Which frequencies are encrypted? What can I monitor? What can I pick up in my city? What is encrypted? What can I pick up? These are common questions that we get; which we have a handy and useful website to find that information.
1. Navigate to https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/
2. We use Radio Reference to know if agencies or a department exists, on a software, or encrypted.
3. For this example, we are choosing my home state; The Spirit of America: Massachusetts!
4. The next step is to click the county that you live or are interested in.
5. You can also find your county quicker by typing in your zip code and pressing the "Retrieve" button afterwards.
6. On the Worcester page, we can see that some frequencies are still on the analog "FM" mode; but also digital due to the "P25" tag. A digital scanner will be recommended. We have more information about those two in our article: Analog, Digital, Simulcast.
7. HOLD IT! It appears that Worcester County relies on a trunked system. There will be notes about the system next to it.
8. Click "Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Interoperable Radio System (CoMIRS)"
9. Click "County" to sort their sites alphabetically. It is much easier this way.
10. HOLD IT! If you want to monitor Worcester County, then you will need the SDS100 or SDS200 due to simulcast. Read more about simulcast here.
11. As you scroll down more, you can see that the Massachusetts State Police can be heard on this system.
12. Under the "Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Interoperable Radio System (CoMIRS)", these are frequencies on that trunked system.
13. If you see the letter E (lowercase e as well) under mode, it means that the frequency is encrypted. For Worcester, we can see that the Fire Tactical channel 12 and EMS channel 3 are encrypted.
Learn more about encryption here.
14. Wait a minute! What about DMR, ProVoice/EDACS and NXDN? We also have an article that goes in-depth about these three software here: DMR, ProVoice/EDACS, and NXDN. For this example, we will go to Georgia.
15. Below, we can see that Paulding County in Georgia relies on the DMR for their countywide trunked system, but the MetroAtlanta EMS Dispatch also utilizes the NXDN software.
16. In order to get this county, I would recommend a device that can pick up both software like the SDS100 or TRX-1.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.