Scanning Mercer County, New Jersey

For all the municipalities or groups listed above, there is a table of the frequencies and a brief description of how they are used. The first field is the channel name and/or usage, the second column is the radio frequency, the third column is the type (R=repeater, B=base, M=mobile), and the fourth column is the squelch or modulation type (CSq = carrier squelch). A two-digit number in the last field represents an LTR LCN; any known associated talkgroups will be listed further down in the same table.

It is intended for all public safety (police/fire/EMS/OEM) and government services (roads dept/building dept/schools) channels to be listed here, plus most business repeaters and other channels which may be of particular interest. Many business channels have intentionally been omitted because researching and processing them all would be impractical. If you are searching for one not listed, try the FCC database or check if they are using an undentified talkgroup on one of the SMRs. If you are searching for additional tactical channels used by a business which has repeaters shown, try the master frequency lists. If you find or know of anything which is not listed here, please e-mail them to the author so that others may benefit.

Businesses should be listed under the municipality they are principally located in. County-wide busineses like utilities may be listed under the County Other section or with the municipality in which the main transmitter is located.

Standard and regional channels have been omitted from this page for brevity and can be found on the General Mercer/ Middlesex/ Somerset County Channels page.

Good sources of additional information are:
• Mercer County official site.
• Frequency Lists (located at this site, includes more license data, excludes narratives).
• Philly Scanner E-Book (may be worth the one-time subscription fee if you listen to much south Jersey stuff).
• PhillyScanner Yahoo Group (free companion to the E-Book).
• RadioReference.com, particularly for trunked radio system information but increasingly for conventional data too.

Mercer County Trunked Radio System

Mercer temporarily and technically has two P25 trunked systems. On the Lawrence tower is sysid 1EA, site ID 101, WACN BEE00; base0=500.4500 step0=12.5 offset0=0, base1=506.3000 step1=12.5 offset1=4096, base3=508.4875 step2=12.5 offset3=8192; in site trunking. The Hightstown tower is live with sysid 27B, site ID 101, WACN BEE00; base2=500.0000 step2=6.25 offset2=8192; in site trunking. This was set up on the Hightstown tower to meet FCC build-out requirements and should eventually be integrated into a comprehensive simulcast system. For now you would be best off only programming the Lawrence tower, it doesn't see much activity but nothing at all comes over Hightstown. If I'm reading the Pro96Com data correctly then the Hightstown control channel isn't even giving out the correct repeater input frequency information over the air.

County-wide OEM roll calls are now being conducted on OEM Command in the clear, with the following dispatch centers being called: East Windsor, Ewing, Hamilton, Hightstown, Hopewell Township, Lawrence, Princeton Borough, Princeton Township, Robbinsville, Trenton, West Windsor, Lifecom, and Sheriff. Whereas tests seemed to be run regularly on Tuesdays at 1100, they now seem to be a little more random but sometimes follow tests of the Crime Alert channel. On 4/03/07 Princeton Borough tried responding to the roll call on 00017 and was not acknowledged. 00019 was used on 2/09/07 for traffic and/or crowd control at the Trenton FD LODD memorial services.

Mercer County Law Enforcement / County-wide Police

Mercer County uses a UHF repeater for crime alerts/information. The channel is licensed and apparently maintained by Ewing, with most municipalities licensing the input to the frequency (consequently not listed individually). Tests are run by Ewing on Wednesday mornings at about 1000, with the following reporting: East Windsor PD, Hamilton PD, Hightstown PD, Hopewell PD, Lawrence PD, Princeton Borough PD, Princeton Township PD, Robbinsville PD, The College of NJ PD, Trenton PD, West Windsor PD, and county central. The County Sheriff and County Prosecutor used to also report on this channel, but have not been heard in recent tests.

The park rangers operate on the parks department channel, listed in the County Other section.

