[Scan-DC] Frequencies

Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:03:13 -0400

I actually am a native Pittsburgher.  I moved to the DC area in 1994 when I
was just eight years old, and i continue to visit my hometown probably once
every two to three months because all of my intermediate family is still
there.  Sorry to tell you this, but the scanning in PGH really sucks.  The
Pennsylvanian Commonwealth (not a true state), has a very unique system of
government.  It is not like down here where every county has a county police
and fire department.  It is much more complex than that.  Every county in PA
has many (and i mean many!) self-governed villages that are called borroughs
or townships.  When your house catches on fire in PA, the fire department of
the township you live in will come to your aide, not the "county fire
department" like we have down here.  The same thing goes for police matters.
And all of you might think, "Well, so what, how does that make scanning
bad?"  Well, i'll tell you this, when you are on any highway in the PGH
area, you enter a new township or borrough once every 4 minutes (that is if
you are going about 50 mph).  That's right, so in order to listen in on all
the action that is close by, you need to constantly tune into each new
township's frequency sets.  However, just to let you know, there is an
Allegheny County Police Department, but rarely do they respond to the normal
stuff (vandalism, domestic violence, etc.).  The main priority of the ACPD
is to patrol major highways that are outside of the city, and to also patrol
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  State troopers also mainly stay on the Turnpike.
As for scanning in the downtown area is concerned, the main police
department is the PGH City Police.  I believe they still use UHF, but they
might have gone 800 MHz digital very recently.  I am not sure about that.
The best borroughs and townships to tune into (that have the most action)
are Imperial, Moon Township, Baldwin, Allison Park, North Hampton, and
Whitehall Borrough.  The near-by city of Monroeville can also be exciting
too.  I don't know any of these frequencies off hand, but you can probably
find them by simply searching the VHF police band.  Most of these small
suburban townships always use VHF and not UHF due to the hilly terrain.

Some of the things that I do find interesting to listen to everytime I go to
PGH are actually the NOAA weather channels.  Depending if you are on a good
hill or not, one can hear Ohio stations, the Uniontown Station, and
sometimes the station up at Lake Erie!  One other thing you might want to
listen to is the marine band (after all, PGH is known for it's three
rivers).

I know i havent given you any solid frequencies, and thats because i simply
dont have them written down anywhere.  I keep my notes of PGH frequencies up
at my grandma's house.  But i hope that this information about the PA "gov't
set-up" has helped you a little bit.  If you want to, write back to me and
tell me the exact township that you will be visiting.  I'll see if i can get
those frequencies for you.

-Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 6:29 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: [Scan-DC] Frequencies

Need info for Pittsburg.PA and Marietta, OH, taking trip on� Tuesday to
these locations. Can anyone advise about 800 Trunk. Please email back any
info will be appreciated, no Internet.

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