New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

This is the place to discuss generalized scanner questions and information for San Diego County. Whether it's radios, antennas, or other general scanner related topics, you can talk about it here.
Post Reply
jatooley
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:03 pm

New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by jatooley »

Hello, I tried to find this topic in the Forums but was not able to. Apologies if a thread like this already exists?

I find it fascinating that if news breaks almost anywhere, Houston, Florida, St Louis, etc.I can go to Radio Reference or my phone app and listen in on the emergency. However, when a siren goes off in my city (Oceanside), there are no feeds available!

Oceanside used to have its own channel on Radio Reference, but that was replaced by a joint North County channel. However, this channel disappeared months or maybe even a year ago.

I wish to purchase a Police Scanner so I can listen in, and possibly look into streaming in the future.

My main questions are:

1) Where is a good place to purchase a Digital Trunk Scanner in San Diego County.. I'll drive whatever it takes
2) What is the best Police Scanner to listen to the community in question (Oceanside)
3) Is it even possible to listen to Oceanside. (I went to Harbor Days at the Harbor this last weekend and spoke to a dispatcher with OPD and she told me it's not possible but I find that hard to believe.


Eagerly awaiting any answers and thanks for taking the time to read my post!
Brian
Posts: 1459
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:54 pm

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by Brian »

Local store: Ham Radio Outlet: San Diego
The store will have something on display for the customer to look at and play with it.
https://www.hamradio.com/locations.cfm?storeid=4

Look for scanners that can do P25 Phase II. RCS next system will support P25 Phase II.
Decide what type of scanner you want. handheld or mobile/desktop.

Uniden P25 Phase II scanners.
Built in RadioReference database: BCD436HP,BCD536HP, Home Patrol 2. (Need window computer to to run the uniden scanner programming software for updates,etc)
These you have to program with windows software or by hand. BCD996P2,BCD325P2
http://www.uniden.com/radio-scanners

Whistler P25 Phase II scanners
Built in RadioReference database: TRX-1 , TRX-2 and some other older models also do P25 Phase II
https://whistlergroup.com/collections/scanner-radios

Online Stores: http://www.hamstation.com , http://www.zipscanners.com , http://www.scannermaster.com , http://www.bearcatwarehouse.com , Amazon and Ebay.

For business listening and some hospitals, Homeowner association, etc..
All the above scanners can do DMR except for Home Patrol 2. TRX-1 & TRX-2 is the only scanner models that can do NXDN.
Uniden doesn't support NXDN digital mode at this time.

Oceanside police dispatch is in the clear.

My opinion: BCD996P2 and BCD325P2 Works very good and easy to make changes by hand out in the field, hotel, trips, etc...
jatooley
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:03 pm

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by jatooley »

Thank you for the reply and excellent advice. I tried to see if there was a response later that day, but was on my phone and could not log onto the forums. I just remembered to check for a reply on the computer I signed up to the forum on!
megahertz440
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 2:19 am

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by megahertz440 »

My opinion: BCD996P2 and BCD325P2 Works very good and easy to make changes by hand out in the field, hotel, trips, etc...
Brian, Do you have any recommendations for BCD996P2 programming software? And suggestions on setting up Groups, etc?
Thanks in advance.
Brian
Posts: 1459
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:54 pm

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by Brian »

ProScan or Butel software are the only two programming software for those models that will do everything. The abandoned FreeScan will work except for DMR programming.

ProScan is Made in California :)

500 talkgroups per system.

Groups list: few for Fire, Sheriff/Police, few Mutual Aid lists, etc...
(Only 10 groups can be turned On/Off quickly with the keypad)
The other groups can hold talkgroups that doesn't get used very often or don't need any quick key.

Dynamically Allocated Channel Memory - organized into 'Systems', 'Sites', (within trunking systems), 'Groups' (within systems), and channels (within groups). Up to 500 systems, 1,000 total sites (max 256 per system), 20 groups per system, and 25,000 channels (500 max IDs or 1,000 frequencies per system).
http://marksscanners.com/996xt/996xt.shtml
Csd10100
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:25 pm

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by Csd10100 »

Hi I was curious what model of scanner to get due to the new changes in San Diego. The digital is no longer working can you explain what took place.
Brian
Posts: 1459
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:54 pm

Re: New User wants to be able to be able to listen to local emergency:Oceanside

Post by Brian »

Hi,

Sounds like you just need to reprogram the site info due to rebanding. See the rebanding notes in this first post. It will bring back your older scanners to life again.
https://forums.radioreference.com/san-d ... mming.html

The rebanding frequencies listed on the RCS page.
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=499
http://www.scandiego.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1581

Uniden 800mhz Rebanding Table
GRE/RS/WHISTLER 800mhz Rebanding Table
http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Rebanding

The next newest scanner to be released is the Uniden SDS100.
Looks like it's going to be released around June.

Whistler will be releasing some info in May about something.
Post Reply