Chicago & Detroit Buff Trip

[Mikey]

First question is do you have a scanner?  If yes, what type?  Chicago can still be monitored with most scanners made over the past 20 years, whereas Detroit requires a scanner capable of P25 Phase I trunking, limiting it to the higher tier scanners of the past 12 years or so.  Having a scanner will give you several minutes that you lose on the online feeds, as well as the ability to hold on a specific channel or talkgroup.

Chicago FD is non-trunked UHF P25 for dispatch and UHF analog for fireground. Most of the suburbs around the city are analog VHF and a bunch of other departments further out are on the statewide P25 trunked system.  "News paging" systems like IPN (requires a paid subscription) are very active in IL in addition to some Facebook groups and even the CFD Twitter account.