Mercer County Fire & EMS & OEM

Most of Mercer County's fire companies are dispatched on F-1 by the Mercer County Emergency Services Communications Center (AKA "Central"), located at the Dempster Fire Training Center in Lawrence. F-2 and and F-4, the South Jersey Fire Network, are used primarily for secondary dispatch and inter-county coordination. The Tactical channels are for response and command and there are a few county fireground channels if needed. In some cases a town has its own dispatch and operations channels, in which case F-1 and the relevant Tac channel are not ordinarily used; see each town's section for more information.

Central fire dispatch operates several towers throughout the county for communicating with the various apparatus. Some towers omit certain frequencies that are not needed for that geographic area. The primary tower (along with dispatch & county OEM HQ) is at the Demptster Fire Service Training Center near Quakerbridge Mall; satellite towers are at: Trenton/Mercer Airport; Province Line Road in Hopewell; First Avenue in Hightstown; and Klockner Avenue in Hamilton.

Mercer County also dispatches Plainsboro (Middlesex County) after the Plainsboro Township PSAP receives the 911 call and pages out the fire company. Kingston Fire Company, Middlesex Station 24, is included in the list above because they run mutual aid into Princeton semi-regularly; note that their South Brunswick station number doesn't quite correspond with the Mercer County system. Cranbury, Station 48, is also included in the list (and does comply with the Mercer numbering) because it too regularly runs mutual aid into Mercer County.

Mercer County OEM Communications has access to a plethora of public safety and amateur radio channels for use in emergencies. The statewide EMRAD network is usually tested at 7:30 PM on the last Monday of each month. The Red Cross Central New Jersey Chapter operates a fully-equipped amateur station with permission to use the DSRC repeater when appropriate, in addition to the standard 47.42.

There was a buff network repeater which is completely unaffiliated with the county, but seemed to cover the greater-Mercer area. Traffic hasn't been heard on it in a while so they may have changed frequencies or gone defunct.

Helene Fuld was designated as a Level II Trauma Center in the late '90s. Lifecom is generally notified of an incoming trauma patient by ALS (or by telephone or state trunked radio if coming from out-of-county). The CH ED Alert channel is for alerting trauma staff to an incoming patient.

When not using cell phones, Capital Health EMS ALS units use the standard med channels (with PL=151.4) for physician control and talk-around with Lifecom. The base radio (Lifecom or the doc) transmits on the lower channel and mobiles transmit on the higher, so units can not normally talk amongst themselves (unless they have these channels programmed in again, in simplex mode). CH ALS units apparently have mobile extenders from the UHF med channels to a unique VHF-Hi channel for each unit, presumably so that medics can carry just one (VHF) portable.

BLS units use the HEAR channel to provide patient reports to all Mercer County hospitals.

Mercer County Other

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has large campuses in Lawrence and Hopewell Townships and a small site in Hamilton Township, and has been given its own section on this page in order to improve organization.

All the identified channels here are confirmed, at least for the main campus (206 & Province Line Road), but on some of the channels it sounds like there may be a couple different repeaters using the same input and output PLs (as in another repeater in Hopewell for better coverage on one channel). Alerts for the BMS Fire Brigade go out on F-1, F-5, and the paging channel. The brigade and first aid squad typically operate on F-5, though they may choose to use another channel on occasion. While many tactical channels are licensed for the other two campuses, it is likely that the main repeaters are also used for them for regular things like security and emergency services.

In addition to these three large and one small site, BMS has nearby facilities outside Mercer County at Bridgewater, Cranbury, Edison, New Brunswick, and Plainsboro. Channels for those sites are listed under the respective towns on the Middlesex and Somerset county pages.

The College of New Jersey

The College of New Jersey uses a UHF repeater for police dispatch. The old police channel is reportedly used for EMS and maintenance services, though maintenance now has a UHF channel of its own.

The college's radio station is on 91.3, and there are a couple channels apparently for use in broadcast production; likely studio links or relays or that sort of thing.

East Windsor Township

East Windsor Township's Police Department is self-dispatched on one UHF repeater, with a second repeater for alternate communication.

Fire Stations 42 and 46 are alerted on Fire-1 and typically operate on Tac-1. Initial alerting is sometimes by East Windsor, but county will always repeat it themselves and all routine follow-on dispatch communications should be with county.

