Programming KG935G w/My Public Safety Freqs?

[edspilot]

Hello all:

New to GMRS and got my first radio, two of the Wouxun KG935G.  Very few GMRS persons near me so looking for things to listen to while waiting for others to come into GMRS.  I want to install my local public safety frequencies.  Additionally, there are NO repeaters my area (actually only 3 in the entire state) & none close to me.  So I have to monitor thru Zello.  Probably will put up a repeater and link it to the web this year.  Anyway on to my issue...

I have installed the Wouxun (free) software into my Windows laptop and I can program my 935, with my public safety frequencies.  However, I must not be doing something correct as I can not hear any conversations on those channels.  

I took the information from Radio Reference and entered the basic info and it does load into the 935.

Location:  West Virginia, Barbour County, City of Philippi

Frequency	License	Type	Tone	Alpha Tag	Description	Mode	Tag
159.180	KNED346	RM	432 DPL	BarbCo SO Dp	Barbour Co Sheriff - Dispatch	FMN	Law Dispatch
154.085	WPMT930	RM	151.4 PL	BelingtonPDp	Belington Police - Dispatch	FMN	Law Dispatch
156.210	WPPA207	RM	546 DPL	PhilippiPDDp	Philippi Police - Dispatch	FM	Law Dis

This is all the info I have so, what am I missing to be able to hear?

Any help is appreciated..

Thanks,

edspilot

[WRUU653]

I clicked on these, the first and third one say expired. It may be they are no longer used. Radio Reference isn’t always up to date. Some law agencies have moved to encrypted frequencies. Just my thoughts, I can’t say for sure. 

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, edspilot said:

Hello all:

New to GMRS and got my first radio, two of the Wouxun KG935G.  Very few GMRS persons near me so looking for things to listen to while waiting for others to come into GMRS.  I want to install my local public safety frequencies.  Additionally, there are NO repeaters my area (actually only 3 in the entire state) & none close to me.  So I have to monitor thru Zello.  Probably will put up a repeater and link it to the web this year.  Anyway on to my issue...

I have installed the Wouxun (free) software into my Windows laptop and I can program my 935, with my public safety frequencies.  However, I must not be doing something correct as I can not hear any conversations on those channels.  

I took the information from Radio Reference and entered the basic info and it does load into the 935.

Location:  West Virginia, Barbour County, City of Philippi

Frequency	License	Type	Tone	Alpha Tag	Description	Mode	Tag
159.180	KNED346	RM	432 DPL	BarbCo SO Dp	Barbour Co Sheriff - Dispatch	FMN	Law Dispatch
154.085	WPMT930	RM	151.4 PL	BelingtonPDp	Belington Police - Dispatch	FMN	Law Dispatch
156.210	WPPA207	RM	546 DPL	PhilippiPDDp	Philippi Police - Dispatch	FM	Law Dis

This is all the info I have so, what am I missing to be able to hear?

Any help is appreciated..

Thanks,

edspilot

Don’t worry about the tones. Just set the frequencies. As long as you don’t use a tone to control squelch you’ll hear everything on the frequency. 

[wrci350]

The Radio Reference DB is crowd sourced.  Nothing is [supposed to be] added unless it's based on first-hand knowledge, either from someone who is a user on the system or from someone who has monitored and identified traffic.  It's a lot easier to add new things than to remove old ones since many agencies will keep an old system as a backup when they move to a new one.  In that case, someone saying "I don't hear anything on this frequency" isn't generally enough.

The fact that an expired license is listed is also not always evidence that something is not still in use.  Perhaps there is a new license, or perhaps the agency keeps on using the frequency in spite of the fact that the FCC license is expired.  (Yes, it happens.)

With all that said, I think the answer is found higher up on the RRDB page for your county, under "Barbour County Trunked Systems".  West Virginia has a state-wide P25 trunked system called SIRN.  If you take a look at the system you'll see a bunch of talkgroups for Barbour County, including Fire, EMS, and law enforcement dispatch.  The good news is that none of them are marked as encrypted, so they should be monitorable.  The bad news?  None of the Wouxun or other GMRS radios can monitor systems like that, since those radios are analog only.

