Looks like Barron County is switching to digital

[rusty_shackleford1]

Caught this story in the Barron News Shield. Apparently the county has been in the process of upgrading their radio system, which includes a switch from analog to digital. Barron County is my home county, but I haven't lived their for a few years. Looks like I'll have to upgrade to a digital scanner so I can still listen when I go home to visit the family.

Barron News Shield - Switch to digital radio communication slated for January

 

[jpjohn]

I noticed this past weekend that Price County (155.535) is now almost 100% digital.

I wonder if this is what we are going to see to most of the counties in NW Wisconsin?

 

[1Partsman]

I live in Barron County and they are in fact going digital....F2 will be online shortly, with F1 a few months after that....there are quite a few digital systems online in this area already, but you won't find most of them listed anywhere as of now, including unlicensed, been difficult figuring it out, but with time, you can...

John

 

[bwoodfire45]

I noticed this past weekend that Price County (155.535) is now almost 100% digital.

I wonder if this is what we are going to see to most of the counties in NW Wisconsin?

Price County is 100% digital, they just still use their analog channels once an awhile. (still programmed in their radios) I helped put their system together.

 

[bwoodfire45]

Caught this story in the Barron News Shield. Apparently the county has been in the process of upgrading their radio system, which includes a switch from analog to digital. Barron County is my home county, but I haven't lived their for a few years. Looks like I'll have to upgrade to a digital scanner so I can still listen when I go home to visit the family.

Barron News Shield - Switch to digital radio communication slated for January

You might want to find out if they went to Digital Encryption or not before you spend the money on a digital scanner. Some departments are doing that so you won't hear them anyway. just an FYI.

 

[1Partsman]

they are not going encrypted, yet anyway....

 

[jpjohn]

In the case of Barron County, do you think they will most likely stay on 155.775 but go digital or will they have an entirely new frequency?

Any to be narrowband compliant, is that a modulation issue or a frequency issue?

 

[1Partsman]

they are going to stay on analog on 155.775 until sometime after the first of the year, when they turn it on, their F2 will be digital and F1 analog

 

[jpjohn]

OK. Thank you.

Can I get the frequency for F2 as I don't see one listed in the database? I'd like to program it in and maybe I can catch some testing if nothing else when I'm up north.

 

[1Partsman]

F2 for Barron is 155.430

 

[jpjohn]

Thank you very much!! I've also heard Polk on P25 occasionally. Any others up in that area that are P25 or going to be soon that you know of?

 

[1Partsman]

I think I have heard Polk on P25 on occasion...possibly encrypted, but with my antennas system I get a lot of skip so the enc may be coming from somewhere else.....there is quite a bit of P25 in this area, and if you are in the Chippewa area there is some down your way too...I pick it up when I go to EC.......Menomoniee PD uses it, SC Tribal uses it, Xcel, Washburn Cty, along with a few more that appear ready to use it too.....best thing is to set up a search for your area and see how much you find...
I live north of you about 30-40 miles....if you are in Chippewa
you can send me a PM if you want some info if I have it....
John

 

[stormy182]

I live about 7 miles north of Rice Lake in Barron County... I have a PSR-500 and haven't caught that much digital traffic yet... will the Fire Dispatch Frequencies 151.235 and153.890 go digital as well in the near future?

 

[1Partsman]

As far as I have heard, at least not right away, evidently their concern right now is to get all the squads ready so they can turn it on....they have not even received digital licenses yet for Fire and EMS

John

 

[stormy182]

Any testing heard so far on F2?

 

[1Partsman]

have not heard any testing yet, but don't sit by my radio all day long either, but have it on all the time...F2 is very active analog

John

 

[sfd119]

Barron has been testing radio stuff all day today. They knocked Rice Lake PD off for about a half hour to do "updates" and I hear radio service doing tests on Fire channels recently.

Anyone have an update? Does Fire have a second freq that they will be doing too?

 

[sfd119]

Today, I was in Barron county and heard digital on F2 with a NAC of 30. They were doing some testing on it.

 

[1Partsman]

they have been testing the equipment for a while and at times appears to be working well...a press release yesterday said there are going to be some delays getting it going because of a health issue with the engineer on the project....????? (would have thought the project would have been drawn up before they started it...it takes 'grunts' to get it built) supposed to delay it 1-2 months........strange

 

[sfd119]

Really? I haven't seen this. All I know is they had some guy on the Fire/EMS channel testing by blowing into the mic and saying test, test and then the were on F2 on digital.