OHIOSCAN
Member
The DB shows Westcomm Ch-3 as 13514, tonight R.River working an incident and is referring 13509 as Ch-3
Westcomm Ch-3?
- Thread starter OHIOSCAN
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It's possible that "Channel 3" is a different talkgroup specific to a single agency or group of agencies. This is pretty common in areas where there's a standard template with specific channels reserved for each agency. For example:
Channel 1 - Fire Dispatch (shared common talkgroup)
Channel 2 - Fireground (shared common talkgroup)
Channel 3 - Local Ops (agency specific talkgroup)
Channel 4 - Interop (shared common talkgroup)
And so on. . .
Figuring it out often requires quite a bit of detective work in the form of extensive monitoring, especially with local channels which aren't used as much. Luck helps too.
Rhadamanth
Newbie
Newbie here. Got a used BCD436 and while I pick up Cleveland PD and various other things, I haven't been able to get any of the Westshore suburbs tonight (where I live). Heard a bit of stuff from Lakewood, but not much, and nothing else.
Wondered if those of you who listen more often could comment on how active they are. Wondering if it is a slow night or operator error...
Wondered if those of you who listen more often could comment on how active they are. Wondering if it is a slow night or operator error...
OHIOSCAN
Member
Probable need a tweak to your setup, Westshore is pretty busy, could pull up the streaming feed to compare
Swipesy
Member
The following are very active here in Western Geauga -
13503 Westcom Fd
13509 Westcom Fd
13570 Lakewood Pd
13579 Westlake Pd
13611 Westshore Pd
13619 Westshore Pd
59685 Lakewood Fd
13503 Westcom Fd
13509 Westcom Fd
13570 Lakewood Pd
13579 Westlake Pd
13611 Westshore Pd
13619 Westshore Pd
59685 Lakewood Fd
budevans
Member
Westshore (PD) and Westcom (Fire) are on the MARCS-IP system.
Cleveland PD is on the GCRCN system.
Both MARCS-IP and GCRCN are very busy systems. If you are trying to monitoring everything on both systems, you are definitely missing traffic.
You need to decide what you want to listen to (monitor). In the case of the 436 you can Avoid (lock out) traffic you don't want to hear. Or your other option would be to setup Favorites Lists for each system. Just include the Talk Groups you want to monitor in each Favorites List.
Note: A Favorites List is Unidens name for a customized scanning list.
Rhadamanth
Newbie
Thanks guys. I did a favorite for just MARCS Cuyahoga county. As far as west side goes, I've picked up some Lakewood and the rare (what seems to be) Westlake. No Bay Village at all that I could tell.
I did pull an internet feed, and while there wasn't a ton more in the time period, I did seem to be missing some Westshore/Westcom. No clue why.
I've been trying to get up to speed (didn't know what RID was until today, for example), to give you pros an idea of where I am... or more correctly, where I am not!
I did pull an internet feed, and while there wasn't a ton more in the time period, I did seem to be missing some Westshore/Westcom. No clue why.
I've been trying to get up to speed (didn't know what RID was until today, for example), to give you pros an idea of where I am... or more correctly, where I am not!
Swipesy
Member
It takes time to master the complexity of the modern public service radio systems. To complicate matters, multiple communities have joined together under a single dispatch center and shared talkgroup(s). Westlake and Bay Village are quite active within the shared talkgroup. Unless you listen carefully for a unit number or recognize a location of an incident it is difficult to sort it out. In my case, I have programmed in many, many radio ID' s that display on my scanner screen so I know who is using these combined community talkgroups. All fun of the hobby.
MARCS-IP can be very difficult to monitor depending on your location. I had to experiment with different antenna’s and antenna locations in my house before I could get clear undistorted reception of MARCS-IP systems and I still have issues at times especially with Lakewood and Chagrin Valley Dispatch. Good Luck 
Bay is nowhere near as busy as Westlake which is probably why you didn't hear them. I know that the WFD has at least 4x the call volume compared to Bay Fire. This time of year Bay is lucky to get 5 calls a day. As for PD traffic it really isn't even comparable. WPD has way, way, way more traffic than Bay. Bay, River, and Fairview PDs are known to "silent dispatch" a lot also.
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