I have to laugh at some of these radios that are marketed as "when bad things happen scanners" since there are very large areas of the country that have moved to P25 or other digital modes.  Those "900 emergency channels" are almost certainly going to be useless if someone wants to listen in to "see what's going on".

I'm basing all this on just looking at the DB.  If you want to verify that the local agencies are moved to SIRN you could post in the WV forum on RR and ask if there is someone local who can tell you.

[edspilot]

34 minutes ago, wrci350 said:

The Radio Reference DB is crowd sourced.  Nothing is [supposed to be] added unless it's based on first-hand knowledge, either from someone who is a user on the system or from someone who has monitored and identified traffic.  It's a lot easier to add new things than to remove old ones since many agencies will keep an old system as a backup when they move to a new one.  In that case, someone saying "I don't hear anything on this frequency" isn't generally enough.

The fact that an expired license is listed is also not always evidence that something is not still in use.  Perhaps there is a new license, or perhaps the agency keeps on using the frequency in spite of the fact that the FCC license is expired.  (Yes, it happens.)

With all that said, I think the answer is found higher up on the RRDB page for your county, under "Barbour County Trunked Systems".  West Virginia has a state-wide P25 trunked system called SIRN.  If you take a look at the system you'll see a bunch of talkgroups for Barbour County, including Fire, EMS, and law enforcement dispatch.  The good news is that none of them are marked as encrypted, so they should be monitorable.  The bad news?  None of the Wouxun or other GMRS radios can monitor systems like that, since those radios are analog only.

I have to laugh at some of these radios that are marketed as "when bad things happen scanners" since there are very large areas of the country that have moved to P25 or other digital modes.  Those "900 emergency channels" are almost certainly going to be useless if someone wants to listen in to "see what's going on".

I'm basing all this on just looking at the DB.  If you want to verify that the local agencies are moved to SIRN you could post in the WV forum on RR and ask if there is someone local who can tell you.

WRCI350:

Thanks for the info and recommendation.

On a side note, I can hear conversation on my iPhone app and on my old Radio Shack scanner.  I just figured that they were not encrypted if I was hearing them on the app & scanner.

Thanks again,

edspilot

[wrci350]

Interesting.  Do you hear more on the iPhone app than you do on your old scanner, or the same?

If you hear more on the app, that probably lmeans that SIRN is in use and whoever is providing the feed has a scanner monitoring that system.  (Keep in mind that's how those apps work ... somewhere there is someone with a real scanner that is monitoring the traffic and streams it to the Internet.)

If you can pick up those frequencies on your scanner but not the new radio that suggests a programming problem.

[edspilot]

1 hour ago, wrci350 said:

Interesting.  Do you hear more on the iPhone app than you do on your old scanner, or the same?

If you hear more on the app, that probably lmeans that SIRN is in use and whoever is providing the feed has a scanner monitoring that system.  (Keep in mind that's how those apps work ... somewhere there is someone with a real scanner that is monitoring the traffic and streams it to the Internet.)

If you can pick up those frequencies on your scanner but not the new radio that suggests a programming problem.

WRCI350:

Yes, I can hear the conversations on both the iPhone app (5-0 Radio Pro) & the old Radio Shack scanner. 
I entered the frequency in the Wouxun free software and that is about all the is listed for me to enter from RR above.

I’ll keep playing around.

Thanks,

edspilot

[WRUU653]

You could try dropping the tones, maybe they aren’t up to date and are keeping you from hearing transmissions. As Sshannon said you don’t need them. I never bother with them on scanning frequencies. 

[gortex2]

Barbour county uses the SIRN System. Either buy a scanner to listen or use your phone. The conventional fire dispatch channel may be heard but remember you have a crappy UHF antenna on a CCR not a VHF specific radio. 

[edspilot]

9 hours ago, gortex2 said:

Barbour county uses the SIRN System. Either buy a scanner to listen or use your phone. The conventional fire dispatch channel may be heard but remember you have a crappy UHF antenna on a CCR not a VHF specific radio. 

gortex:

I was hoping that was not the case.  I will just use the phone.

Thanks to everyone for all of your replies.

edspilot

[WRUU653]

On 1/13/2023 at 3:24 AM, gortex2 said:

remember you have a crappy UHF antenna on a CCR not a VHF specific radio. 

All be it a nice CCR, IMO