What do I need to listen in SD

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sdh600

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Hello,
Can anyone tell me what I need for a scanner to listen to police and Highway Patrol in South Dakota. I have had scanners in the past but they are pretty much useless now that the state has gone digital. I would like to purchase a new scanner but am confused as to what will work here. Any hep would be appreciated.
Thanks much.
This is a great site.
SDH600
 

rpgbigman

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You can get a Digital scanner from Radio shack. for around 500 dollars. or look on ebay. you can some times find somthing on there for 350 dollars that will work.
just depends on what you want. the pro 2096 are easier to program then the unidens from what I been told. and I think Radio shack will program your scanner for you so if your not very good at this new stuff you might want to just go to the shack. Ryan
 

loumaag

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Let me add something to the mix. The RS digital scanners (Pro-96/2096) require software to set up for monitoring the state system. They cannot be programmed without it. The only software I know that reliably works for those radios is Win96 from StarrSoft.com.

Uniden models which can be used on the system can be programmed by hand, but there are other factors to consider, such as how the radios handle multiple sites, P25 decoding ability.

My suggestion is to look around locally for others that are using radios in your area, and actually listen to them. Do some more investigating and then make a decision. $500 is nothing to sneeze at.
 

ka3jjz

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And let me add to Lou's suggestion; apart from this forum, there is a fairly active Yahoo group for South Dakota scanning - between the 2, you should be able to get a pretty wide range of opinions on which digital scanner seems to work and sound the best (which, in some cases, is a pretty subjective thing, particularly when talking about recovered audio). Here's the URL...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scansd/


73s Mike
 

rpgbigman

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Some one told me that if you go to Radio shack and buy a pro 96 or 2096 from them they will program it up for you. if you live in sioux falls it will work fine.
its the Wall Lake tower with the Extra Freq at the end you will have problems with if you want to listen to that. I would stop into Radio shack and ask them about there scanner.
I have a uniden scanner and added a Speaker plug on mine because the audio was so low. but Radio shacks scanners seem to have a little better speaker in them? From what I have heard. Ryan. Kc0WNF
 

loumaag

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rpgbigman said:
Some one told me that if you go to Radio shack and buy a pro 96 or 2096 from them they will program it up for you. if you live in sioux falls it will work fine.
its the Wall Lake tower with the Extra Freq at the end you will have problems with if you want to listen to that. I would stop into Radio shack and ask them about there scanner.
I have a uniden scanner and added a Speaker plug on mine because the audio was so low. but Radio shacks scanners seem to have a little better speaker in them? From what I have heard. Ryan. Kc0WNF
I don't know who you talked to, but I will tell you the following:
  • Don Starr (writer of Win96) the last I heard has not sold any license to RS to use his program in a commercial setting.
  • The official programming software for RS to use is ScanCat Lite.
  • ScanCat Lite does not work properly on Pro-96/2096 radios and I know from personal experience it is incapable of programming the SD TRS properly.
  • There is a Win96 setup file for the state TRS in the SDScan yahoo group's file area. It probably needs some updating, but I am sure Ed or someone current there can fix it up and bring it up to date.
  • A Pro-96/2096 will work on any tower, providing it is programmed correctly (as a matter of fact, it will work on all towers with the right programming in one bank), but you won't get that programming done at Radio Shack.
Having said all that and realizing you are new to this, let me warn you that there are individuals in South Dakota who think that it is great fun to confuse the issue and purposely will misdirect you. Mostly they will hide behind some false name, but you might note that I am using my real name and lived in SD for 18 months, much to those individuals dismay.
 

sdh600

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Thanks for all the info. This is a great site. I am very new to this digital stuff and don't understand how all of it works yet. But I will get it figured out. I do have a question about it though. Maybe a stupid question to some of you. I was talking to a local Sioux Falls fireman the other day and he told me that with the new digital radios they are able to talk to their other firefighters that were out in the black hills fighting wild fires. He also said that they can hear and talk to other departments across the state. Does that mean that with a digital scanner I can hear departments from across the state if the scanner is programed correctly? Or can I only pick what is happening locally?
Thanks
Steve Hansen
 

loumaag

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sdh600 said:
Thanks for all the info. This is a great site. I am very new to this digital stuff and don't understand how all of it works yet. But I will get it figured out. I do have a question about it though. Maybe a stupid question to some of you. I was talking to a local Sioux Falls fireman the other day and he told me that with the new digital radios they are able to talk to their other firefighters that were out in the black hills fighting wild fires. He also said that they can hear and talk to other departments across the state. Does that mean that with a digital scanner I can hear departments from across the state if the scanner is programed correctly? Or can I only pick what is happening locally?
Thanks
Steve Hansen
Steve,

A real radio is able to "affiliate" with any talk group programmed into the radio anywhere on the system. A scanner is a passive device, it must rely on real radios being affiliated with the local tower for you to hear anything on the tower. Some things are affiliated on certain towers by programming (system programming). For example, your local INT talk group (whatever is used in your area) will appear on your local tower even if no one is affiliated with the tower. This allows for real radios to "scan" the INT channel for traffic when necessary without leaving whatever talk group they are currently monitoring.

What you need to do is click on the RR Wiki link at the top of the page, go to the Trunking page and then read both the Trunking Basics and Motorola information there. It will help you to better understand how it all works.

As for listening to things that are happening across the state, if that abuse continues, eventually BIT will "enforce" radio use discipline by denying out of area talk groups on towers by system programming. Then even when there is a valid reason to talk on something from a far distance away it will be impossible. BTW, I cannot think of a valid reason for this at any time, that is one of the defined purposes of the INT channels. As BIT "gently" put it in the training manual:
The radio has the capability of monitoring traffic anywhere in the state. Keep in mind, any outside traffic imported to your area ties up local resources and lessens capacity for local users. If you do not have specific business monitoring traffic from elsewhere, please consider not practicing this.
I suspect they are less inclined to tolerate the practice these days.
 
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