Williamsburg Scanning Help

[SurgePGH]

Hello all,
We will be heading into Williamsburg, VA for about a week. We are travelling from Pittsburgh, PA. A few questions.....

What frequencies or trunked systems should I be monitoring while travelling through VA? State Police, Fire Rescue, EMS.

What should I be monitoring while in Williamsburg?

I am using a Pro-2096 scanner.

I see there is a statewide trunked system but my scanner will not hold all of the frequencies in one bank AND I don't think I can add all of the talkgroups with out running out of space.

Any help with this would be great.

Thanks in advance for your time.

Dave

 

[DrWhoVa]

Most the the Williamsburg/James City/York/Glo. system is encrypted, with the encryption controlled, from some reports, by the unit in the field.

 

[fredva]

I hope you enjoy your visit to Virginia. I'm not familiar with programming the 2096, but hopefully you can program in frequencies for just the towers you'll be around, and the state police talkgroups.

Here is a map of the VA STARS towers: STARS - Google Maps

Find the towers that will be in the vicinity of your travel route, get the towers from the RR database, and program in just the frequencies for those towers. Use the RR database to pick out the state police talkgroups for the area you'll be passing through and staying in. For the Willamsburg area itself, I think it would be close to the border of the state police Chesapeake Division and the Richmond Division, so I'd recommend Chesapeake 1, 2, and 3 talkgroups and Richmond 1, 2, and 3 talkgroups. Coming from the north, you'll probably pass through the Fairfax Division or the Culpeper Division or both, so program in those patrol talkgroups as well.

 

[SurgePGH]

I hope you enjoy your visit to Virginia. I'm not familiar with programming the 2096, but hopefully you can program in frequencies for just the towers you'll be around, and the state police talkgroups.

Here is a map of the VA STARS towers: STARS - Google Maps

Find the towers that will be in the vicinity of your travel route, get the towers from the RR database, and program in just the frequencies for those towers. Use the RR database to pick out the state police talkgroups for the area you'll be passing through and staying in. For the Willamsburg area itself, I think it would be close to the border of the state police Chesapeake Division and the Richmond Division, so I'd recommend Chesapeake 1, 2, and 3 talkgroups and Richmond 1, 2, and 3 talkgroups. Coming from the north, you'll probably pass through the Fairfax Division or the Culpeper Division or both, so program in those patrol talkgroups as well.

I am blown away! Thank you very much. You have started the wheels turning on something totally different now. How was that map done? I travel a good bit and if the states I traveled were mapped like that to find out which towers to program.... Good grief that would save a ton of time! West Virginia uses the WVIRP system and there are so many towers it makes it hard to determine which ones to program. Maryland is another state that I am working on as well. Thank you, again, for the information.

 

[KLO5078]

Pesky 2.5 step

Your pro 2096 requires software like win96 for the custom tables listed for Virginia stars. You cannot enter the 2.5 step from the key pad - if you have it you are good to go. Traveling from Fairfax county use TG 1 and 2 then use Culpeper 1 for Stafford and Spotsylvania counties.

 

[SurgePGH]

Your pro 2096 requires software like win96 for the custom tables listed for Virginia stars. You cannot enter the 2.5 step from the key pad - if you have it you are good to go. Traveling from Fairfax county use TG 1 and 2 then use Culpeper 1 for Stafford and Spotsylvania counties.

I do have the Win96. When I D/L from RR do I still have to type the custom table or does it auto populate?

 

[fredva]

I am blown away! Thank you very much. You have started the wheels turning on something totally different now. How was that map done? I travel a good bit and if the states I traveled were mapped like that to find out which towers to program.... Good grief that would save a ton of time! West Virginia uses the WVIRP system and there are so many towers it makes it hard to determine which ones to program. Maryland is another state that I am working on as well. Thank you, again, for the information.

I didn't create the map - somebody else did. It's available from the VA STARS Wiki page. The creator may have gone through FCC licenses and found the lat longs for the towers and then plotted them on the map. I agree that it would be nice if all statewide systems had maps like this.