InterceptRadio.com Forums

Howdy all,

I'm the new guy on your block and I had some questions that I was not totally able to find answers to by doing a search of the past postings.

I am almost a total "noob" when it comes to anything "electronic" so anyone just thinkin something technical will cause my eyes to get the glazzed look in them.

I have an older RS Pro-95 scanner that I have been playing with over the last few years and have had most of the area's police departments TG's programmed into it for listening pleasure. I however have not been able to figure out which TG's I will need to enter to get the "real" local fire departments on WITHOUT having the out-of-the-area FD's on the same sub-bank.

I understand that I am looking at ValleyCom for the Renton, Kent, Tukwila areas, but I want to break the TG's for each area up so that I can focus on my Renton area at one time.

Can one of you diehard radio fans be able to break-down the TG'g that I am looking for? The fire districts and stations are all confusing for me to understand.

Thanks in advance.

Keith in Renton

The PRO-95 allows you to "program" or "set" talkgroups that you want to monitor -- by simply selecting a specific un-used bank, programming the control channel or channels, then the specific area talk-groups that you want to listen to -- for your specific area (Valleycomm or the south county area -- of Renton, Tukwila and Kent) and then "closing" that bank so that the bank will only be able to monitor those talkgroups that you have entered. So you can set Bank 9 to listen to the Valleycomm control channels, enter the talkgroups for Renton, Tukwila and Kent only and then "close" bank 9 (showing a " - " above the 9 when it scans) and away you go. Just scan bank 9 -- when you don't want to hear everyone else. You can set each bank for a specific area -- if you want. Then you coould have Bank 8 for the Eastside and Bank 7 for Seattle, etc, etc. Good Luck. I love my Pro-95.

What you want to do for the fire side will not work. PD have been grouped by cities. FD all use the same talk groups. F1 is for dispatch, F2 is for basic aid calls, F3 thru F7 are for major alarms, with most car accidents on F3. So you will have to listen thru all of the talk for the Renton units.

The Renton units are 11 thru 17 I believe.

Thank you for your replies MTM and Kevinc.....

I was kinda thinking that what I wanted (TG's for each towns fire groups) would not be able to be found seeing how the police talk groups are so defined yet the fire groups are not (in my eyes).

I've put the Val Com TG's into my PRO-95 and am getting their "fire" comunications, but I am not sure if the "KV OPS - 1 Fire 5 (A5)" listings should also be added to my scanner or if they are not for my areas of interest.

Kevinc, you mentioned thinking that Renton is "units 11-17", and you talked about "F1, F6, etc" but I am not seeing all of those designations on the great resource of the Intercept NW Freq. Database.

Any other tips on TG's that I should look at?
What territory does the "Eastside" TG's cover?

MTM, I know that I will have more questions soon regarding the proper method to position Control Centers in my PRO-95 in each bank, etc. I finally picked up the RS-20-047 cable for my computer last week and downloaded the Win95 program and OF COURSE, I don't know what all the boxes and tabs are for so that I can get the most out of my scanner.

Thanks again.

Keith in Renton, WA

The OPS channels are usually used for larger incidents and sometimes for training.

Engine 11, Aid 11, Engine 12, etc. This is a little bit outdated, but it'll give you an idea. You can look at each department's website as it's usually up to date.

To give you a general idea--East of Puget Sound and North of I-90.

Settings controls your radio settings; channels shows you all of your channels in all of your banks, your ID banks are on the side; the other tabs are your limit searches. If you read from your radio you can pretty much figure out what everything does.

Unit designators are not in the frequency database, however they can be found on the page dealing with fire departments in King County (accessible from the main Intercept page)

http://www.interceptradio.com/interceptnw/kcfd.htm

Renton FD move some units around. They turned station 14 into spec ops center.

Yep, almost all of the fire departments in South King County use the same TG's, and that's the way it should be. The police is a different story, however some cities share TG's.

Regarding Renton's stations, they have Stations 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17. District 40's Station 42 was redesignated Station 13 after the fairly recent annexation of the Benson Heights area. The old Station 13 was literally a stones-throw away from what is now 13's. Station 17 used to be District 40's Station 41. Station 17 is still located in an unincorporated area, and this area is being served via contract with the remaining District 40. Station 16 serves Fire District 25 via contract in a similar fashion.

As far as what TG's to have programmed, might I suggest Fire 1-7, OPS 1-3, Zone-3 admin., MA Zone1, MA Zone-3, MA Zone-5, MA Pool 1 and 2, MA POS FD, IMS-All, IMS-S, VCC-PS, PS OPS S1 & PS OPS S2. You could also include the various admin TG's for each fire agency.

Anyways, this should do you.

CAR

Thanks guys......


I will print out the TG's from this website and do a little the lookin at the King Co. Fire Depts, etc.

So many channels to listen too...So little time to listen....

Keith in Renton, WA

Don't forget PSAP.

Don't forgot MARS and LERN.

Don't forget State Ops.

Don't forget to tie your shoes.