[TrunkCom] Fwd: Scanner buffs adjusting to new technology

[thepolishdude]

--- In 4phun-scan@y..., "Vic Healey" <jw@s...> wrote:
     
      Dave Hilton of York monitors his scanners at his home. Below, 
right, is his equipment.  (Craig Osborne/Staff photographer) 

Scanner buffs adjusting to new technology

By BRAD MORIN

Democrat Staff Writer

DOVER =97 When police departments switch to digital radios, scanner 
buffs will be left in the dark. But the blackout may be temporary, as 
digital-capable scanners are almost ready to hit the market.

Most New Hampshire police departments still use analog radios, which 
hobbyists, the media and others can monitor with scanners. Agencies 
that have switched to digital, such as the New Hampshire State 
Police, cannot be heard.

But Uniden =97 a company that makes the popular Bearcat brand of 
scanners =97 will begin selling a digital-capable scanner late this 
year, according to company spokeswoman Jennifer Ainsworth.

"The people I know who are pure hobbyists are dying to get their 
hands on one," said Parks Christenbury, a local radio technician.

One of those scanner enthusiasts is David Hilton of York Village, 
Maine. He has an antenna tower in his back yard with amplifiers that 
allow him to pick up 550 frequencies at any given time and receive 
broadcasts from all over northern New England. He believes scanners 
will continue to keep pace with digital technology.

     
"They haven't failed us yet...It may be a costly thing at first, but 
the people that want it will get it," Hilton said. He recalls that 
when the New Hampshire forestry network went digital, all he could 
pick up was a buzzing sound.

Hilton listens mostly to fire departments, but he said people should 
also be able to listen to police departments to find out what their 
tax dollars are doing. Scanner listeners can also serve 
as "neighborhood watchdogs," he said.

At least one police department is considering a plan to broadcast in 
analog to accommodate the scanner hobbyists. Portsmouth Police Chief 
Brad Russ said he would like to broadcast in both digital and analog 
because some scanner listeners have given useful tips to police.

"I'd like to broadcast in analog for anything that isn't super-
sensitive," Russ said. "We get a lot of good information from 
citizens who listen to the scanners."

Portsmouth's plan is to switch over to digital communications by the 
end of the calendar year. Russ said this idea to simulcast would 
depend on what the technicians say when they upgrade Portsmouth's 
dispatching system. Russ said he likely would not order the simulcast 
of digital and analog if it will be costly.

Dover Police Chief William Fenniman said he is less concerned about 
the wishes of scanner hobbyists than the ability of criminals to 
listen in on police communications. Fenniman referred to one gang of 
burglars from Massachusetts who were hitting Dover and other New 
Hampshire communities about seven or eight years ago. They were using 
scanners to learn when police were responding to the burglar alarms, 
he said.

"These organized gangs, as a method of operation, carry police 
scanners," Fenniman said.

Fenniman said the Dover Police Department is in the process of 
changing its radio over to a digital system right now, and it should 
be complete by the end of the year. He acknowledges that police have 
plenty of ways to keep their communications confidential, both 
through the use of cellular phones or mobile data terminals =97 devices 
in their cruisers that are similar to laptop computers.

Technology allows for the digital radio traffic to be encrypted, but 
Christenbury said it would be expensive for police departments to do 
so.

The digital radio upgrade is being paid for with help from federal 
grants under a program known as LawNet. In Strafford County, for 
example, the sheriff's office will get $651,467 worth of equipment 
for its dispatch center and an additional $696,000 will be going out 
to the 13 individual communities.

Not only is digital reception better, but it allows agencies to 
communicate with one another =97 a term known as "interoperability."

The need was highlighted by the 1997 Carl Drega killing spree in 
Colebrook. Drega shot two state troopers, a newspaper editor and a 
judge. Police encountered difficulties in trying to capture him 
because multiple agencies were responding on incompatible radio 
frequencies.

U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., worked to secure the federal funds for 
the Granite State's digital radios.

"I'm hopeful that, when we're finished, we'll have the most 
technologically advanced communications in the country," Gregg said 
Thursday in an interview with Foster's Daily Democrat.

Christenbury, employed as a radio technician with the Rockingham 
County Sheriff's Office, has been consulting with other law 
enforcement agencies in the area. He said most agencies already have 
digital radios for their cruisers, but are waiting for the system to 
be up and running before adding the portable digital radios, which 
cost about $3,000 each. By the end of the year, most agencies should 
be on digital radios, Christenbury said.

Christenbury said the switch to digital radio will not be the death 
knell for scanner listening. Even though police will be going 
digital, many people listen to fire departments, railroads, aircraft 
and businesses, he said. When digital scanners come out, Christenbury 
said they will likely cost $300 to $350, about the same as a high-end 
analog scanner.

And computers have now become a scanning tool that allow people to 
listen in on communications from far away. From his home in York, 
Hilton will often listen to the fire departments in New York City at 
www.thebravest.com. Hilton said he tried to log on during the Sept. 
11 terrorist attacks, but too many people were trying to get on the 
site.

"It just got overwhelmed," he said. "As soon as it made national 
news, everybody tried to get on."

Democrat Staff Writer Brad Morin can be reached at 742-4455, Ext. 
5311 or bmorin@f...



Vic Healey
ki4je

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