Squads 142 and 146 are alerted and operate on the EW high-band repeater. Units CH-1 & CH-2 are the paid daytime BLS units for the township, operated by Capital Health EMS.

EW Public Works has its own repeated channel, and the EW Municipal Utility Authority has its own simplex channel.

The East Windsor Regional Schools recently licensed and installed a UHF repeater. Usage appears to be digital, possibly the MotoTRBO format; whatever kind of digital it is, digital scanners will not decode it. Actual usage is also not known -- note that MotoTRBO supports two voice channels on a single repeater frequency, and will soon (if not already) support its own trunking format. The other channels listed here for EWRSD may or may not be old and presently unused.

Ewing Township

Note that the Ewing trunked system was upgraded from Motorola Type 2 to P25 in 2008. Additional information is in the following paragraphs.

Ewing Township's Police Department finished moving from a conventional UHF analog system to a digital encrypted UHF Type II Motorola trunked system in October of 2005, and upgraded it to APCO P-25 in 2008. To date, all talkgroups used by Ewing PD are encrypted, and there are no scanners which are capable of receiving this. It is unknown what plans, if any, there are for Ewing public works and municipal services to go trunked. Based on license data, it looks as if Hopewell Township will also be using this trunked system. For information on Hopewell's end of things (if there is any), see that section of this page.

The P25 sysid is 2DA, the WACN is BEE00, and the site id is 101. If your scanner requires a custom table (namely the Pro-96 and -2096) then use a base of 500.0000, step of 6.25kHz, and offset of 8192. This can be entered directly from the keypad, you do not need software to enter a single table. The old Motorola Type 2 sysid of 941C and configuration of 507.3000/12.5/380 no longer apply.

Stations 31, 32, 33, and 34 are alerted by county on Fire-1 and usually operate on Tac-2.

Squads 132 (volunteer 1800-0600) and 139 (paid 0600-2300) are paged on JEMS 1 by LifeCom, and both operate on LifeCom's repeater.

OEM channels are per unconfirmed report. Licenses currently exist for some, but not all of the channels.

The Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority uses a high-band channel.

The NJSP Trunked Radio System (TRS) fill-in transmitters listed here are located at the headquarters near the airport. They function by allowing radios to affiliate to them then transmitting only the talkgroups which those radios are set for. There seem to be only two channels at this site, which allow for a full-time control channel and just one channel for voice traffic; as a result there is very limited capacity at this fill-in site. It would be unusual (though theoretically possible) for this site to carry any talkgroups which are not also carried by the main Troop C simulcast system so scannists in the Ewing area are encouraged to listen to the main system instead, and must for the greatest reliability.

Hamilton Township

Hamilton Township's Police Department has three repeaters, F-1 for primary dispatch with the two others for alternate / lookups / tactical. F-3 is the same frequency as the MDT repeater; the voice channel has a PL to avoid annoyance from the MDTs.

Stations 10, 12, 13, 14-1, 14-2, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 are alerted on Fire-1 and operate on Tac-3. 'Fire Officers' is licensed for low-power usage, listed by the Dempster Center web site as for chiefs. Under certain circumstances (apparently ALS calls and MVCs) an "EMS engine" may be dispatched to medical calls. The apparatus is paged on Fire-1 and subsequently operates on Tac-3 or Lifecom's repeater.

BLS is provided to Hamilton Township by Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton. Units 110-1 and 110-2 are stationed at the hospital and dispatched by LifeCom on county Fire-1 (paging) and the operations channel.

EMS is also still provided by Nottingham Ambulance Squad.

Hightstown Borough

Hightstown Borough's Police Department is dispatched on a UHF repeater. Through an interlocal agreement, they also dispatch Cranbury Township Police (Middlesex County) on a repeater with the same output but a different PL on the input; this is HPD's F-2.

Station 41 is alerted on Fire-1 and usually operates on Tac-1. An additional channel is licensed at high-power to Hightstown Engine Company #1, for unknown use.

