Massachusetts State Police much of the info on this page by Gary Saffer, Bill Dunn and from Steven Johnson's Statewide Trunking Guide.

Massachusetts State Police

The Mass State Police now operate a statewide analog Motorola Type 2  800MHz Trunked Radio System along with many other state and local agencies.  Some of the traffic is carried statewide while some is restricted to specific zones of the Commonwealth.
The best place for the most complete information on the State Police's trunked system is Steve Johnson's Web Site.

That being said right off we will just here try to give you a quick breakdown of what you need to listen to the system in the Boston area on your TrunkTracker.

What is trunking?
Trunking means that a limited or smaller number of frequencies is shared by a larger group of talkgroups or user channels. Where In the past you thought of a channel referring to a specific frequency in a trunked system a channel or “talkgroup” can move around on the bank of frequencies. By doing this the small amount of frequencies can be used more efficiently to provide lots of channels in a way that would have required many frequencies in the past wit some often idle. One frequency is used by the Trunk as a control channel. This channel is a constant data stream that all the radios in the trunk use to move seamlessly all around the trunk to carry on these talkgroup conversations.
For more information on what Trunking is and the various types see:  http://tricari.home.attbi.com/ http://www.trunkedradio.net
 

Zone 5 is a Multicast SmartNet operating all over the Eastern MA area.
Enter the following frequencies as Motorola Type 2 trunking channels in your TrunkTracker
(note: If you have a Pro93, Pro95, Pro2053, BC250D, BC750D I would recommend Control Channel Trunking where you would only enter the Control channels and let the scanner find the rest automatically. Though the BC780 can also do this you loose a little display activity.)

860.9875 control channel
860.9625 alternate control channel
860.7375
860.7125
859.7125
858.9875
857.9875
857.7125
856.9625
856.7125

Eastern Mass Basic Talkgroups  (again see Steve Johnson's Web Site for more)
A-PTL-1   33168   Troop A North   A1 Andover, A2 Newbury, A3 Concord, A6 Danvers
A-PTL-2   33200   Troop A South  A 4 Medford, A5 Revere
A-PTL-3   33232   Troop A Car to Car
H-PTL-1   33264   Troop H North  H1 Beacon Hill, H4 Boston, H5 Brighton, H6 South Boston,
H-PTL-2   33296   Troop H South H2 Framingham, H3 Foxboro, H7 Milton,
H-PTL-3   33328   Troop H Car to Car
E-PTL-1   33456   Troop E MassPike Ext to Weston.
E-PTL-4   35824   Troop E Liberty Tunnel/TWT
E-PTL-5   35856   Troop E (active in Zone5 not sure of use)
F-PTL-1   33392   Troop F Logan Airport  (note this channel is used secondary too Massport Trunked system)
STATE     35472   Statewide  Air Base and Air Units, Hazmat Crews
SOPS-1   33360   Special Operations
SOPS-2   33488   Special Operations
SOPS-3   33680   Special Operations
SOPS-1E 35664  Special Operations E-Troop
 

Mass State Police 800 MHZ Trunked System Statewide <-- a direct link to the best place for this info Stephen Johnson's Page
Massport 800MHz Trunked System (Troop F Logan Airport) <-- a direct link to the best place for this info Stephen Johnson's Page

MSP Low Band System:  PL141.3      (This is the previous radio system but is still used as a back up in Eastern MA)
F1 42.44 Statewide
F2 42.34 A Troop
F3 42.40 C Troop
F4 42.50 D Troop
F5 42.54  car to car
F6 42.46 B Troop
F7 42.42
      42.38

Older channels:
44.74 Statewide CSQ
44.90                    CSQ

Troop A    (Metro North, Northeastern Massachusetts)

A HQ                             Danvers
A-1                                 Andover     
A-2                                 Newbury
A-3                                 Concord
A-4                                 Medford
A-5                                 Revere
A-6                                 Danvers
A-9                                 Radio Repair
A-11                               Emergency Management (Framingham) 

Troop H   (Boston, Metro West, South West Metro)

H-1                                 Beacon Hill, Boston
H-2                                 Framingham
H-3                                 Foxboro
H-4                                 Boston
H-5                                 Brighton
H-6                                 South Boston
H-7                                 Milton

Troop E Mass Turnpike

EHQ   South Boston
E-1       Weston
E-2       Charlton  
E-3       Westfield
E-4       South Boston
E-4a     Sumner, Callahan, Tunnel East Boston

