Police and Fire Fequencies

[tonysqrd]

I am just starting with the scanners, so am very very new at this. I bought the BaoFeng BF-F8HP and after hours of googling I am so confused. I thought I will be able to listen to police and fire rescue radios but i cannot find a list with frequencies on my area. Maybe I am watching too much TV and this is not possible?
I am in VA, fairfax county, zip 22066. Anyone know some frequencies I can tap into? I will like to know what is happening when I hear sirens down my street.

 

[BoxAlarm187]

Unfortunately, you won't be able to listen to Fairfax on your radio. You'll need a digitally-capable scanner to do so, such as some of the models offered by Uniden, Whistler, and and Unication.

 

[BM82557]

Fairfax County - https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2848

 

[brownlab]

Unfortunately with that type of radio you will not be able to pick up much if any Fairfax County Public Safety (Police, Fire, EMS, etc.) Just about the entire DMV region has moved to digital frequencies whereas your radio operates on analog VHF/UHF. However that said, Montgomery Co Fire still uses a VHF patch on Freq 154.950 and 154.160 and153.950 which you should be able to receive from Great Falls plus MOCO fire handles the majority of the river rescues. Also, the United States Park Police still uses (or at least I think they do) 166.925. If you plan on buying a digital scanner, most of the newer radios start in the high 300 to as much as 700 dollar so please be sure to check with someone that you are buying the right radio for Fairfax. Your other option is listening online and although there are a number of sites now, Broadcastify.com which is associated with RadioRefence is the best (my opinion). I believe it is free but you can join Radio Reference for a small amount (which is advisable) for an enhanced verison. Broadcastify.com provides scanner feeds for both Fairfax Co PD and Fire which is the next best thing to owning a scanner. And lastly there is the “AOR DV1”. You can do your own research on that…lol

Good luck

 

[tonysqrd]

Thank you all so much for your replies. The keyword you revealed here for me that I missed is "digital". I will have to do some more googling to figure out what to get. I can see that the price point for the digital ones is quite high. I also downloaded a couple apps that receive over the internet. And I looked at the AOR DV1 - I am not there yet. Lots of things to read. Thanks again for your replies.!!

 

[augy]

Decent digital scanners are still available. I found a PRO 651 at a local Radio Shack (that hadn't been set to close yet lol) for a great price and there is always online shopping. My 651 is serving me quite well in central VA. The thing to remember when looking on ANY site for frequencies is the term "trunking systems". A very large part of the "public safety" radio traffic in VA, especially metro areas, is digitally trunked. These frequencies/systems are listed separately on sites like this one and others. The next thing to remember if shopping for a scanner is the programming cable you will need to program from your pc or laptop. This, along with the software download for your scanner is BY FAR the easiest way to program your new scanner. Sounds like a lot but it's really not that hard. I figured it out and I'm OLD SCHOOL !! my first scanner was crystal operated !! LOL !! BEST OF LUCK and GOOD SCANNING

 

[fredva]

I will add one more thing to augy's post: Digital trunking systems can be P25 Phase 1, P25 Phase 2, or a mixture. There are digital scanners which can only receive Phase 1, so if you are wanting to listen to Phase 2 transmissions, make sure you get a scanner which is Phase 2 compatible. (Phase 2 scanners will also handle Phase 1).

 

[tonysqrd]

Thank you augy and fredva!! This really some good info for someone like me. Thanks!!


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