trunked radio

Ok, so it's not quite a cellphone topic but I got a new toy. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona which touts itself as having the highest quality of life blah blah blah. Um sure, whatever. I live in the south part of Scottsdale, i.e. the ghetto.

The cops are at this apartment complex at least once a week. Now I know why. A cheap scanner is not going to help you hear the cops in a big city. They use these special "trunked radio" systems that allocate radio channels on the fly using a data channel. But the transmissions themselves are all analog - and probably will be for the foreseeable future. Interoperability and all ;)

It's easy to setup despite Uniden's technical writers. Fortunately the way the radio system is setup it has its own group of frequencies and trunked radio site just for the ghetto. I'm close enough to the site that it doesn't require too much in the way of an antenna.

It's been fascinating listening. I was about to walk the dog the other night but someone was barricaded in a nearby apartment holding his roommates hostage with a samurai sword. Um, I'll wait until the radio traffic says that guy is locked up :-)