WS1065 programming North Carolina

[SethMcK82]

Hello all, my wife and I have been wanting a scanner for some time now to monitor the local agencies. We got one for Christmas and I sat down today to embark on the programming journey. Little did I know how complicated it was going to be. 3 hours in and my wife was beginning to wonder haha. Needless to say, I am as green as it gets to radio communications so talk like you're talking to a child.
I live in North Carolina, Henderson County. I was able to finally get the computer to recognize the scanner and get the scanner programmed using PSRedit500 with much excitement! But that excitement was short lived as soon as I started scanning. We are basically only monitoring the local dispatch & the weather. I believe everyone is on a P25 phase 1 system, some nxdn nexedge 4800 I believe. After reading the threads for over an hour I learned my scanner should receive the P25 phase 1, not sure about the nxdn. But it's not nxdne so I'm thinking it should receive that as well. So after browsing the forums and learning how complex some of the settings can be I decided to reach out. My wife wants me to just send the thing back but I've come to far to turn back now. I would also like to monitor the neighboring county Buncombe but in reading learned I may be overloading the scanner with to much to monitor? I'm also wondering if its an antenna issue, if I need a bigger/better? How far will the factory antenna receive? Looked it up on google earth, 20-30 miles max is all I need.

Here is my current programming. Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Ronaldski]

From here it shows NXDN that the Whistler cant get no matter what, Unidens with a paid upgrade can, but more importantly shows the NXDN system talkgroups are all encrypted, so scanner can get those.

Henderson County Trunking System, Hendersonville, North Carolina

Henderson County Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

For your county you could hope for is some of these in the second link are active, find out from those in the North Carolina forum. I see they are all listed as non digital, meaning any very basic scanner can get. Henderson County, North Carolina (NC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

I do see some Henderson on the state Viper phase I system that the ws1065 can get, I dont know which radio systems they normally use from here. The North Carolina forum people will know better.

North Carolina VIPER Trunking System, Varies, North Carolina

North Carolina VIPER Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Looks like they use the analog frequencies as a backup? See

Search results for query: Henderson County

forums.radioreference.com

 

[SethMcK82]

Yeah I see that now. Looks like everything is nxdn and the notes say encrypted. So does that mean, even with a scanner that can monitor nxdn it still wouldn’t work because of the encryption?

I run the search in order to pick up on any P25 traffic with no luck. Looks like Santa might be getting a return and our monitoring dreams are a bust in our area. I’ll check into the neighboring counties but not real optimistic. One is much bigger and more densely populated with a higher crime rate. Sure they’re encrypted as well

 

[hiegtx]

Hello all, my wife and I have been wanting a scanner for some time now to monitor the local agencies. We got one for Christmas and I sat down today to embark on the programming journey. Little did I know how complicated it was going to be. 3 hours in and my wife was beginning to wonder haha. Needless to say, I am as green as it gets to radio communications so talk like you're talking to a child.
I live in North Carolina, Henderson County. I was able to finally get the computer to recognize the scanner and get the scanner programmed using PSRedit500 with much excitement! But that excitement was short lived as soon as I started scanning. We are basically only monitoring the local dispatch & the weather. I believe everyone is on a P25 phase 1 system, some nxdn nexedge 4800 I believe. After reading the threads for over an hour I learned my scanner should receive the P25 phase 1, not sure about the nxdn. But it's not nxdne so I'm thinking it should receive that as well. So after browsing the forums and learning how complex some of the settings can be I decided to reach out. My wife wants me to just send the thing back but I've come to far to turn back now. I would also like to monitor the neighboring county Buncombe but in reading learned I may be overloading the scanner with to much to monitor? I'm also wondering if its an antenna issue, if I need a bigger/better? How far will the factory antenna receive? Looked it up on google earth, 20-30 miles max is all I need.

Here is my current programming. Any help is greatly appreciated

Looking at your file, the trunked system site frequencies do not appear to match the sites in your area. Some of them appear to be for sites well out of range.

As Ronaldski has noted, your scanner cannot handle Henderson County's NXDN system

There is user's a guide, found on Whistler's site, for PSREdit500.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1420/2702/files/Using_PSREdit500_6063b442-4c8f-437c-bcd5-0d5380236b0e.pdf?3520219588115478695

I threw the attached file together for the Viper system counties & sites in your county and neighboring ones. Also added conventional channels for those.

I have not gone through & separated talkgroups, as well conventional channel frequencies into individual scan lists for each county or agency. See what you can hear with this, then edit to divide them up however you see fit. More than likely, some of the channels entered would not be of interest to you, or perhaps out of range.

See if you hear more with this than on your original file.

You would get more help from people in your area if you request that this thread be moved to the North Carolina Forum. To do that, click on the Report link in the lower left hand corner of your post, and request that a moderator move the thread for you. (Don't start a duplicate thread in the state forum; just have this one moved.)

 

[brian]

Yeah I see that now. Looks like everything is nxdn and the notes say encrypted. So does that mean, even with a scanner that can monitor nxdn it still wouldn’t work because of the encryption?

I run the search in order to pick up on any P25 traffic with no luck. Looks like Santa might be getting a return and our monitoring dreams are a bust in our area. I’ll check into the neighboring counties but not real optimistic. One is much bigger and more densely populated with a higher crime rate. Sure they’re encrypted as well

Yes, this is correct. No consumer scanner will be able to receive encrypted transmission on any type of radio system. You're out of luck for the majority of public safety communications in Henderson County.

