Escambia County Public Safety now on P-25 (2024)

Worth noting:

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office is now encrypted.

Escambia County Fire Dispatch is currently simulcast on the old VHF frequency, at least for now. Once a call moves to one of the three new TAC channels, you will hear nothing without a P25 scanner.

Does anyone have a complete Escambia County frequency list? Here on RR I can't find the new frequency for the Road Dept, for instance. (Useful after storms to hear about roads blocked!!!)

atmvoice said:

Worth noting:

Does anyone have a complete Escambia County frequency list? Here on RR I can't find the new frequency for the Road Dept, for instance. (Useful after storms to hear about roads blocked!!!)

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There still being identified. They just switched over last night.

P-25 UHF Dispatch

The audio on the new UHF fire dispatch channel sounds terrible. Has anyone else had a problem understanding it? County Fire Tac-2 seems much better.

havent been listening to fire. Anybody know what system the city of Pensacola runs on (police, not public works)?

I am trying to figure out if its even worth it for me to buy a new scanner.

kermit1 said:

are all the SO channels encrypted now?

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No, currently only the deputies are encrypted full time and dispatch is in the clear. Channel A7 'Info Net' (records checks) will stay in the clear. The only full time encryption is when deputies transmit car-to-car.

Clarky said:

The audio on the new UHF fire dispatch channel sounds terrible. Has anyone else had a problem understanding it? County Fire Tac-2 seems much better.

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It might be your location/antenna/receiver, I am having no issues receiving any of the new fire or SO channels.

kermit1 said:

will a pro-94 pick them up, or am I going to have to spend tons of money? I have never had a trunk tracker....only analog.

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The Pro-94 will not work but Radio Shack has a sale on digital scanners. The Pro-197 and Pro-106.

kermit1 said:

havent been listening to fire. Anybody know what system the city of Pensacola runs on (police, not public works)?

I am trying to figure out if its even worth it for me to buy a new scanner.

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Pensacola Police are in the database as Pensacola City Services trunked Motorola Type II Smartnet Analog

Clarky said:

The audio on the new UHF fire dispatch channel sounds terrible. Has anyone else had a problem understanding it? County Fire Tac-2 seems much better.

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Same here its real choppy. EMS comes through strong. ECSO is mainly encrypted although some traffic is non-encrypted, However it is often real choppy and hard to make out at times. Compared to before the switch I had no troubled hearing all channels clearly. I hope the new system fails them miserably so they switch back.

Also they had there first failure at interop mutual aid with Santa Rosa last night. ECSO pretty much took over SRSO ch4 for about 30-40mins so they could communicate back and forth. So it seems that they will just take over SRSO repeaters when needed now I guess. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Oh Well Taxpayer dollars at work.

wise871 said:

The Pro-94 will not work but Radio Shack has a sale on digital scanners. The Pro-197 and Pro-106.

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I forgot to mention, the RS and GRE models don't auto silence encrypted channels so you will hear all the garble when there using encryption. Currently I'm using my Unidens to Monitor Escambia SO because the dispatch is in the clear.

thomast77 said:

Same here its real choppy. EMS comes through strong. ECSO is mainly encrypted although some traffic is non-encrypted, However it is often real choppy and hard to make out at times. Compared to before the switch I had no troubled hearing all channels clearly. I hope the new system fails them miserably so they switch back.

Also they had there first failure at interop mutual aid with Santa Rosa last night. ECSO pretty much took over SRSO ch4 for about 30-40mins so they could communicate back and forth. So it seems that they will just take over SRSO repeaters when needed now I guess. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Oh Well Taxpayer dollars at work.

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That sucks. I do know that ECSO still have there Channel 3 (460.275 203.5) active for MA and Talk-Around. You will even hear calls go out across it. Radio maintenance is still working out the bugs in the system. Will see if Sheriff Morgans decision was a good one other wise your correct, more money wasted.

Note, they cut themselves short with interoperability with local agencies to include Alabama.

wise871 said:

That sucks. I do know that ECSO still have there Channel 3 (460.275 203.5) active for MA and Talk-Around. You will even hear calls go out across it. Radio maintenance is still working out the bugs in the system. Will see if Sheriff Morgans decision was a good one other wise your correct, more money wasted.

Note, they cut themselves short with interoperability with local agencies to include Alabama.

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Dispatch is hit and miss for me Garbled and choppy. Info net and investigations are pretty clear. I may need a better antenna as digital does not seem to be getting out as well as analog. I hope they will atleast leave Dispatch in the clear. I like to know what is going on especially when I travel through Escambia. I haven't heard anything here on 460.275 in days.

thomast77 said:

Same here its real choppy. EMS comes through strong. ECSO is mainly encrypted although some traffic is non-encrypted, However it is often real choppy and hard to make out at times. Compared to before the switch I had no troubled hearing all channels clearly. I hope the new system fails them miserably so they switch back.

Also they had there first failure at interop mutual aid with Santa Rosa last night. ECSO pretty much took over SRSO ch4 for about 30-40mins so they could communicate back and forth. So it seems that they will just take over SRSO repeaters when needed now I guess. That seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Oh Well Taxpayer dollars at work.

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You are correct, the ESCO mutual aid channel (460.275) was down last night, but is fixed today. Santa Rosa SO has that channel in all of their radios for interops. The ESCO dispatch consoles can patch any agency together from neighboring counties and states, including Florida Highway Patrol, Alabama Mototrbo and NAS Pensacola. I received that info from one of the Motorola techs. I'm sure that it's a big learning curve for the dispatchers, but once they learn the system 100%, it should work great. It just takes time.

All the old analog repeaters (Motorola Micors from the 70's) are being pulled out of the shacks.

signal500 said:

All the old analog repeaters (Motorola Micors from the 70's) are being pulled out of the shacks.

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Hey that's a win win for the Motorola Dealer. Sell New Repeaters then refurbish the old repeaters and sell them to Ham Operators and any Business. If the repeaters could not be made narrowband then at least the cans and controllers are still good.