KY State Police (KY)

A Summary of the Kentucky State Police APCO-25 Conventional System

The Kentucky State Police system utilizes Multicast transmissions, whereby each post has several transmitter sites that transmit simultaneously on several different frequencies. This system is APCO-25 Compliant, but is CONVENTIONAL - it is NOT trunked.

Two "Channels" are referenced during communications: Channel B is the Primarily Dispatch channel - designated as: KSP 08B-2... Channel A is the Alternate (or non-TAC talkaround) Channel - designated as: KSP 08A-2.

In addition, several of the more commonly used responses to dispatch calls are automated whereas the trooper simply presses a button on his radio console to communicate "10-7", "10-8", etc. - on these communications, the dispatcher simply replies "10-4" unit xxxx and the trooper is not heard over the radio.

Use of repeater inputs (i.e. 5 MHZ higher than output) for talkaround/tactical frequencies is common.

Conventional APCO P-25 Talkgroup ID's and Radio ID's (RID) Information:

The GRE PSR-800, Uniden BC396XT, Uniden BC996XT, and Uniden Home Patrol HP-1 have the ability to decode conventional APCO P-25 Talkgroup ID's and Radio ID's. Note that these ARE NOT the same as trunked talkgroup ID's and Radio ID's.

Conventional Talkgroup ID = 1 is the P25 conventional talkgroup used on DISPATCH (Channel B) frequencies.

Radio ID's for dispatch consoles are in the format of X00001, X00002, and so on, where X is the KSP Post number... For example, Radio ID's for the radio consoles at Post 2 are:
200001 Console 1 for Post 2
200002 Console 2 for Post 2
200003 Console 3 for Post 2

Individual trooper Radio ID's have no noted correlation to corresponding car or badge numbers (ie unit 301 for Post 16 is not 1600301 and so forth).

Monitoring The System

A scanner that will receive APCO P-25 digital mode is required to monitor. Currently there are several scanners available with this capability:
Radio Shack PRO-18, PRO-96, PRO-106, PRO-197, PRO-2096
GRE PSR-500, PSR-600, PSR-800
Uniden 250D, 296D, 396T/996T, 396XT/996XT, 785D, 796D, Home Patrol HP-1

If you use a PRO96/2096 or 396T/996T you will need to enter the freqs in "FM" mode.

Scanners with NAC decode capability can be programmed with the listed Network Access Code (NAC) for each frequency. This will reduce interference from other frequencies.

Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVE)

Kentucky Motor Vehicle Enforcement Officers are now the Kentucky State Police Division of Commercial Vehicle Enforcement; they will operate on the KSP Post freqs for their regions. They are 4XXX units, some KSP Posts will see a great increase in radio traffic due to this change. A number of factors led to the merger but officer safety is the big winner here as CVE now operates on the much newer and more reliable KSP System. There won't be as much traffic on 453.30000, it is temporarily a stop-gap to run their more specialized vehicle checks as KSP Dispatchers take on the added responsibility of learning how to do those specialized checks and use new software programs to facilitate those checks.

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