THE MARITIMES SCANNING SITE  
Also incorporating  Bill's Radio Site  (MF , HF and general radio items of interest)
Scan the Maritime Provinces of Canada: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.  Frequencies and services are included for each province; however it does concentrate on Nova Scotia and especially the Halifax Regional Municipality.  Your input is requested!  Thank you and good listening

Opening page last updated June 10, 2009     © 2009, MARITIMES SCANNING SITE, all rights reserved.          

Unless otherwise indicated the information presented here has been personally verified by myself, is from publicly-available government documents, or has been received from other listeners on whose information I feel I can rely.   This information, including frequencies and talk group ID's,  is readily available on the public airwaves to any listener willing and able to spend time listening and analyzing, and is merely compiled here.  It is not my intent to publish any information that is actually confidential or that is likely to jeopardize the conduct of any public service operations.  
Please e-mail me with any comments, corrections, additions to: marscan1@canada.com     

Downtown Halifax taken on July 1, 2007 from the Dartmouth side of the harbour.   Public domain photo from Derek Rodgers.

T
he left-most tall building (Maritime Centre) is the location of the downtown TMR site. The casino just to right of centre has its own trunk system.  Marine traffic in the harbour is mostly on 156.6, with naval ships also on 156.5.  Intership 156.3; tugs on 156.35.

This site is for the most part a static set of lists, explanations, links, and historical musings, with occasional updates.  It is suggested that you use it as a starting place for understanding any of the radio aspects that are covered and go on from there.   For example, for scanning in the Maritimes, there is a great deal of background information and lists provided here, but you should use these in conjunction with the ScanMaritimes forum site:  www.scanmaritimes.ca where you will find up to the minute happenings and discoveries being discussed, and questions being asked and answered, and you can take part in this yourself.   I am not part of the administration of ScanMaritimes but I am a big fan and I go there every day!  Other forum and reference sites that will find interesting, but do not specifically cover this region are: Hepburn’s Radio & TV DX Info Centre , http://radioreference.com  and www.strongsignals.net .    For the best in coverage of the region of my scanning roots, please visit ScanBC. (700 MHZ well underway in the Vancouver area for the Olympics... check it out at ScanBC!)
The two major North American magazines covering the radio listening hobbies are Monitoring Times and Popular Communications.   Both are available at some newsstands in the Maritimes, but I get MT on-line for US$ 19.95 per year.  
The Maritimes Scanning Site was featured in the August 2003 issue of Monitoring Times 

What is scanning?   It is the hobby reception of communications in the VHF and UHF range of frequencies.    Scanning refers to the fact that scanners, receivers for such communications, continually scan dozens or hundreds of channels.  Scanning may be associated with amateur radio but not necessarily, and most enthusiasts are interested in radio communications and public service agencies, but are not "ambulance chasers".  They are you and I!!  Scanning is legal in Canada though there are restrictions on the divulging of information heard.   The freedom to listen to what is on the airwaves on your regular radio or on your scanner is one of the most important liberties in a democracy such as ours, and not only is a source of broadcast entertainment and news, but also enables the citizenry of a country to have a knowledge of what their public safety agencies are doing, and to appreciate their services.

FAQ!
1. Question:  “Can you tell me xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ?”   OR  “Can you send me the XXXXX for XXXXXXXX?”  [General comment about questions!]
2. Question:  “Why doesn’t the Maritimes Scanning Site list all the known talk group id’s of the NS trunk (TMR)?”      OR    “You don’t have the talk group id’s for the XXXXXXXX on the site, but I bet you know them.  Would you please send them to me?”  OR  “Why don’t you have a section on the XXXXXXXXX service?”
3. Question:  “I would like to listen to the Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMR).  What are the frequencies?”
4. Question:  “What are the "frequencies" for the XXXXXXXX?”   (where XXXXXX is an agency that uses the TMR (NS Trunked Mobile Radio System)).   5. Question:  “I sent you some updates back awhile and they still aren’t up on the site”   OR   “Why isn’t the Maritimes Scanning Site kept more up to date?”
6.
Question:  “Please send me the codes for XXXXXXXX.”  My answer is my rant about what people call
``codes``    Also, see below for my new page on codes and radio expressions7. Question:  "Can you help me program my scanner?"  OR  "Can you advise me on the best scanner?"

Nova Scotia Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMR) for a description including frequencies, structure, non-digital ID List, How to Listen, and a link to the official site.  Specific information on individual user agencies is available through the provincial links below.  If you are not in the first place familiar with trunking in general, click here

Nova Scotia
Police
Fire
Provincial
Municipal Services
Halifax Regional
Cape Breton Regional
Nova Scotia Power

Other Trunk systems in Halifax
NSIMRS & NSTMRS official website

 NS Integrated Mobile Radio System (NSIMRS: Check out Nova Scotia's provincial VHF system from the 80's and 90's - some parts operating today!)
NEW MAY 29:  fire lookout towers

NEW MAY 31: NS MAPS SHOWING TMR SITES, ETC (under construction, but partly usable now)

 


New Brunswick

RCMP
Other Police
Fire
 NB Integrated Radio System
Fredericton Trunk Systems 

Moncton Area Trunk Systems
Saint John
Municipal Services 
Atlantic Communications Commercial Trunk
NB Power

 

Prince Edward Island
 

Police (RCMP and other)

Fire

PICS PEI Integrated Communications System
Confederation Bridge Trunk System

Maritimes-wide and nearby areas, and miscellaneous commercial systems:

Federal Govt

Aeronautical

Link to Nav Canada's Airport Diagram site. See a chart of practically any significant airport in Canada.

