Upshur County, WV

[noblewv70]

Quick question... My parents live in Upshur County and would like to have a scanner to listen to. I have an older BC350A that I retired several years ago. I'm thinking about programming it and giving it to them. It is not a digital trunking scanner. I don't understand the Upshur County frequency database page (Upshur County, West Virginia (WV) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference) enough to know if a trunking scanner is required to listen to EMS, Fire, Police, etc. in Upshur County. Will the BC350A work or do I need to find something else for them?

Thanks!

 

[mtindor]

You need a digital trunking scanner -- one that will eventually be able to copy Phase II P25 (even though it's PHase I P25 currently). The Upshur Co database (conventional frequencies) may not be up to date. But Upshure Co police / fire / ems have talkgroups on the WVSIRN system ( see : West Virginia Statewide Interoperability Radio Network (SIRN) Trunking System, Statewide, West Virginia - Scanner Frequencies ) and it is a good bet that they are actually used.

The good news is that there are no simulcast trunked sites there, just standalone trunked sites -- so any scanner capable of decoding Phase II P25 will work.

Mike

 

[noblewv70]

Thanks MIke! I appreciate the help.

Now what am I going to do with these older scanners? I have a BC350A and a BC147XLT. eBay? LOL

Chris

 

[mtindor]

Drive over them with a car. They are garbage Well, maybe not garbage, but of limited use. I'm sure there is still a lot to hear in WV on analog.

mike

 

[richardbritt]

I was in Elkins in Randolph County last fall and you can still listen to lots of stuff on vhf hi band and some fire department communications on low band. I am not familiar with locations that were dispatched so I may have been listening to neighboring counties. I usually travel from Wardensville, Moorefield, Parsons, etc to Elkins where family live and carry a P25 scanner and a analog scanner. I listen to the local, county and state law enforcement using the digital scanner and fire department stuff on a mixture of vhf low band, vhf high band and UHF relay station repeater links (the relays are fun to listen to). Don't run over those scanners just yet. I would program them with analog frequencies from surrounding counties, plus the railroad that runs out of Elkins. But a digital scanner is needed to hear the state police from my monitoring.

Enjoy

 

[noblewv70]

Thanks for the insight. I really appreciate the help. I think I'm going to load as many frequencies as I can find into the BC350A for the Upshur County area and take it to my parents in the morning. We will see how that goes.

As a side note, I just placed an order for a new Phase II P25 scanner. I thought I would treat myself to an early birthday gift. LOL I got the Uniden BCD996P2 on Amazon for $380. I have been running an older GRE PSR-600 for several years. It's been an extremely good radio. However, it's not a Phase II scanner, so I needed an excuse to replace it. LOL

 

[moochie]

Sheriff's Department has been active on SIRN for a good while. EMS has been active a while, Fire has just become active the past couple of months.