Monitor Other Frequencies/Channels?

[Joeguitar]

I've been listening to the police communicate a lot lately, and I have noticed several patterns. One of the most interesting ones is this:

When a unit is called by the dispatcher from one channel (let's just say 5 for the sake of argument,) and that unit is on channel 6, said unit will always come on over chan. 5 and indicate he is on 6.

Does this mean that the unit has two seperate radios in his car, or does a good officer use his mobile radio to monitor one channel while using his car for another? Also, is it common practice for a LEO to have a general frequency scanner in his/her car (i.e. Uniden.) Thanks in advance!!
-Joe

[Switchback]

We have several channels, depending on where we are working. Having a much larger area, our channels are usually designated by what repeater we are hitting. In most cases it is of little consequence to someone at base (we don't have dispatchers).

When on local channels, most often someone will refer another to a different channel to get them to a direct channel. There are many talk-around channels that are used to talk without the entire net hearing you.

I can setup my radio to monitor those channels that I choose to monitor and can turn the scan on with a flip of the switch. I can scan the 16 channel zone that I am in or all the channels in the bank (I think about 256, total). Then we have about 5-6 banks. I pretty much stay in the one bank. The others offer generic channels for other parts of the country.

[sbrad]

We have two main channels for our road deputies: North Precinct and South Precinct. Whichever precinct you work out of dictates what channel you will use as your primary and which dispatcher you will talk to.
Sometimes one of them has a brain fart and tries to talk to you on another channel. And since I am usually scanning I will hear them.

[Joeguitar]

We have several channels, depending on where we are working. Having a much larger area, our channels are usually designated by what repeater we are hitting. In most cases it is of little consequence to someone at base (we don't have dispatchers).

When on local channels, most often someone will refer another to a different channel to get them to a direct channel. There are many talk-around channels that are used to talk without the entire net hearing you.

I can setup my radio to monitor those channels that I choose to monitor and can turn the scan on with a flip of the switch. I can scan the 16 channel zone that I am in or all the channels in the bank (I think about 256, total). Then we have about 5-6 banks. I pretty much stay in the one bank. The others offer generic channels for other parts of the country.

Is that a Motorola trunking system, and is it nationwide?

[Joeguitar]

We have two main channels for our road deputies: North Precinct and South Precinct. Whichever precinct you work out of dictates what channel you will use as your primary and which dispatcher you will talk to.
Sometimes one of them has a brain fart and tries to talk to you on another channel. And since I am usually scanning I will hear them.

Do you use your primary radio to scan the other channels or do you have another scanner and/or radio for that purpose?

[R1364]

It depends. I scan all my cities frequencies with one radio. I'll be on one channel, but i can hear the others.

I do it to hear when the fire department is dispatched to an emergency call, i might be closer and can help with CPR etc, until they get there. Or if someone is in a fight and their radio gets knocked off the main channel there wont be a 5 minute delay between the officer and dispatch then dispatch to other officers.

[R1364]

we also have stateban radios in certain cars. That way we know if a chase is coming from the next county over.

[Switchback]

Is that a Motorola trunking system, and is it nationwide?

(Yes)2
...with multiple encription keys and over-the-air programming capabilities.

[sbrad]

Do you use your primary radio to scan the other channels or do you have another scanner and/or radio for that purpose?

I use my main car radio.

[sbrad]

(Yes)2
...with multiple encription keys and over-the-air programming capabilities.

They tell us we have that too (something about dynamic regroup or something?), but only a couple of agencies in the state have gone digital so far so we don't have many people to talk to.

[Joeguitar]

(Yes)2
...with multiple encription keys and over-the-air programming capabilities.

That just kicks *** (especially if you don't want someone listening to your conversation!!)

I do it to hear when the fire department is dispatched to an emergency call, i might be closer and can help with CPR etc, until they get there. Or if someone is in a fight and their radio gets knocked off the main channel there wont be a 5 minute delay between the officer and dispatch then dispatch to other officers.

We also have stateban radios in certain cars. That way we know if a chase is coming from the next county over.

That makes complete tactical sense. I’m sure that gives you a lot more flexibility than if you were just tied to one or two channels.

[mcsap]

I have a 16 channel 100 watt radio in my car. I only scan 4 channels , that is enough ! I also have a 200 chan regular "scanner" with a ton of other stuff in it if I am so inclined. But my most used radio is the one that covers 88-108 mhz

[tpd_six]

Also in my area, at least, each agency may program their radio channels different for however they use them. Although we have many of the same frequencies with a common name, they may be programmed into our radio as a different channel number. For example, our county channel 3 is actually channel 5 on our radios.

[valycop]

Joe,
The Motorola Mara Trac has a scan feature with a priority channel which is what we use. So no matter what channel I'm on if the scan feature is active and I'm on say channel four and channel one (the priority channel) becomes active, the receiver will automatically jump to channel one. The nice added feature is this is "user selectable scan" which means each deputy can pick and choose which channel they want to monitor in addition to the primary. Comes in very handy.

[Joeguitar]

Joe,
The Motorola Mara Trac has a scan feature with a priority channel which is what we use. So no matter what channel I'm on if the scan feature is active and I'm on say channel four and channel one (the priority channel) becomes active, the receiver will automatically jump to channel one. The nice added feature is this is "user selectable scan" which means each deputy can pick and choose which channel they want to monitor in addition to the primary. Comes in very handy.

Now that's something I haven't considered before; I wasn't aware the duty radios have a built-in scanner. Does the channel "jump" you described above cut you off if you are transmitting?