Henderson County does still use some of their VHF conventional frequencies listed on the database page. Henderson County, North Carolina (NC) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

The last time I checked, they were still dispatching Fire Department and EMS calls in the clear on 154.430 and 155.265. And you may occasionally hear traffic on the 3 old Sheriff conventional VHF repeaters. But it's few and far between. Some fire departments may occasionally use their private VHF repeaters for non-emergency traffic. Likewise, you can probably receive VHF analog transmissions from Rutherford, Buncombe, and maybe even Transylvania. This greatly depends on where specifically you're located, the surrounding topography and the antenna you're using.

If you monitor VIPER (which is P25 Phase I which your 1065 can receive), you'll hear NCSHP and some other state agencies. Medical reports to hospital ERs tends to be carried on VIPER. Depending on which site or sites you're able to receive, you may also be able to receive some traffic from adjacent counties like Polk or Rutherford. For VIPER, you'll want to try monitoring the Bearwallow and Jumpoff sites. Corbin as well, depending on where in the county you are. Each of those sites will tend to carry a different mix of talkgroups, so try each one and see what you can hear.

If you happen to become a more active hobbyist (as opposed to only being a passive listener) and decide you want to explore what else you can hear beyond public safety in your immediate area, there are likely business channels to discover, most of which aren't listed in the radioreference database. You may want to look into a scanner that supports DMR and NXDN, which tend to be more commonly used by business radio users. For example, the Asheville airport operations use a NXDN radio system that's in the clear. Hospitals and schools can be other targets. You can use the scanner you have now to monitor airplane communications.

Sorry for the bad news about encryption, but I hope you enjoy your radio.

 

[SethMcK82]

Awesome! Thank you guys for the help! I will look into the reprogramming as well as some of the custom work arounds stated in my area. I did see a lot of HP divisions, but wasn’t sure which HP was my area. Don’t really need chatter from across the state, more localized.

Thanks again!

 

[kg4ehv]

Seth welcome to the hobby, it can be lots of fun. Also if you look up GMRS and FRS, you can hear folks around the area. Sometimes it can be real funny! Good luck scanning.

 

[brian]

Awesome! Thank you guys for the help! I will look into the reprogramming as well as some of the custom work arounds stated in my area. I did see a lot of HP divisions, but wasn’t sure which HP was my area. Don’t really need chatter from across the state, more localized.

Thanks again!

You typically won't hear traffic from far away on your local site. Linked trunked radio systems like VIPER take steps to limit what is carried on a given site to only those talkgroups with radios listening to that site. This is mostly good in that it generally limits you to only hearing things in your immediate area. But it also means that what you want to hear may not be carried on the site you're monitor at all, or not all the time. As a passive listener, you have no control over which talkgroups are carried on a site at any given time. There's some trial and error and testing required over time to learn what talkgroups are carried on specific sites.

You can scan all traffic on a particular site using a "wildcard" talkgroup to get a sense of what's able to be heard. Then you can program the talkgroups that you're interested in, and lock out the wildcard talkgroup, and only hear those channels that are programmed.

 

[SethMcK82]

I added the new program. Broke it up into different scan list. Added the SHP while I was at it. Getting a little more traffic then before!

I'll continue to customize the programming as I go, hoping to get it fine tuned to line up with what you said Brian.

I'm in the mountains, I'm thinking of getting a base antenna. Any recommendations without getting expensive?

 

[kg4ehv]

Here are a couple good antenna choices.

OmniX Scanner Base Antenna

Diamond Antenna D-130J

Vertical antenna 10m-23cm discone, UHF

www.gigaparts.com

 

[brian]

I'm in the mountains, I'm thinking of getting a base antenna. Any recommendations without getting expensive?

Antennas don't care about the type of radio system (trunk or conventional) or digital vs analog or FMN vs AM. Antennas are designed based on the frequency range(s) they are designed to work best on. So to select an appropriate antenna, you have to analyze the frequencies used by the organizations you're trying to listen to.

There are quite a few antennas designed to cover a very wide bandwidth (a discone is an example) that are popular among scanner hobbyists who want to listen to frequencies over a wide range. The compromise with those antennas is they work equally "poorly" over that entire range. You can often find an antenna that works better over a smaller range/bandwidth. If you're especially interested in 700&800MHz frequencies for VIPER, you can get an antenna designed for those frequencies which will perform much better than a discone.

If you're looking for an antenna to mount outside (which is the way antennas perform best) you'll need to consider mounting and grounding in a safe manner. And you'll have to consider the coax cable used to feed signal from the antenna outside to your scanner inside. It can become a pretty major project.

Being in a mountainous region presents all sorts of challenges for radio reception. Radio systems you're looking to monitor work on "line of sight" - if you don't have a clear path between you and your target (such as a mountain in the way), you're likely going to struggle with reception. While a better antenna may help, there are some radio targets that may just be unmonitorable. Pull up a map and a compass and do some studying in terms of where you're located and what sort of obstacles are between you and what you're trying to listen to. This is all part of the scanner hobby experience, but it can be frustrating.

 

[SethMcK82]

Good to know, didn't know that. Makes sense, thank you!

 

[OnYourSix]

@SethMcK82 welcome to the group. I feel like a lot more people have Uniden scanners here and they seem much easier to program, but they may be a little more costly. The SDS100 / SDS200 is what we all use and although pricey it works well. Don't forget you might be able to hear local news crews, helicopters and aviation, fire department alerts and on-scene transmissions even though you can't hear police.