SEMARA’s live Scanner audio feed made it’s debut yesterday thanks to support by the membership and Scan America. A beta system was installed at the site yesterday by N1TI which is making temporary use of the 440 MHz repeater antenna at 180′. The scanner is presently programmed with public safety (police & fire) frequencies for Bristol County departments including New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fall River, Westport, Fairhaven, Acushnet and a few marine frequencies. There are also a few other Plymouth County frequencies including Marion, Rochester and Mattapoisett. I had to avoid a few frequencies due to the scanner not having the best of rejection capabilities. When it comes time to install the 900 MHz repeater, we’ll move the scanner to a dedicated antenna. We don’t need much elevation since most department repeaters in the area are full quieting at ground level. The state police trunk was locked out since the 440 MHz antenna looked like a dead short at 860 MHz. There are several benefits to having Scan America stream our feed. It only requires a single 20 kHz stream from SEMARA to Scan America. Scan America can support thousands of clients so there will never be a bottleneck for the foreseeable future. Another nice feature is the scanner archive, which stores audio in 15 minute increments with a date and time stamp for easy recall. Ever see a parade of police and fire engines and not have a scanner with you? No problem…just look at your watch and make note of the time, then when you get home visit the scanner archive and go back in time to find out what happened. There are many other benefits that we’ll update you on the new web page we’re constructing. Meanwhile…click here for the Bristol County Landing Page and then click on South Coast Public Safety. You will be given a choice for your preferred player.