MT Express Sample Low Resolution Issue ... - Monitoring Times

Scanning the First State
By John Mayson
In the early years of the seventeenth century,
Sir Thomas West, Lord de la Warr,
led a contingent of 150 men who landed
in Jamestown, Virginia. Twenty-one years
later, Europeans settled in a Dutch trading
post farther north on the North American coast
called Zwaanendael. Peter Minuit, a Swede,
started a colony in this area and called it “New
Sweden.” Eventually, the land was granted to
William Penn and became the Pennsylvania
counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex.
Over 100 years after Lord de la Warr first
landed in Virginia, the lower three counties of
Pennsylvania formed their own colony and
named it after Sir Thomas West by calling it
“Delaware.” In 1792, Delaware was the first
state to adopt the newly written United States
Constitution.
Two-hundred and one years after becoming
the first state in the union, Delaware
purchased a statewide, APCO-25 compliant,
Motorola trunked radio system. The system
was designed to provide complete, statewide
coverage for all state and local agencies.
So, in this first month of a new year,
we’re going to explore the statewide APCO
system of our nation’s first state. Northerners
heading for sunny Florida cut through part of
the state on Route 95. Delaware is a short hop
across the Chesapeake from Washington D.C.
which is hosting the presidential inauguration
this month.
You have no plans to visit Delaware?
Believe it or not, you can listen to state police
communications online via the State Police
website. Point your browser to: http://www.
state.de.us/dsp/ and click on the scanner to
activate.
About the System
Delaware’s state system is divided into
three parts that correspond to Delaware’s three
counties. Each county has its own dispatch
center and the counties are linked via 6 and
10 GHz microwave transmitters. The state has
a total of 32 sites.
12 MONITORING TIMES January 2005
The system provides very reliable communications
anywhere in the state for both
state and local users.
Since the system is digital, an appropriate
scanner is required. The system uses a 3600
baud control channel, meaning any digital
trunk tracking scanner on the market will
work.
Frequencies
Each county has its own set of frequencies.
In addition to these, there are Intellipeater
(IR) sites that provide additional coverage.
An asterisk (*) denotes a control channel
frequency. Some scanner listeners may wish
to enter only the control channels and operate
their scanner in control channel only mode.
Uniden scanners must be set to “Plan 2” when
using this feature.
New Castle County
866.2375
866.4875
866.5625
866.7250
867.0375
867.2375
867.4875
867.7125
867.7375
868.2125*
868.3875
868.7125
868.9375*
868.9625*
Kent County
866.0750
866.1625
866.6500
866.6750
866.7625
867.1250
867.6500
867.6750
867.9500
867.9750
868.6125
868.6500*
868.7500*
868.8625
868.9000*
Sussex County
866.1000
866.3625
867.0875
867.3500
867.6000
867.8375
868.0875
868.1125
868.3500
868.5875*
Hartly IR
866.1625*
866.7625
867.9750
868.6125
868.8625
Winterhur IR
866.3000
866.6500
866.8250
867.1250
867.3000
867.6625
868.3250
868.5000*
Hockenssin IR
866.5375
866.7875
867.2625
867.4250
867.7750
868.0875
868.5750*
Agencies
All state agencies and many local ones
use the statewide system. Having everyone
on a single system makes mutual aid and
interoperability much easier. We’ll start with
the Delaware State Police.
Delaware State Police
As is the case with many states, the
Delaware State Police (DSP) had humble
beginnings back in the 1920s. The automobile
was becoming an increasingly popular mode