1. Who are you? Who am I? Good question…. My name is Daron and with the exception of a 1 year hiatus I have lived in Snohomish County all my life. I graduate from Mariner High School and have been working at the same company for the last 18 years. When I was 20 I joined Silver Lake District #11 as a volunteer, became and EMT and eventually started working 12 and 24 hour shifts. It was a great department to be with. We had lots of calls and the volunteers were very active. That all ended when they merged with Fire District 1 and basically got rid of the volunteer program. Now I volunteer with King County #47 Kangley / Palmer. I’ve have been listening to scanners since I was a kid. My dad purchased a scanner from the PX that use to be out in Paine Field and it all started from there. I got my first programmable scanner when I was about 18 out of some catalog that came in the mail. I am a very “techy guru” type of person. I love technology and the Internet. Some of my other hobbies include Bowling, High Powered Rocket launching and camping in the Pacific NW. I live by the motto “If it’s not done 100% complete then it ain’t worth starting”. Needless to say I hate laziness and or procrastination in any form. Ok, that’s enough ranting. The rest is history……
2. Why do you do this? Well in a nutshell I do it just for the fun of it. However, I enjoy both the aspect of listening to the scanner anywhere I have internet access and building this website. Making all this technical stuff work simply put “It’s just a lot of fun”.
3. How come I can't hear your feed? There can be several reasons. First off my website uses the Windows Media Player plug-in. So make sure you have the plug-in installed for whatever browser you are using. Also check your browser security and firewall settings. Port 8000 needs to be open for traffic. One of those may be not allowing the connection. I've gotten reports that Safari does not work at all. I don't know what to say other than that's what you get for using an Apple product :-) Try using FirefoxChrome or Opera. If you have Windows Mobile based phone like I do, I've found that the mobile browser Skyfire supports the Media Player plug-in and streams the live feed quit well on a 3G data connection. However, your mileage may vary.
4. Why do I see these plugin errors on your website?
This likely means you do not have the Windows Media Player Plugin installed. In most cases just follow the instructions to automatically install it. However it could mean that you have some security settings configured so the plug-in will not load. The plugin for Internet Explorer comes with Windows Media Player and you can download it from Here. The plugin for Firefox can be found Here.
5. Does your live feed run 24x7 365? Yes. I try to keep broadcasting online as much as possible.
6. What's the reason for tracking my IP when I visit your site? In the past there has been some reports that my website may have been used while an individual or individuals committed a crime. Of course I do not condone the use of my website in this manner. I provide the website for those who enjoy the scanner hobby. Not for those who want to exploit the hobby. So I made the decision that it would be a good idea to track all the IP's that visit my site. So be aware, I will provide the IP logs to any law enforcement agency that request them with no questions asked. And if you don't like having your IP logged, don't visit my site.
7. What are the following sounds that I randomly hear when I'm listing? This is when I press a button on my scanner keypad. Likely to lock or unlock on a talk group. This is when I lock out a talk group on my scanner. This is what the Control Channel sounds like.
8. How do I program my scanner? Best suggestion I can give you is to search Google for programming instructions for your scanner. In addition, almost every modern scanner model has a Google and or Yahoo group dedicated to it which can help you out.
9. Can you help me program my scanner? I'll pay you! Sorry, but no. I just don’t have the time.
10. What kind of scanners do you use? I have several scanners but for the Snohomish County Feeds that I broadcast, I use a Uniden BC246T. The handheld that I carry around with me is Uniden BC346XT. And in my car I have a Uniden BCT15. I also own several old Radio Shack scanners that I use for monitoring VHF and UHF communications. I got to have an old scanner when the Blue Angels are in town :)
11. Can you change or switch around (for me) what is broadcasted on each feed? Sorry, but no.
12. Do you broadcast anything other than Snohomish County? I only broadcast the Snohomish County 800Mhz Trunk Radio System. There are however other people that broadcast other radio systems here in Western Washington. A friend of mine has two King Co. feeds. One which is Valley Communications (Valleycom) and the other is NORCOM. You can find links to his feeds Here or Intercept Radio Directory. Other than that do a Google search.
13. Where can I find info on the different codes the Fire and Police Departments use? There is a "10 Code" list HERE for what SCSO uses. But some have changed and some don’t get used anymore. For example the dispatcher use to say “20Tom45 10-62” but now it's “20Tom45 Status”. O' and the only acceptable response to this is "Code4".
14. What scanner do you recommend? There is no one single answer to this question. It all depends on what you want to listen to and the type of radio system you want to monitor. You will need to find out if it is Analog or Digital system and what type of system it is such as Trunk or Conventional. This info can be found at the Radio Reference website. With all that said I highly recommend the Uniden brand scanners. For one, there are lots of free programming and control software available for the Uniden product line. Plus the quality of my Uniden scanners is superb. And lastly, Uniden is very proactive as far as releasing new firmware for bug fixes, enhancements and the upcoming frequency re-band that is going to happen.
15. Where can I get technical info about the Snohomish County 800Mhz trunk system? There are a couple of places you can find info. One is at the Radio Reference website. The other is the Snohomish County Emergency Radio System website. It's also known as SERS.
17. What programs do you use to program and remotely control your scanner? I use FreeSCAN. It’s freeware and works great. There are several other programs available that you have to pay for. Such as BuTeL but I refuse to pay for something when I can get free program that is jsut as good or better. As far as controlling my scanner from a PC, I use Advanced Virtual Control.
18. Can I get a copy of your programming file you use in FreeSCAN? Sure. Here it is Snohomish County Scanner Programming. As a bonus you will notice this file also contains programming for some King Co. systems and other stuff. You will need to unzip the file with a program like WinZip.
19. Why do you have Google Ads and a PayPal donation button on your site. I put up the Google ads to help pay for the web hosting and Internet service. Please take a minute to click them. And the PayPal donation button was put up because I got a few emails asking about how to donate. Much thanks to everyone that has clicked on the Google Ads and/or donated via PayPal.
20. How can I broadcast my own feed? Contact Rich at Intercept Radio Intercept Radio.