radio there and wait for a transmission. If it's ENC, you will hear the hash when someone transmits; if it's clear, you will hear the user; otherwise the radio will be muted.

 

[Chris52]

So I haven’t seen any activity at all, not even seeing any encryption transmissions. I verified this with my Whistler TX1 as well. It’s possible that I may have a programming issue, maybe switched control channels but I haven’t changed anything and both have been working flawlessly a few days ago. If I was a betting man I’d say maybe it could be on their end. I also know that FD is dispatched by the county so I would think that they would have to keep the patch available at all times due to mutual aid response unless they have some Moto’s they are using.

 

[maus92]

The federal fire departments in Anne Arundel routinely operate on the county system, but I *think* are officially dispatched by their own system. In any case, they have radios for both systems. I'm not sure if their CADs are directly linked, or if the mutual aid is initiated by phone. I would assume a similar setup in Frederick and Montgomery counties.

If you are not receiving anything at all over the Fort Detrick site (meaning any transmission) it could be your programming. You will need all site frequencies entered as this is a L3Harris system. It's also possible that there is a new channel that is not reflected in the RRDB.

 

[Chris52]

So I rechecked my programming in both scanners. I also unlocked some maintenance TG’s for the fort site to see if I could receive them. I received them all fine on both scanners on both the forts and Germantowns sites. So my only other conclusion to this is there is no longer a fire, sheriff or PD patch between the two systems.

 

[maus92]

Or the "patch" is not full-time, aka enabled whenever necessary.

 

[Chris52]

FYI.. I also hear Frederick County FD Dispatch 9A (TG 650) on Joint National Capital Region Site: Fort Detrick - Forest Glen Annex (Montgomery County-MD)

I haven't heard much traffic on Joint National Capital Region Site: Germantown
(I have all the control channels programmed)

Curious, are you still hearing 9A on the Forest Glen site ?

 

[Chris52]

I’ve been hearing NDW FD/PD on the Germantown site lately. I wonder if this this just a temporary thing ?

Also curious on what the Germantown site serves for ? Is there a annex or something there ?

 

[maus92]

Look for an inconspicuous office building with a very conspicuous fence surrounding it, lol. But I *think* the site is on the south side of the DOE complex adjacent to Middlebrook Road.

 

[Chris52]

Interesting - while listening to the PD north site this morning it seems that most of the officers mobiles and portables are transmitting encryptive. Not all but most.

 

[maus92]

What is the PD north site?

 

[Chris52]

What I meant to say was PD North Dispatch TG. This was being heard via the Germantown site.

 

[maus92]

PD North - do you mean Naval District Washington Police North talk group? What talk group number?

 

[Chris52]

23236 - NDW PD North Dispatch

While at home, NDW FD South Tac 1, Brush 21 had a call and was transmitting encrypted, Battalion Chief 20 told them to turn it off. With that said it makes me think there is a button they can switch on and off and perhaps was pressed it by mistake.

 

[maus92]

Encryption can be user controlled - on Moto portable radios, there is a two-position concentric ring switch that controls encryption. I'm assume there are similar switches on other brands. Depending on how the radio is configured and the system is licensed, it may or may not work.