Scanner Master Road Trip
By Jonathan Higgins
Part 1
Preparing for the trip
Monitoring on The Las Vegas Strip
Destination: Las Vegas, NV and Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Last weekend my wife and I took a weekend vacation to Las Vegas to see the NASCAR Cup Race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Before we the trip we pack our gear for the race which includes:
- Uniden BC346XT Scanner
- Uniden BC125AT Scanner
- 2 Headsets
- AC Adapters for both scanners
- Rechargeable batteries
- Back up Alkaline batteries
- 2 Cinch Bags [to carry our gear at the race]
- UHF Low Profile Portable BNC Antenna
[For the BC125AT] - UHF Low Profile Portable SMA Antenna
[For the BC346XT] - BC125AT Nylon Case with Belt loop
[demo of the new case] - BC346XT Leather Case with Swivel belt loop
- 2 badge holders [For our race tickets]
- Racing Frequencies Online
We spend our long weekend checking out the sites, Las Vegas Strip, Hover Dam and Grand Canyon West Rim. Our accommodations were at the Luxor Hotel on the Southern Part of the strip. I brought the BC346XT for the race and to monitor the public safety in Las Vegas area.
Programming in the BC346XT
My Favorite Drivers
(Systems 1-10)
Las Vegas Metro Police
-All channels (System 11)
Clark County – South Nevada Area Communications Council (SNACC)
Motorola Type II SmartZone (System 12)
– Las Vegas Fire Talk groups
– North Las Vegas Fire Talk groups
– North Las Vegas Police Talk groups
Nevada Shared Radio System
EDACS Networked Standard Analog (System 13)
– Nevada Highway Patrol Talkgroups
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
LTR Trunking System (System 14)
– All talkgroups
Excalibur Hotel and Casino
Motorola Trunking System (System 15)
– All talkgroups
Monitoring Notes
The Uniden BC346XT was a great unit for the Las Vegas area. All of the systems in Las Vegas is using analog conventional and analog trucking.
Las Vegas Metro Police
Most of channels on Metro Police System are using the (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) – OpenSky Trunking system, but they are simulcasting on the old VHF System. The short time monitoring the simulcasted channels, it seem like the OpenSky System is plagued with problems. Multiple times I hear the dispatch “could you please repeat that”. At one point I hear the system get stuck, the officer audio was studding. Very much like the audio I heard from the story out of West Palm Beach FL reported on back in May 2011.
Clark County Trunking System & Nevada Shared Radio System
Pretty descent coverage, lots of towers to choose from we were in range of a few towers from our Hotel. You can hear the NV Highway Patrol on this system.
Monitoring the Hotels
I would say the Security talkgroups were the most interesting to monitor. I wasn’t able to monitor the Trunking system in the Luxor because it’s a Nexedge Standard Trunking system.
Make sure you check out Part 2
Race Day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Sunday, March 11, 2012
