I have been coined a professional speeder a few times. My gear is well worth the price. Those cheap ones work now but after the digital upgrade they will be useless. Plus the trunking systems you can hear both sides of the chatter,

 

Yeah, ours is digital and trunking although I haven't quite figured out the trunking part yet I need someone more proficient than me to give me a rundown.

-Brian

 

I can help you program it if you like.

 

Can police get discounts? haaaaa.

 

trunking is when multiple departments share a small amount of frequencies.

the way the system is arranged, anytime someone on a trunked system keys down the mic on their radio, it emits a short ID. for example... say the town's PD has an ID of 2000. the FD has an ID of 3000. the trunking system will allocate a frequency to ID 2000, lets say 121.000 (just making these up). a few seconds later, the ID 3000 keys their mic and is assigned 121.500.

then silence. ID 3000 keys again is assigned 121.000. to the end user, it's transparent. it's seamless.

but to a scanner user, who doesnt have trunking feature, will be confused. since one second, police is talking on 121.000. then a second later, the fire department. and so on.

now, an agency could an assigned lots of IDs. for example, in fremont PD, they have a few of them. from tactical, to regular everyday traffic. then you have supervisor ID, etc. and that's just the PD. combine the FD, the other city workers and you have a "mess" of a system.

http://www.scancal.org/old/alameda/fremont.html

but in theory, it aint.

that is until you get to sept 11, 2001.

i believe the communcations breakdown between all the agencies responding to that horrible incident, just plain ran out of frequencies. and there were stacked traffic where it shouldnt be.

 

In the small town of Healdsburg, they only use one frequency so it's really easy to monitor. It's the same when working a rally. I just key to that specific frequency and I'm good to go. It's just tough when I'd like to use it in other areas and I can't figure the sh*t out.

Leo, I appreciate your description and it's very helpful, but programming the damn thing is a whole other ball of wax. I really just need to sit down with someone who's more familiar with these things than I am and get it programmed.

I<3subie, I'd love to get some help figuring out how to properly program this damn thing. Maybe when I'm down that way visiting my grandma in Rossmoor I could swing by, buy some pizza and beer and we can hammer this thing out!

-Brian

 

Just let me know... I love my uniden set ups... I plug my lap top in and program my stuff.

 

Supposedly I can do that with my Radio Shack scanner too, but I haven't gotten to that stage yet. I'll get in touch when I'm heading down that way. Thanks!

-Brian

 

model and maker of scanner?

i use butel's s/w. you get a spreadsheet like screen. you then input the freqs. if trunking, you get to another screen and you define the groups and their IDs...


www.butel.nl

btw, i WONT even try to hand program a single thing on my radio. it takes like 5-10 screens worth... sheesh....

 

Probably not OK for the street, but I bet it sounds damn awesome.

 

It's a Radio Shack Pro-528

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Pro-528

Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

-Brian

 

dude...

http://www.butel.nl/products/arc433/arc433.html

spend the $30.

trust me. when i spent like $300 a few years ago for my scanner. imagine my surprise the crappy s/w that uniden ships.

people told me about the butel s/w. it was like nite and day.

once you get that s/w, see if there's a yahoo group for your scanner. butel runs their own YG but i dont see one for your scanner's s/w.

either way, i can export my set of freqs i use around the bay area or if a YG exist for your 528, chances are most people use the butel s/w and have their own data set already made up...

 

Kina on topic kinda not. In some instances due to the fabulous movie fast and the furious officers relate scanners in import vehicles to illicit street racing. Just somthing to be aware of. Could give officer reason to dig deeper. I.E. Under your hood.

 

Extremely helpful Leo!!! Looks like I'll be dropping $30 on SW and another $32.99 on the USB cable. I may be hitting you up once I get those items for a little assistance

-Brian

 

there is a law in the kalif books, saying that it is illegal to use a scanner while committing a crime...


well duh.