Towns and Counties still on OLD radio modes or trunking.

[2wayfreq]

Just Curious,
With many locations going "P25" "Digital Phase 2" and/or the dreaded "E", do you live in a town, city, county area that still has good ole analog or analog trunking goodness for public safety? As in, you could literally blow the dust off of a 30 Year old Bearcat and hear most everything?? Where? Post your backwater analog paradise!

 

[cubn]

Oddly, I was just wondering if any major cities still use Mot II Smartnet Analog.

 

[DeoVindice]

State police, EMS, tribal police, and wildland fire are analog here. My county switched from analog to clear conventional P25 for law dispatch a few months ago. My hearing is a bit messed up from occupational noise exposure and I generally find P25 easier to understand.

 

[jrothwell]

Massachusetts State Police are still using Motorola Type II SmartZone with analogue voice. Most of the state's individual departments are still conventional analogue, some even with new builds and upgrades, have still stayed analogue. There are several that have recently started transitioning to P25 though and the state's SmartZone system will soon be replaced, but probably not for a couple years.

 

[dachs494]

Our county (Snohomish County, WA), which is just a few miles north of Seattle, switched from an 800MHz Motorola Type II Smartzone system (95% analog/5% digital) to a P25P2 system w/ LE fully encrypted just last month. It was a sad sight to witness.

 

[62Truck]

Right now in my county you can find LE on VHF and UHF analog, and 800 EDACS with some ProVoice Talkgroups some are clear some are encrypted. Fire is UHF analog.

The County is in the process of building out a P25 Phase II system (might be online at some point in 2027), originally everyone was supposed to go on it LE, Fire/EMS and County DPW. They changed course and will not move fire/EMS onto the new system when it goes live, but will "enhance" the currently UHF analog system...

 

[jrothwell]

Right now in my county you can find LE on VHF and UHF analog, and 800 EDACS with some ProVoice Talkgroups some are clear some are encrypted. Fire is UHF analog.

The County is in the process of building out a P25 Phase II system (might be online at some point in 2027), originally everyone was supposed to go on it LE, Fire/EMS and County DPW. They changed course and will not move fire/EMS onto the new system when it goes live, but will "enhance" the currently UHF analog system...

I really miss EDACS

 

[unitdelta]

(Paducah/McCracken County Kentucky) Our local city and county are still on an 800mhz Smartnet trucked system, however, a few months ago, the city and county accepted a 5 site simulcast 800 mhz P25 Phase 2 system by Harris. Deal and engineering done by Communications International. Hopefully will be completed by year end.

 

[StoliRaz]

Massachusetts State Police are still using Motorola Type II SmartZone with analogue voice. Most of the state's individual departments are still conventional analogue, some even with new builds and upgrades, have still stayed analogue. There are several that have recently started transitioning to P25 though and the state's SmartZone system will soon be replaced, but probably not for a couple years.

I listen to the MSP analog system just about every day, especially while commuting to work. I'm seeing more and more digital rear its nasty, disgusting, ugly head (I hate digital-can you tell?) in our area, but thankfully not much is encrypted...at least so far.

That new MSP (CoMIRS) system is very slowly rolling out. I think Cape Cod and Plymouth county were scheduled to go online at some point this year but it seems like the whole project is running behind schedule. Red tape and projects running behind schedule are the norm in this state.

 

[steve9570]

I listen to the MSP analog system just about every day, especially while commuting to work. I'm seeing more and more digital rear its nasty, disgusting, ugly head (I hate digital-can you tell?) in our area, but thankfully not much is encrypted...at least so far.

That new MSP (CoMIRS) system is very slowly rolling out. I think Cape Cod and Plymouth county were scheduled to go online at some point this year but it seems like the whole project is running behind schedule. Red tape and projects running behind schedule are the norm in this state.

Me too as far as the MSP. And Boston etc is still analog I live in Natick and the went P25 a few months ago but I can get them. I work in Marlboro and they and Sudbury are also P25. Framingham is still clear except for the DPW and Water depts but I can get them on 3 of my scanners or G5. Boston is going soon I hear. I still like to listen after 30 years there as a Detective is cool to hear the difference in communications. Steve

 

[hill]

The Smartzone with Richmond, VA along with it's other Counties of Henrico and Chesterfield is still being used. System voice is P25, but it's still an old system running a 3600 baud control channel

I am a partime listener of this system when delivering down that way and I don't know the timeline for new system being used.

