Well, there isn't really much to it.
Our local city services, IE police, fire, EMS, city works, transit and
various other agencies all use an EDACS trunking system. The police use
provoice digital with and without incription.
All dispatch and general communications are in conventional analogue
trunking, but allot of the jucier stuff is done with provoice...and the best
stuff is incripted.
No scanner yet will decode provoice digital. So, in order to hear the
unincripted communications using provoice with my local police department, I
have to use a commercial radio with the provoice option...then I have to
program it with the correct data which comes to me from a ham friend. I
cannot listen to incripted comms due to the incription codes and no one
really having any external access to that info. Anything super sensative is
done over cell phones anyway.
Either way, I have an M/A com ericson jaguar 700P commercial hand held to
listen to both conventional and provoice comms...it's a heavy duty mill spec
water proof, impact resistent HT which is also used by our local Fire
department. Transmit is disabled of course...a few grand brand new, but I
got it for just over 200 on ebay.
There is also the LPE-200 which is a much smaller compact HT with provoice
capability...though the provoice option has to be installed for it to work.
Anyway, these commercial HT's make good scanners because they are so
durable...their scan rate is a bit slower than an actual scanner, but they
also have amazing receivers because they are built specifically for the
frequencies they work on.
A scanner tends to be a bit deaf because it has such a wide receive
capability.
My 700P will receive digital 6 floors below ground where my scanner can't
even hear the conventional comms.
73
Colin, V A6BKX
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Ron Miller" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 10:03 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: PSR Edit
> I'd like to know more about that, when you have time to write me.
>
> Tnx,
>
> Ron Miller
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Colin McDonald
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 12:01 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: PSR Edit
>
> maybe some day these guys will be able to implement provoice into a
> scanner...until then I'm stuck with commercial portibles off ebay...not so
> bad since they make one hell of a good scanner lol.
>
> 73
> Colin, V A6BKX
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 9:23 PM
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: PSR Edit
>
>> Sounds good Ron, I mainly use WindowEyes, but have JAWS 11,or is it
>> 12, not sure. Should be around this weekend. 73 and thanks, Jim
>> WA6EKS
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ron Miller
>> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 8:09 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: PSR Edit
>>
>> Hi Jim,
>> Though I have addressed some of this in my post to the list, maybe we
>> can get together on SKYPE, since I don't yet have antennas up. Perhaps
>> on a weekend?
>>
>> Ron Miller
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: For blind ham radio operators
>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Jim Gammon
>> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2014 2:34 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: PSR Edit
>>
>> Ron, I would also like to know how you are using PSR Edit. I have
>> only poked around a bit with it but mainly use it to upload files sent
>> from a friend. Jim WA6EKS
>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>From: Ron Miller <[log in to unmask]
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Date sent: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 11:27:13 -0400
>>>Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>
>>>Hi ,
>>>Yes it does decode P25.
>>
>>>Also, Jim, I am most definitely not saying that we should
>> discourage Whistle=
>>>r from designing accessibility features into their scanner
>> receivers. Quite t=
>>>he contrary, I am all for it. In fact, I had begun a dialog with
>> the folks a=
>>>t GRE America on this very subject.
>>
>>>The intent of my post was simply to respond to a previous message
>> about Whis=
>>>tler's current scanner line and to say that I'm successfully
>> using the PSR-5=
>>>00 along with PSREdit and the Whistler version of this scanner
>> should be equ=
>>>ally usable.
>>
>>>BTW, Russ, if we can work out a time, I would be glad to chat
>> with you about=
>>> how I use PSREdit.
>>
>>>73,
>>
>>>Ron Miller
>>>N6MSA
>>
>>>Ron Miller
>>
>>>> On Aug 14, 2014, at 10:11 AM, Russ Kiehne <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>>=20
>>>> Does the psr500 do p25?
>>>>=20
>>>>> On 8/13/2014 8:42 PM, Jim Gammon wrote:
>>>>> Ron, how do you deal with the scanner when the display says nothing
>>>>> enabled? I really think they could do a better job, even with the
>>>>> beeps. I have owned a PSR500 scanner since 2010, and, while I can
>>>>> work it, I have never figured out how to use PSR
>> Edit
>>>>> to program it, even when a friend sends me files of frequencies
>> I
>>>>> want. I can upload that file which works great, and can set the
>>>>>scanner on a given talk group, but there is much that I wish I
>>>>>could do. Given that Whistler is developing new scanners, why
>>>>>should we discourage them from making them more accessible then
>>>>>they are which is not much at all in my opinion. Jim WA6EKS
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>>> From: Ron Miller <[log in to unmask]
>>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>>> Date sent: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 22:34:26 -0400
>>>>>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>> Check out the Whistler models available. I own and very
>>>>> successfully use the
>>>>>> GRE PSR-500, the original version of the current Whistler
>>>>> handheld. I use
>>>>>> the PSR500 Edit software and the scanner's included USB cable.
