OT: radio scanner frequencies

imported post

Anyone have any sources for radio scanner frequencies? I have acquired a handheld scanner and would like to listen in on Police/EMS in Kent. I've found http://www.radioreference.com and programmed all the ValleyCom freques into my scanner, but I never hear any Kent radio traffic. I'm thinking that the frequencies might be out of date a little. I also can't find any info for the Kent school district transportation. My wife is the dispatcher for the school buses.

Also, I don't quite understand the whole concept of Trunking. My scanner is a "Double Trunking" unit. Maybe someone with the knowledge could explain this to me.

imported post

Radio Reference is the best source, although it's not complete. You can find more by googling around, using the scanner to search yourself, and FOIAing various records.

Trunking is a way of allowing multiple people to share a set of channels without interfering with each other by separating users into Talkgroups rather than radio frequencies. A controller than which frequency pair a user on a talkgroup uses every single time they key up a radio.

Not sure which valleycom frequencies you inputted, but Kent PD is on the Seattle-King County Public Safety trunking system, so that's what you want to enter. If your scanner supports Motorola Type II trunking, you ought to be able to listen in. Just find the simulcast that is strongest in your area (probably the Kind County simulcast) and roll with that. To the best of my knowledge, RR is complete for the S-KCPS system.

imported post

Thanks, that does help me. My scanner does support 3 different types of trunking systems, Motorola type I and II are inculuded. I'll have to read the manual again on how to set up my scanner to recieve the trunking signals.

imported post

http://www.interceptradio.com/intercept/

imported post

intercepts old, radio ref has up to date

imported post

Really? What about Intercept is old? Keep in mind I'm a mod over there, and we've been filling the database like crazy. Seems a bunch of stuff we've been putting in recently had just shown up on RR.com...Wonder how?

imported post

Stoked wrote:

Really? What about Intercept is old? Keep in mind I'm a mod over there, and we've been filling the database like crazy. Seems a bunch of stuff we've been putting in recently had just shown up on RR.com...Wonder how?

Click to expand...

Steilacoom, Gig Harbor, and and Lakewood are no longer on Sheriff West, they moved to Tacoma's trunked system. I don't remember what the talkgroup IDs are though.

Also:

Tacoma has migrated to a trunked 800Mhz system. See the frequency link above for the frequencies.

Click to expand...

But then all the freqs listed above are in the 460MHz area. How can they migrate to an 800MHz trunked system on 460.150MHz?

This morning they're using 868.250MHz as the control channel, there are a few others too.

imported post

The info is all there; it's just the way it's laid out that makes it harder than average to find. We're working on that.

http://www.interceptradio.com/intercept/sbc.php?scountry=US&sstate=WA&scounty=Pierce

See, for example, how a lot of the talkgroups are in the wrong places? We're working on a new interface to fix that. Too many people with access to database entry made up their 'own rules' on what went where.

I personally like how someone put Lakewood PD CID-1 under 'Other'.

imported post

Mainsail wrote:

But then all the freqs listed above are in the 460MHz area. How can they migrate to an 800MHz trunked system on 460.150MHz?

Click to expand...

The Tacoma TRS freqs are their; someone put them under Local Governement. There has been serious debate on the admin side as to the value of keeping the old legacy freqs, so they're in the DB for now. The way the DB outputs to the screen when you click that link isn't the best...

BTW- I heard Gig Harbor on West the other day...When did they switch?

imported post

I spent the day researching scanners, and the biggest thing I learned is that I have a lot more learning to do.

OnceI buy a new scanner, what is the best way to program it? If I obtain a software program that can download programming information from the Internet, is that reliable information? Or, is it better to program the beast manually. It looks like programming may be the most difficult part of operating a scanner.

imported post

Ajetpilot wrote:

I spent the day researching scanners, and the biggest thing I learned is that I have a lot more learning to do.

OnceI buy a new scanner, what is the best way to program it? If I obtain a software program that can download programming information from the Internet, is that reliable information? Or, is it better to program the beast manually. It looks like programming may be the most difficult part of operating a scanner.

Click to expand...

http://www.scannermaster.com

Look at the information posted there. They have reviews and a lot of information on different scanners.

imported post

Ps- I'm editting the main Pierce County page right now. I'll be doing this over the next few days, so check back.

imported post

Pierce County is about half updated, see link below. I put in some of the talkgroups for Tacoma that I know exist but don't have the decimal identifiers for yet, mostly as placeholders. Lakewood PD is updated as well; I'm going to revamp the page entirely soon to divvy it up into City (PD/FD/DPW/misc), County, Misc.

Thoughts?

http://www.interceptradio.com/intercept/slocal.php?disp=1&country=US&state=WA&county=Pierce

imported post

If you really want to know... Just find a business line number for ValleyCom, and call them and ask for the tech department. Most of the radio guys will give your the freq's you need.