Maybe one day when they finally get with modern times at then could monitor these areas with the G5

 

[seagravebuff60]

Yes. Multiple areas that I listen to are mostly clear. Mix of P25 conv, P25 Trunk, analog conv, EDACS, you name it.

 

[IC-R20]

Yes analog VHF mostly where I live. It's fun still seeing the longer whips on Police and City vehicles. It's being able to hunt new frequencies like normal pervert by sneaking up to someone transmitting with closecall active. Lotta fun times chasing city public works to get their frequency and also the local electric utility a couple times. Skipped straight past the encryption woes and just straight to everything becoming computer terminals and cellphones. Police and fire still good even when fire stations accept call via terminal the dispatcher still radios it like normal, sheriff and EMS on the other hand you don't hear much out of anymore, Highway Patrol and Game & Fish still normal too though are now on linked analog repeater instead of local dispatch.

 

[kc2asb]

I can count the number of PD in my county that are still analog on one hand. There are a handful of FD that are analog. My town has encrypted everything except public works and the school buses.

Here in the NY/NJ metro area, everything seems to be digital and/or encrypted, or in the process of migrating to it.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Yes analog VHF mostly where I live. It's fun still seeing the longer whips on Police and City vehicles. It's being able to hunt new frequencies like normal pervert by sneaking up to someone transmitting with closecall active. Lotta fun times chasing city public works to get their frequency and also the local electric utility a couple times. Skipped straight past the encryption woes and just straight to everything becoming computer terminals and cellphones. Police and fire still good even when fire stations accept call via terminal the dispatcher still radios it like normal, sheriff and EMS on the other hand you don't hear much out of anymore, Highway Patrol and Game & Fish still normal too though are now on linked analog repeater instead of local dispatch.

My locals are all running VHF P25 trunking. So the longer whips are still a normal thing. Still have analog FM paging but it's not full time patched to the trunking. Of the rural counties near me, only one or two are still analog, everyone else is P25 conventional or P25 trunked for regular dispatch operations. Of course, forestry and some interop stuff is still analog on VHF but there may be incoming changes to push some of that over to P25 in the next few years.

 

[jmp883]

KC2ASB wrote:

Here in the NY/NJ metro area, everything seems to be digital and/or encrypted, or in the process of migrating to it.

My agency in northern NJ is currently on conventional UHF. Been there 15-20 years, prior to that we were on VHF-Lo. Just this week we had the new consoles installed in the radio room for the conversion to the statewide 700/800 system. The new consoles are up and running, currently on our UHF frequencies. The switchover to the 700/800 won't be until later this summer after all the new mobiles and portables are installed and ready.

 

[kc2asb]

My agency in northern NJ is currently on conventional UHF. Been there 15-20 years, prior to that we were on VHF-Lo. Just this week we had the new consoles installed in the radio room for the conversion to the statewide 700/800 system. The new consoles are up and running, currently on our UHF frequencies. The switchover to the 700/800 won't be until later this summer after all the new mobiles and portables are installed and ready.

Chances are, the UHF frequencies will be retained as a back-up. Hoboken did that with their 800MHz conventional analog channels when they switched over to NJICS

 

[jmp883]

KC2ASB wrote:

Chances are, the UHF frequencies will be retained as a back-up. Hoboken did that with their 800MHz conventional analog channels when they switched over to NJICS

That's exactly what's happening! We kept our VHF-Lo frequencies when we went UHF. Still keeping one VHF-Lo frequency to activate the FD sirens and open the firehouse bay doors on fire calls.

 

[ecps92]

Just Curious,
With many locations going "P25" "Digital Phase 2" and/or the dreaded "E", do you live in a town, city, county area that still has good ole analog or analog trunking goodness for public safety? As in, you could literally blow the dust off of a 30 Year old Bearcat and hear most everything?? Where? Post your backwater analog paradise!

Not Backwater, but the City of Boston is still using Analog for Fire, Police and EMS

 

[ecps92]

I listen to the MSP analog system just about every day, especially while commuting to work. I'm seeing more and more digital rear its nasty, disgusting, ugly head (I hate digital-can you tell?) in our area, but thankfully not much is encrypted...at least so far.

That new MSP (CoMIRS) system is very slowly rolling out. I think Cape Cod and Plymouth county were scheduled to go online at some point this year but it seems like the whole project is running behind schedule. Red tape and projects running behind schedule are the norm in this state.

and Low Band MSP - the long forgotten, yet still used 42 Band