Squad 41 is alerted on Fire-1 and operates on 155.265, but with a different CTCSS tone than Mercer's JEMS 1. Cranbury FAS, a former user of the same channel, has moved off it. EMS coverage is also provided by the Robbinsville Fire Department.

See East Windsor for known East Windsor Regional Schools channels.

Hopewell Borough and Hopewell Township

Hopewell Township's Police Department serves both the township and Hopewell Borough and uses a UHF repeater for dispatch. The old VHF police repeater is still keyed up from time to time but intended usage is unknown. Based on FCC license data, it appears that Hopewell will be sharing the trunked system now in use by Ewing PD. See Ewing for more technical info on the trunked system; if/when Hopewell moves up, information specific to them will be posted here.

Fire is dispatched by county on 154.13; Station 52 operates on Tac-2. The "Hopewell Township Fire District" has licensed a low-power high-band repeater, the purpose of which is unknown. Squad 152 is dispatched by LifeCom on 154.13. Daytime EMS coverage is enhanced by 159, an EMT/fire inspector team who respond to medical emergencies if a volunteer ambulance is not available. They supplement the borough and township as well as Pennington.

The Hopewell Valley Regional School District has a UHF repeater. More general information on Hopewell is available at the HVRSD Community Page.

Lawrence Township

Lawrence Township's Police Department uses a UHF repeater for dispatch; the dispatcher (and maybe officers too) also has ability on the Quakerbridge Mall channel for coordination with mall security. An old relay pair has been recycled into two tactical channels, and the old dispatch repeater is still in use as an alternate channel.

Stations 21, 22, and 23 are alerted on Fire-1 and generally operate on Tac-2. Station 20, the township fire inspectors, reportedly use 154.055.

LifeCom pages Squad 129 on JEMS-1 and dispatches them on the LifeCom operations repeater.

In addition to the state channel(s) listed, the DEP has a number of channels running off the Bakers Basin tower. Refer to general channels for those frequencies.

Pennington Borough

Pennington Borough's Police Department (7** units) is dispatched by Hopewell directly on Hopewell's police repeater.

Station 51 is paged on the same channel as Hopewell and usually operates on Tac-2 for response and command.

Squad 151 is paged by LifeCom on the Hopewell channel and operates on JEMS-1.

Princeton Borough & Princeton Township

Princeton Borough's Police Department is dispatched on a UHF repeater, by "718" (as in WPMJ718). Princeton Township's Police Department is dispatched on a separate UHF repeater by '993'. The township police department has an "aviation unit" which rents a helicopter from a local business on an as-needed basis for searches, training, and similar. The borough placed their old MDT channel in service as an alternate channel on or about 3/08/08.

Stations 61, 62, and 63 (all together as the Princeton Fire Department) are paged and operate on their own channel. Initial dispatch is generally by the borough (KEI901) or township (900), and Mercer County takes over after the page-out.

Squad 168 is alerted and communicates with borough and township dispatch on the same channel as the fire department. The old, apparently unlicensed, Tac-3 (158.8950R/d131) has been replaced by 155.8275.

The borough uses the old 677 channel for municipal communications, particularly parking garage ops. Borough DPW utilizes a simplex channel, and the township DPW has a repeater. On 3/26/09 a couple mobiles-only frequencies were added to the KEI901 license (which also has the fire/EMS dispatch repeater and the Borough DPW channel). It is as-yet unknown what these channels are for or what squelch they use.

Princeton Regional Schools (PRS) is the public school district serving the borough and township. The "Miscellaneous" repeater has been set up for various users each using a different DPL.

The Nassau Inn transportation coordination and A/V production channels were in use during an event on 4/28/07. They probably "belong" to the particular livery and production services used for that event, which may or may not be frequently used by the Nassau Inn.

Princeton University

Princeton University runs most of its communications, including PUPS (Princeton University Public Safety) over its UHF Motorola Type II trunked radio system.

For the technically-oriented, Trunker files are available; look for sysid 680A. Base is 506.0125, offset is 380, step is 25.0. Control channels are 507.4625 and 508.3625.