3/27/03 Most of the Pike has now received cruiser 800 MHz radios and is popping up on the Trunk but the VHF system is still heavily used thought most the state.
159.03  141.3  Sumner and Callahan Tunnels (now E-PTL-4 35824)
159.03    82.5  Ted Williams Tunnel (now on E-PTL-4 35824)
159.03  110.9  Turnpike Extension  (some on E-PTL-1 33456 some on E-PTL-4 35824)
159.03  162.2  Turnpike East  (some on E-PTL-1 33456)
159.225  88.5  Central Ops  (some on E-PTL-2 35600)
159.03   131.8 Turnpike West     
 

Their old VHF portables:  (most on my end of the state use their 800 MHz ones)
      155.475                               MSP Portable F3 (National Intercity)
      154.920     203.5Hz            MSP Portable F1 (Repeats Low band troop channel through cruiser radio)
      154.920     CSQ                  MSP Portable F2 (Portable to Portable, CSQ)

Note: 41872 Is a very active new administration talkgroup used in the new tunnels with the OCC
          42256 Is believed to be a new statewide administrative talkgroup.

Below was a new channel plan announced last year that seems to have been scrapped for the Trunk??

The State Police have assigned a talk group (33456)  on the 800 Mhz system to Troop E.  This talk group has recently become fairly active as Troop E is now responsible for the new Leverett Circle ramp system. It appears that Troop E will be responsible for patrolling all of the new Central Artery, Ted Williams, Sumner and Callahan Tunnels, as well as connecting roads. The new talk group has been heard on the Troop C and B systems, so it is Smart Zoned as needed.

State Police Codes:
Code1 Emergency  (All units not involved stay off the air)
Code2 Phone your Barracks
Code3 Phone_______
Code4 Out of Service
Code5 In Service
Code6 Location
Code8 Stopping suspicious vehicle
Code 9 Registration request
Code10 Stolen Check
Code11 License Check
Code12 Message Request
Code13 Radio Test    (R9strong-----R1unreadable)
Code14 M&W
Code15 Officer in Trouble
Code16 Investigation
Code17 Clear
Code18 Request to Clear
Code22 Cellular Caller

800 Mhz System

The Massachusetts State Police are currently in the process of completing construction and implementation of an 800 MHz  trunking system statewide. It is actually several systems, with each Troop having multiple talk groups. Because this is a  Smart Zone system, units from one troop can operate on their own talk groups while within another troops geographic area.  For example, Talk Group 33968, which is Troop D1 and D4, is often heard on the Troop A and H trunk system. For listeners  who use Uniden or Radio Shack Trunk Tracker scanners, it pays to put in adjacent troops talk groups. Below I have listed  the current (February 2001) Trunk Tracker IDs. 
For up to date information, I suggest that the reader visit http://home.comcast.net/~kc1ho/ematrunk/msp/msp.html, which is Steve Johnson's excellent Eastern Massachusetts Trunking System Information page.  In addition to the Mass. State Police, there are several other 800 MHz systems listed on his site.

In addition to the 800 MHz trunk systems, many agencies have access to the following nationwide 800 MHz Intersystem tactical frequencies which are available to police, fire, and EMS.  The PL for all of the following channels is 156.7.  The State Police has just installed Multi-Channel DTMF controllable I-TAC repeaters at all of their sites.  Look for these channels to become more active soon.

I-TAC Call - 866.0125
I-TAC 1    -   866.5125
I-TAC 2    -   867.0125
I-TAC 3    -   867.5125
I-TAC 4    -   868.0125

The Mass State Police also have two conventional repeater frequencies and one simplex frequency in use. The repeaters  are located at various sites in the states. The frequencies are as follows; 

SP RPT-1   868.9375  141.3    Locations Vary
SP-RPT-2   868.9500  141.3    Locations Vary
DIRECT     868.9625  141.3

These repeaters are installed in central MA, at the MWRA Quabbin Reservoir. The State Police inherited responsibility  for patrolling this area after the merger with the MDC Police in 1992. 

Frequency                             PL                           Use
854.0375                                 123.0                   MWRA TAC-15 (Quabbin North Repeater)
854.0375                                 146.2                   MWRA TAC-15 (Quabbin South Repeater)
854.0375                                 146.2                   MWRA TAC-16 (Simplex)
853.8375                                 146.2                   MWRA TAC-14 (Watchusett Repeater)
853.8375                                 146.2                   MWRA TAC-16 (Simplex)

Recently a statewide car to car talk group was added. The exact use of this is still unclear, but it appears that any  state police unit can use this to call any other unit regardless of zone. The talk group is 35472. Now being used by  HAZMAT teams statewide after Sep11.

MSP Conventional Channels (this is an old list from Bill Dunn but the information still seems good.
MEMA has changed now to COM DIR so possibly the other agencies have too.)

Non MSP Conventional Channels