Twin Falls Police p25

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Scott83301

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Just an update on this. It's not trunked and they have had a lot of trouble with this new system. They've gone back and forth between digital and analog. They seem to have gotten it figured out and are using frequency 453.6125.
 
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jrtl92

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Has anyone seen evidence of these channels being interoperable/simulcasted on the 700mhz system down in that area? I wonder why they would spend the money to build out and go to their own P25 system that nobody else would be able to interoperate with. Unless possibly they have set this up temporarily as a way to transition into the world of digital
 

west-pac

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They could have patches to other local digital systems, and/or analog channels for interoperability. My local LE went to a VHF DMR system ~5 years ago, just this year they patched it to their TG on the statewide 800mhz P25 system, for surrounding counties to hear. They also patch the local school Corp UHF DMR system to one of their VHF DMR TGs during school dismissal, patch the County Highway analog 800Mhz channel, and statewide P25 TGs to their VHF DMR system randomly.
 

Weepingangel

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Just an update on this. It's not trunked and they have had a lot of trouble with this new system. They've gone back and forth between digital and analog. They seem to have gotten it figured out and are using frequency 453.6125.

So... I followed your advice, and it's either out of date or inaccurate; I only get one side of a few communications. Mostly dispatch, but I got one side of a cop talking to somebody else. It would seem that currently they are in fact running a digital trunking system.
 

Weepingangel

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Can you program mine to add SIRCOM, TWIN FALLS PD & Twin Falls County SO?

If I'm not mistaken, Baofeng radios can't tune to digital trunking signals. If that is indeed the case, then the TFPD and Sheriff's Office can't be listened to on a Baofeng radio, as they are both running digital trunking systems.
 

west-pac

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So... I followed your advice, and it's either out of date or inaccurate; I only get one side of a few communications. Mostly dispatch, but I got one side of a cop talking to somebody else. It would seem that currently they are in fact running a digital trunking system.

What you are hearing is one voice channel of a trunked radio system. When Disp or another officer replies to a transmission you hear, they're on one of the other frequencies. Digital radio system are capable of changing the voice channel frequency every time someone keys up the microphone in a conversation. You need to find the Control Channel frequency, and then create a new P25 system in your scanner, only add that Control Channel frequency you found, select ID SEARCH (instead of ID SCAN), then press Scan. After the programming in the scanner is completed, the Control Channel will find and track the conversation to any voice channel that the site uses. You do not need to program the voice channel frequencies into your scanner.

So, find the frequency that has a bunch of non-stop computer/dial-up modem/fax machine type noise. That is the Control Channel.
 

Weepingangel

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What you are hearing is one voice channel of a trunked radio system. When Disp or another officer replies to a transmission you hear, they're on one of the other frequencies. Digital radio system are capable of changing the voice channel frequency every time someone keys up the microphone in a conversation. You need to find the Control Channel frequency, and then create a new P25 system in your scanner, only add that Control Channel frequency you found, select ID SEARCH (instead of ID SCAN), then press Scan. After the programming in the scanner is completed, the Control Channel will find and track the conversation to any voice channel that the site uses. You do not need to program the voice channel frequencies into your scanner.

So, find the frequency that has a bunch of non-stop computer/dial-up modem/fax machine type noise. That is the Control Channel.

Ok... so I dinked around on my BCD436HP, and ran into a brick wall of sorts. I filled out the basic info (location, coverage shape, coverage distance) and it looks like I just need the Unit IDs. Does anybody here have them, or can my BCD436 HP search for them?
 

jrtl92

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Ok... so I dinked around on my BCD436HP, and ran into a brick wall of sorts. I filled out the basic info (location, coverage shape, coverage distance) and it looks like I just need the Unit IDs. Does anybody here have them, or can my BCD436 HP search for them?

You should be able to program the system without any ID's or make up an ID, but then set it to scan on ID Search mode
 

devicelab

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You should be able to program the system without any ID's or make up an ID, but then set it to scan on ID Search mode

No you don't need any IDs of any kind. All you need is a control channel. Set the system to ID SEARCH and you should hear *unencrypted* traffic. Uniden blocks encrypted traffic so you won't hear anything. If you watch the screen then you may see some information but it's limited.
 

Weepingangel

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So... I have frequencies for the Chobani Talkgroup preloaded into my BCD436HP, but for some reason it's treating the signals from Chobani like they're analog, so that when something comes through it sounds like a rapid "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

They're all there, it just looks like the database needs to be changed so that digital trunking scanners treat the signal as digital trunking. I'll check Sentinel to see if I can change them to digital trunking, but if not then I will make a request, wherever that gets done.

Oh, and upon scrolling through to Chobani in the relevant section, there's no talkgroup ID listed on my scanner. There's at least two frequencies they use, though.
 

Weepingangel

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According to this article they may be encrypted is why you are not hearing any audio, however if its a trunked system you should still see TG's and RID's(if your scanner is setup for those) pop up. You may also hear a garbled squawking, unless youre one of us with a Uniden scanner

MV News article: Twin Falls police and fire services to get digital radio system

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I ain't heard any noises on the control channel, which makes me wonder. However, when I programmed the known good frequencies into my favorites, (Or the frequency that another user said was the only one in use) I heard some chatter. I'm not sure either way, though. I frelling hope they didn't encrypt their radio chatter.
 

Weepingangel

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I have another update. I opened SDR# to hop around, and saw that the likely control channel for the TFPD may actually be 460.310 MHz. On SDRsharp, tuned analog, it sounds like an unchanging digital trunking signal, which means it may be the control channel. I will program it into my scanner and see what happens.

Edit: 460.3125 is correct after all.
 
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Weepingangel

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Twin Falls, Idaho
After a few days of listening these are the channels used by twin falls police. 453.5625 460.0875 453.4875 453.6125 453.7875. Still not sure if its trunked or not.

I have programmed these frequencies into my scanner and told it that for each one the NAC was 001, and am waiting to see if I hear any activity. If I hear chatter, I reckon those are the ones, and the database can be updated.

Edit: I have heard chatter on 460.5
 
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