Times-Shamrock Virtual Scanner

System Info

Using an antenna mounted high on the Times Tower, we use various scanners and computerized monitoring devices to be able to decode both Analog and Digital channels. Our computerized monitoring devices are able to decode many channels at the same time opposed to a scanner which can only handle a single channel. At this time the Scranton City channels and the new digital Luzerne County North and South Simulcast Cells are on the computerized devices, while Lackawanna PD and FD Zones remain on conventional scanners due to the high RF environment from the tower, as it not only broadcasts 2 AM Stations but 3 FM stations as well so the interference is too great to have the Analog VHF Zones on the sensitive computerized dongles.

Connecting to the interface

To connect to the scanner you must be on the company network or connected to the AnyConnect VPN.

You can access it by visiting http://scanner.timesshamrock.com:3000/

Interface Overview

This is what the homepage looks like, there is an information screen at the top that shows the current channel, and below it shows the last 5 transmissions. Below this are various buttons that control the scanner.

To listen to calls as they come in, press the Live Feed button, if this mode is enabled the light will turn green. As new calls come in they will play through your speakers and the channel name will appear on the display. Press it again to disable the live feed.

To hold your scanner on a channel, press the HOLD TG button, when enabled the light will turn green and the scanner will only play messages from the channel that was playing when you hit the button. Press it again to turn this mode off.

If you want to listen to the last call again, press the Replay Last button.

If a channel is bothering you, press the AVOID button to lock it out. Pressing it once will disable it until it is manually reenabled, pressing it multiple times will show a clock icon with a time next to it in the display indicating how long it will lockout until it automatically turns back on.

To pause the feed press Pause, to un-pause press the button again. NOTE: when you un-pause the feed will resume from where you hit pause, it will NOT be live. If you want to resume the feed live press the LIVE FEED button.

Customizing the Scan List

If you want to manually select the individual channels that you want to listen to, press the SELECT TG which will bring you to the channel screen.

The channel screen is shown above, note that as time goes on more channels will become available, especially for Luzerne County but the functionality will remain the same.

For convenience, we have create groups of similar channels and bundled them together, you can toggle them at the top. Toggling these groups will automatically enable/disable sets of channels in the lower groups. Example: Toggling the Lackawanna Law group would enabled/disable the 3 County PD Zones.  A green light indicates that the channel is enabled, a red light means it is disabled and you will not hear it. However, you can still manually select channels by clicking on them individually.

Press the back button at the top left to return to the main screen.

Reviewing Recorded Audio

All channels are recorded for a set time period, you can review any recorded transmissions via the SEARCH CALL button which brings you to the playback screen.

By default, the display shows every call in chronological order, but using the controls at the bottom you can filter and sort the files based on channel, group, and time. You can playback files by pressing the play button, or download them to your computer by enabled the download mode at the middle left of the screen.

Need Further Help?

Call us at 570-504-8200 (x8200 internal) or open a ticket by emailing us at helpdesk@timesshamrock.com