>> I
>>>>> can program
>>>>>> the scanner and configure it exactly the way I want it to be. I
>>>>> can then use
>>>>>> it very well in the field. I find it very accessible, even
>>>>> though it does
>>>>>> not have speech output. Speech is not the only way to
>>>>> successfully use a
>>>>>> piece of comm. gear, so don't let the lack of speech detour
>> you.
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> 73
>>>>>=20
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> Ron Miller
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: For blind ham radio operators
>>>>> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>>>>>> On Behalf Of Matthew Chao
>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 10:29 AM
>>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> Hi, Martin. I'm looking for an accessible scanner; any current
>>>>> ideas? And
>>>>>> what about using USB interfaces instead of serial ones, as many
>>>>> systems no
>>>>>> longer come with serial ports, and the USB-TO-serial adapters
>> can
>>>>> be a
>>>>>> little sketcy.--Matt, N1IBB.
>>>>>=20
>>>>>> At 10:14 AM 8/13/2014, you wrote:
>>>>>>> Another useful feature is when one can communicate with
>>>>> a
>>>>>>> scanner or transceiver via serial interface. I have two Uniden
>>>>>>> scanners. One is now eleven years old and has a rather turse
>>>>> command
>>>>>>> set that one can access via a terminal program much the way you
>>>>> can
>>>>>>> access one of the old telephone dial-up modems. All the
>>>>> characters must
>>>>>>> be upper case and all the replies are also in upper case but you
>>>>> can
>>>>>>> read the display, setup trunking systems, etc. The only problem
>>>>> is that
>>>>>>> the Motorola SmartZone trunking is now unusable since the new
>>>>> rebanded
>>>>>>> frequency plans can not be fed in to the scanner as a flash
>>>>> upgrade
>>>>>>> since the
>>>>>>> bc780 does not have that capability.
>>>>>>> It is, however, accessible since the command set and
>>>>> responses
>>>>>>> are all plain ASCII text.
>>>>>>> That sort of access is much appreciated. I also have
>>>>> another
>>>>>>> Uniden which was made around 2008. It does P25 and the new
>>>>> rebanded
>>>>>>> Motorola trunking just fine.
>>>>>>> It also has an ASCII command set and is potentially
>>>>> totally
>>>>>>> accessible but one needs to either be running one of the Windows
>>>>>>> programs that talk to your scanner or you must be willing to
>>>>> write your
>>>>>>> own communications program in C or perl. I am a Linux user so
>>>>> that is
>>>>>>> kind of par for the course.
>>>>>>> For the BCD996 and the BCD396, the commands and
>>>>> responses are
>>>>>>> still ASCII but they use CSV or Comma-Separated Variable
>> strings.
>>>>> These
>>>>>>> are sometimes hugely long lines of text in which each field is
>>>>>>> separated from it's neighbors by a , so a string for input or
>>>>> output
>>>>>>> might look like 1,01453500,1,,,3,2,7,K5SRC Stillwater
>>>>> Repeater,14,0,9
>>>>>>> That is not a valid entry anywhere, but it is an example
>>>>> of
>>>>>>> what a CSV string looks like. You see them all the time in
>>>>> business
>>>>>>> applications that may be used with spread sheets and tables.
>>>>>>> One of my next home projects is to take the C program I
>>>>> wrote
>>>>>>> for the BCD996 and try to re-do it in perl as I may get it to do
>>>>> more
>>>>>>> than it presently does.
>>>>>>> I would sure like to see more radios that have some sort
>>>>> of
>>>>>>> electronic input and output like the Kenwoods and several
>> others.
>>>>> To
>>>>>>> me, that is almost as good as having speech boards in the radio
>>>>> which,
>>>>>>> of course, is the holy grail but may not have as much mass
>> appeal
>>>>> as
>>>>>>> being able to interface with a serial port on a computer or
>> maybe
>>>>> a web
>>>>>>> interface.
>>>>>>> Let's hope that this period of totally inaccessible
>>>>> technology
>>>>>>> is ending and we just might be able to really use some of this
>>>>> stuff
>>>>>>> again.
>>>>>>> I remember the first truly inaccessible piece of amateur
>>>>> radio
>>>>>>> gear I encountered. It was in the mid seventies and was a
>>>>> two-meter
>>>>>>> transceiver that had an Up and Down button pair for frequency,
>> no
>>>>>>> direct entry and no way to get to a known state except for that
>>>>> stupid
>>>>>>> little LED display. If you could even get it to start at
>> 144.000
>>>>> MHZ,
>>>>>>> do you really want to count in 5 KHZ steps up to say, 147.925
>> and
>>>>> hope
>>>>>>> there were no key bounces or missed presses?
>>>>>>> The guy in the store said, I don't think there is any
>>>>> way you
>>>>>>> can use that and he was absolutely right. Don't you just hate
>>>>> that?
>>>>>=20
>>>>>>> 73 Martin McCormick WB5AGZ
>>>>>=20
>>>>>>> Jim Gammon writes:
>>>>>>>> John, I have been corresponding with the Whistler group
>>>>>>>> regarding there trunked scanners. Thought you would like to
>>>>> read
>>>>>>>> the latest. Jim
>>>>> .
>>>>>=20
|