The art museum and food service have their own conventional channels, and certain departments appear to have conventional tactical channels. OIT in particular has mentioned switching to "Local-4" in areas where the trunked system doesn't have good coverage, but I haven't been able to confirm the frequency or determine the PL/DPL.

Mercer County Central (fire) and LifeCom (EMS) dispatch emergency services onto university property in the borough and township. Many fire alarms are checked out and cleared by PUPS and alarm shop personnel without the whole Princeton fire department being dispatched.

During routine updating in early 2007 it appeared that some talkgroups have been realigned since prior identification. This was also hinted at by some radio users, discussing who the new user of a particular talkgroup is. All of the identified talkgroups here are recently confirmed or very strongly suspected, however some or all of the unidentified talkgroups may have been abandoned. Many of the fleet call channels have been interpolated.

The Princeton Plasma Physica Laboratory is affiliated with the university and the US Department of Energy. Its radio channels are generally completely separate from the main university so it is listed under Plainsboro Township, Middlesex County, where it is located.

Robbinsville Township

Please note that Washington Township approved a referendum to change its name to Robbinsville Township on 11/06/07.

Robbinsville Township's Police Department is self-dispatched on a UHF repeater.

Station 40 is alerted on Fire-1 and usually operates on Tac-1. The EMS component, 140-10, operates on Lifecom's repeater. The fire district was dissolved in July of 2006.

City of Trenton

The City of Trenton's services use an 800MHz Motorola Type II trunked radio system. The Police Department uses a special flavor of digital (VSELP) which current digital scanners do not support, and since it is considered an outdated flavor it is unlikely any ever will. Whereas there was speculation that the system may convert to APCO P-25 digital at the time of rebanding, there has been a report that Motorola is custom-building/writing necessary upgrades to the VSELP hardware and/or firmware to enable Trenton and Cleveland to reband.

853.9375 has been rebanded onto 858.6625 as of the middle of 2006. That was the only channel that should have needed special coordination -- 854.2625 should remain the same and all the others should move down 15 MHz; the "Trunk System Future" channels show the total lineup after rebanding. It is not presently clear what effect rebanding will have on scanner functionality. Some hobbyists are reasonably confident that recent scanner models will be able to be "flash" upgraded by the user or by a repair facility.

Aside from the police and certain Fire Department users, all others are analog. The main fire talkgroups will remain analog for the forseeable future because of technical issues with the over-the-air Knox box unlocking mechanism. In addition, a main dispatch talkgroup is multicast on the old city Fire-1 channel.

The city licenses repeaters and mobiles on the five 800 MHz I-Call/I-Tac interop channels listed on the general channels page. Refer to RadioReference.com for the latest talkgroup and system information.

Trenton EMS (TEMS) is dispatched by LifeCom -- see the County-wide Fire/EMS/OEM section of this page for more information.

West Windsor Township

West Windsor's Police Department is self-dispatched on a UHF repeater.

West Windsor Emergency Services, including Stations 43 & 44 and Squad 145, reconfigured their radio communications in the third quarter of 2005; they are now paged on one channel and operate on a new, separate repeater. WWPD, as '275', still generally does the alerting while county central handles it from there for the fire companies and 275 for the ambulances.

West Windsor roads department switched from their old simplex channel to a repeater around April of 2007.

The West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District uses a UHF repeater for its school buses. The district also operates low-power station WWPH at the high school on Clarksville Road.

Mercer-Area SMRs

This is a list of Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) systems known of in Mercer County. These are basically radio channels for rent, an alternative to Nextel (and there long before Nextel existed). Unless noted otherwise all use LTR trunking; TGIDs are not yet available.

It is possible that a business you are searching for is using an SMR based outside the limits of Mercer County, and it is possible that some of the SMR sites listed here are part of a larger network for wider coverage. There are too many sites outside Mercer to cover on this page; to learn more about a network, search the FCC database for other licenses under the same provider. There is information similar to this for Middlesex and Somerset Counties on their respective pages.

This page was created Tuesday 12 August 1997 and last modified Friday 5 March 2010.

http://www.jim-robbins.com/radio/mercer.html