Recent Posts

Roy, Thanks for your input. Your information was 100% accurate. I was able to ask the Chief at the firehouse last night about the changeover. They are going digital next year. He was unsure if the County Fire Dispatch (46.46mhz) would change as well. Since this freq has the alert tones. I also read on the Baltimore County Government website that the work has already started on the new system. Police and fire along with county road maintainance and other agencies would change over. Again, thanks for your input and great job on this forum!     wavfc27

1. Yes, any trunking scanner will allow you lock onto the talkgroup or talkgroups of your choosing.

2. Baltimore County is in fact in the process of converting to a digtal radio system.  They are building out a series of new towers to support that system and the most recent information was that expected completion is fall of 2010.  Once the changeover happens, analog scanners will no longer work.  If I was purchasing a scanner now, I would go with a digital one so that I would be ready when the change over to digital happens late next year.

As far as which digital scanner, much depends on whether you want a portable or desktop/mobile and what features are important to you.  The GRE PSR-500 or PSR-600 ( http://www.scannertainment.com/GREMain.aspx ) will be a bit less expensive and in many cases will provide a better sound on simulcast digital systems like Baltimore County is going to be using.  The Uniden Bearcat BCD396XT or BCD996XT ( http://www.scannertainment.com/UnidenMain.aspx ) cost a bit more but have more features as well, like gps integration the ability to change display colors. 

Feel free to call anytime to discuss your specific needs at 410-757-1676.

Great site! Just a few questions. Years ago I would spend hours listening to the County police in my area, actually when it was on 39.44mhz. After the 800mhz changeover I lost intrest. Now recently getting back into the hobby. Heres my question: Can the trunking scanners lock into the local area I'd like to monitor? I love to listen to the live feeds here but when I do purchase the trunking model scanner would I be able to lock into a particular "talkgroup" for instance "Towson" or just "Parkville"? Also, I heard that Baltimore County Police upgraded their in-car Computers.. Is there any word on them changing over the radio system to Digital or an "Intranet" system? Once again, great site! Hope someone can advise me of the correct scanner to purchase. Thanks, Wavfc27

Yes.  Fox (short for foxtrot) is the code word used for any of the department's fleet of helicopters.

http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2005/12/09/Features/Patroling.The.Streets.Of.Baltimore.From.Above-2242459.shtml

http://www.alea.org/photogallery/detail.asp?rid=13&photoid=109&gid=57

The first feed went up at the end of February this year.  So you are in fairly early. 

In my opinion, if you want to hear the most "action", you might find that Baltimore City has the most going on at any given moment.  And if you just want to hear the most arrests per hour, you might try the Ocean City Police on Friday and Saturday nights as the drunk partying teenagers get collected off the streets. 

Baltimore also has some interesting dispatcher to police officer conversations. Good times Now I can finally tell what's going on with the helicopters flying around.

Hey Roy, side question, the Baltimore Police at one point mentioned seeing if they could get "Fox" out to assist (I think.) Would that be one of the Police helicopters?

Ahh totally forgot about the MSP still being on the ancient systems....are they going digital anytime soon?

Not to my knowledge. 

There are areas where they have a simulcast on the County system.  For instance, we can get the Glen Burnie Barrack on the Anne Arundel system and the Rockville Barrack on the Montgomery County system.  But the problem with adding that channel to the feeds is it interferes with what people want to follow with the county police.  We tried that for a while on the Montgomery feed but eventually took it down due to listener complaints.  And to break it out separately would require a separate scanner/server and there just isn't enough demand for individual barracks to make that happen.

Ahh totally forgot about the MSP still being on the ancient systems....are they going digital anytime soon?

MSP Where?  That's the problem.  Since there is no statewide system, we would need a scanner in the vicinity of each barrack we wanted to cover.  And there just isn't much demand for any individual barrack.  As an aside though, during the "off season" we are broadcasting the MSP Berlin barrack as part of the Ocean City Feed.

Insofar as the colleges go, I agree that they would be interesting and I have been giving it some thought.  I just have to decide if there would be enough interest for the investment in equipment to do it.  I would think if we did it, it would be UMPD at College Park as they are by far the busiest.

As far as the next to be added, I have been thinking about Howard County and Harford County. We could add Queen Annes, Talbot and Caroline in one fell swoop since they are all on the same system. I have no idea which one(s) would be next. I am certainly open to suggestion though.
 

Just curious if MSP will ever be added?

Also, I was thinking a channel with misc colleges police depts (towson, umd) would be interesting, especially on weekends. But I don't know how popular that would be. Do you have an order or idea of the next depts being added?


But amazing site, kudos

Hi Liz, amazing you used to be actually doing this job? What are you doing in Australia? Seems we have members scattered all over the world.
I just love listening to these feeds in bed at night .
Cheers...lee...in England
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