I'm moving from Texas to Chicago in a few weeks (I'll be living in the
city, not one of the suburbs). I assumed that the Public Service (PD,
Fire, EMS, etc.) in a city of that size would have to be trunked. But,
while I was there on a pre-move visit a couple of weeks ago, I called
a local Rat Shack, and the clerk told me that only the Illinois State
Police is trunked.

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)? I know that there's more than one type of
trunking system in use today, but beyond that, I'm a clueless newbie.

Thanks!

Paul

--

Paul Carter )

"There is only one boss: The Customer. And he can fire everybody
in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his
money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

http://www.radioreference.com/

GB

Paul Carter wrote:

I'm moving from Texas to Chicago in a few weeks (I'll be living in the
city, not one of the suburbs). I assumed that the Public Service (PD,
Fire, EMS, etc.) in a city of that size would have to be trunked. But,
while I was there on a pre-move visit a couple of weeks ago, I called
a local Rat Shack, and the clerk told me that only the Illinois State
Police is trunked.

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)? I know that there's more than one type of
trunking system in use today, but beyond that, I'm a clueless newbie.

Thanks!

Paul

--

Paul Carter )

"There is only one boss: The Customer. And he can fire everybody
in the company, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his
money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

In article ,
Paul Carter wrote:

I'm moving from Texas to Chicago in a few weeks (I'll be living in the
city, not one of the suburbs). I assumed that the Public Service (PD,
Fire, EMS, etc.) in a city of that size would have to be trunked. But,
while I was there on a pre-move visit a couple of weeks ago, I called
a local Rat Shack, and the clerk told me that only the Illinois State
Police is trunked.

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)? I know that there's more than one type of
trunking system in use today, but beyond that, I'm a clueless newbie.


The main dispatch for CPD is on 460.xxx conventional repeaters, 13
"Zones" and 7 "Citywides". There are a couple simplex UHF tac channels
as well.

CPD also has a Motorola Type II analog trunked system for detectives,
surveillance, special details etc.

CFD is dispatched on 2 VHF repeaters for Fire and 2 UHF repeaters for
EMS. They are working (slowly) on a UHF T-Band Astro system but that
will be a while yet...

There is also some specialty trunked systems around, such as an 800 MHz.
analog at O'Hare for city ops like Police and Fire.

The State Police used a pair of 10 channel EDACS analog trunked systems.
Cook County Sheriff is in the process of deploying an Astro 800 MHz.
trunked system. Suburban police are mostly on UHF T-Band for police and
VHF for fire, but there are several analog and digital 800 MHz. trunked
systems in the area.

Go to www.carmachicago.com for more info, and if you join the
CarmaChicago Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/carmachicago/
you can download a complete pdf file detailing all the Chicago
operations. You can also email me direct and I will send you the files
you want.

Enjoy!

Rich Carlson, N9JIG
rich at n9jig dot com

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 10:43:40 -0600, Paul Carter
said in rec.radio.scanner:

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)?

A RS Pro-97 or Uniden 246 will do. Or, if you want to prepare for
digital in the future, a RS Pro-96 or Uniden 396. (I'm assuming
hand-held. Everything but the 396 comes in mobile flavors too.) The
SP system is digital, so if that's important to you ("important", as
in a couple of hundred dollars more) your choices are the Pro-96 (or
2096 mobile), the Uniden 396 or, if you want computer control, digital
and mobile, the Uniden 996 which a) won't be out for a few months and
b) will carry a price tag near $900.

You have to decide whether you want analog-only/analog-digital,
computer control or just computer programming, fire tone-out (Uniden
only), frequency counter (Uniden only), etc. Look at all the specs,
and the prices (RS has in-store reductions on at least the Pro-97 -
maybe the 96 also - through the middle of December, but only in-store,
not on line), and decide which one best suits your needs,
reception-wise, feature-wise and price-wise.

Remember, only you can prevent ... er ... make the choice.

In article ,
Al Klein wrote:

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 10:43:40 -0600, Paul Carter
said in rec.radio.scanner:

Is this information accurate? If so, what type of trunk-tracking
scanner do I need to buy to pick up the S.P. (and the C.P.D. / C.F.D.,
etc., if necessary)?

A RS Pro-97 or Uniden 246 will do. Or, if you want to prepare for
digital in the future, a RS Pro-96 or Uniden 396. (I'm assuming
hand-held. Everything but the 396 comes in mobile flavors too.) The
SP system is digital, so if that's important to you ("important", as
in a couple of hundred dollars more) your choices are the Pro-96 (or
2096 mobile), the Uniden 396 or, if you want computer control, digital
and mobile, the Uniden 996 which a) won't be out for a few months and
b) will carry a price tag near $900.

You have to decide whether you want analog-only/analog-digital,
computer control or just computer programming, fire tone-out (Uniden
only), frequency counter (Uniden only), etc. Look at all the specs,
and the prices (RS has in-store reductions on at least the Pro-97 -
maybe the 96 also - through the middle of December, but only in-store,
not on line), and decide which one best suits your needs,
reception-wise, feature-wise and price-wise.

Remember, only you can prevent ... er ... make the choice.

The State Police system is still analog EDACS, no digital at all.

It is true however that eventually the ISP system will migrate to the
digital StarCom system but the Chicago area will be the last to go, not
likely to occur until at least 2008.

Currently only the McLean County area (Bloomington/Normal) is actively
using StarCom, some other downstate sites are in testing phase.