Link to LiveATC.net (aero) live streaming many areas of the world

Marine

Railways

Amateur Radio

Drivethrough (Takeout)

Bus (School, etc) [needs work!]

GMRS, FRS, MURS, CB

Maine

Quebec

Newfoundland
 Halifax Casino

 

NEW!  A page on Q codes, Ten codes, phonetic alphabet, Morse, words used in radio, etc.

 Weatheradio Canada 
 NOAA Weatheradio 
NOAA's Charts of the US Coasts,
showing Weatheradio sites and USCG stations. Excellent!
Link to the MILCOM Monitoring Post, for your military monitoring needs


 List of Canadian CMB’s (Continuous Marine Broadcasts), at Bill Hepburn’s Site 

 Cdn vhf band plan
700 MHz Band Plan (SUBJECT TO MAJOR CHANGE)
800 MHz Band 
800 MHz Usage in Maritimes
800 MHz Channels by group

 Mobile Phones: Before Cellular

Broadcast and Historical Pages
[not scanning]

Broadcast Listening

 

Current list of FM broadcast stations in the Maritimes and Maine, including Bill's loggings from within and outside this region


About Bill
(radio history, QSL collection, see my shortwave listeners certificate from the 60’s!)

Bill's Radio Historical Pages, centering on call letters but also touching on the history of marine and military radio in Canada.   Links to some fabulous sites belonging to Spud Roscoe, Jerry Proc, Frank Statham, Thomas White and others. 

Bill’s Other Hobbies Intro & Links Page (mostly re aircraft, airnav, railroads) under construction. What's Up with Bill

External Links not contained in pages above:

WTFDA Home Page (This is the club for those interested in TV, FM and related DX'ing...including up to the minute forums on ducting and other skip phenomena)

Northwest Broadcasters (AM, FM, TV developments and Lists from the Seattle/Vancouver area)

Northeast Radio Watch. Similar to the above but for NE USA and Eastern Canada

Recent Broadcast Decisions from the CRTC

Website re BCB DX'ing

 

Search Canadian government frequency records [TAFL], visit  http://sd.ic.gc.ca/engdoc/main.jsp.
 
TAFL search engine:  http://neon.polkaroo.net/~darkwing/tafl/

SATCOLT
(mobile communications system for Canadian emergencies)

Link to Motorola’s MOTOTRBO page.  A conventional system using digital technology not listenable on scanners, on 400 MHz

Link to Halifax Regional Search & Rescue's site (not a source of communications information, but a good example of a comms-oriented volunteer organizations that you might want to help out)
 
 

Forum from Scan Cape Cod: loggings UHF/VHF/FMBC dx/tropospheric ducting from New England… may indicate conditions here as well. They can hear us; maybe we can hear them!  Scan Cape Cod is the best place to go for New England scanning.

Calculating bearings & distances from your QTH or anywhere.

. Sign up for the free Scanning Digest.  Quarterly emailed report with articles and photos.  I enjoy it, and so will you.  USA, but why not start a Maritimes column? Email request to ScanningDigest@usa.com

Although I am not actively scanning today, I am always interested in what is out there, and as a long-time educator and writer I enjoy attempting to tell others about many different aspects of radio listening through lists, links, observations and explanations.   I began serious radio listening in 1963 with the AM broadcast band, began "scanning" in about 1970, and obtained my amateur radio licence in 1978. Here is the list of scanners and monitors I have owned and enjoyed: 

Lafayette P-100 (VHF 2 xtal channels, plus variable tuner, from the 70's),(purchased in Seattle, Washington in 1972!)

    GE Searcher (four individually tunable and scannable channels) 

 

RS:  PRO-30 (my first programmable scanner), PRO-43, PRO-60, PRO-92, PRO-95, PRO-96, PRO-97, PRO-99, PRO-2026, PRO-2096. 

    Bearcat: BC-235 (my first trunktracker), BC-250, BC-590, BC-780.

Buying a scanner:    Personally I bought most of my equipment over the years at Radio Shack in the US while on road trips down there, but I have also purchased through e-Bay with very good results, on the whole.  Of course you could also try Kijiji or other on-line auction and sale sites.   Check the want ads and the local buy-sell papers available in our region.   You may be able to buy through small local electronics retailers such as Steve's Radio in Halifax, but don't even bother with the larger electronics chains such as The Source or Best Buy.   There are at least two major Canadian radio retailers that sell on-line and some would say that it is in the end cheaper to buy new from them rather than import from an American seller.   Check out Durham Radio and Radio World, both in Ontario.   I will be happy to list other Canadian retailers with which you are familiar.  Of course there are also the major American suppliers that advertise regularly in the two magazines, plus many smaller ones that you can look up on-line.  Familiar ones in the US include www.scannermaster.com , www.scannerworld.com , www.usascan.com , www.grove-ent.com  and of course you can check out www.radioshack.com   Radio Shack will not ship to Canada as far as I know, but you can always have something be on hand at whatever store you can visit in person.