What about MS Hwy Patrol

[gray6077]

I can hear Desoto Cty here in Crittenden Co AR but I cannot hear MHP. I'm using freq. from Dist. 2 and was wondering if these are still valid or am I too far away to listen.

[bubbaearle]

I've driven numerous times to Jackson, MS - via I-55 from Memphis and via US 49 from Helena - and never heard a peep out of MHP. I had all freqs listed here on the MS DB.

It'll get interesting when MWIN comes online in north MS.

Have ya picked up Tunica Co.'s TRS from Marion?

[MississippiPI]

I live in the Jackson district and have a hard time copying their traffic--dispatch is fine but mnot the troppers..They are on a split frequency so I just search that band, I get them on the repaeter channel as well.

Be safe

[matthewtomek]

You need to program District 3, not 2. District 3 runs out of Batesville, District 2 is in Greenwood. I do believe, however, you may be a little too far away to hear anything.

[gray6077]

Originally Posted by bubbaearle

Have ya picked up Tunica Co.'s TRS from Marion?

I've tried but can't, bubbaearle.

[bubbaearle]

Originally Posted by gray6077

I've tried but can't, bubbaearle.

I've caught them on my Pro 2055 late one night from President's Island, it's mounted in my van with a Hustler MOR antenna.

[milf]

Here in AR youll only hear the dispatch on the 42 MHz freq.... Once MSWIN is rolled out in phase III and is fully online then youll hear MHP clearly. Also, it will depend on your antenna set up as far as pulling in VHF Lo Band. But yes the Greenwood HQ is the one youll need.

[nickatnite]

Listening to the MHP is a little confusing. According to the database, they show districts which is somewhat correct, but they associate those with Troop Letters.

Here is the breakdown on the MHP rank and file.
A = This identifier is for Admin troopers mainly of Lt and above assigned out of Headquarters - Jackson. The Commissioner being Unit A, then the Colonel as A1 and so forth. The Governor is referred to as Unit 1.
B = This is for the Criminal Investigation officers. The main ofc is HQ (Jackson) Troopers assigned to each District, the 2nd number of their call sign is their Troop Identifier (i.e. B-19 would be a Trooper CIB assigned to Brookhaven / Troop M)
C = This is Troop C (Dist 1 / Jackson MHP)
D = This is Troop D (Dist 2 / Greenwood MHP)
E = This is Troop E (Dist 3 / Batesville MHP)
F = This is Troop F (Dist 4 / New Albany MHP)
G = This is Troop G (Dist 5 / Starkville MHP)
H = This is Troop H (Dist 6 / Meridian MHP)
I = This is blank
J = This is for Troop J (Dist 7 / Hattiesburg MHP)
K = This is for Troop K (Dist 8 / Gulfport MHP)
L = This is for the Crime Lab Units
M = This is for Troop M (Dist 9 / Brookhaven MHP)
N = This is for Driver Services (Civilian Employees)
P = This is for the Radio Techs and Dispatchers. The dispatcher call sign is the 1st number is the district and the 2nd is their badge # (i.e. P - 25 would be a dispatcher assigned to Greenwood).
R = This is for Troopers assigned to Driver Services (Admin Positions).
S = Can't remember off the top of my head
T = Troopers assigned to the MHP Training Academy
V = This is for Ms Bureau of Narcotics Agents. There are 2 types of V- victor identifiers If you hear one as V-37, He was originally a trooper or grandfathered in back in 1986. If they go by a 3 digit cal sign V-246, they are a city or S.O. agent assigned to the MBN and the second number of the call sign is the district they are assigned to.
W = This is for Troopers assigned to the Air Division (fixed Wing and Helo).


Each troop (with the exception of HQ / Troop C) has a primary transmit Freq and then their repeater. They way the frequencies were assigned was to keep each substation from walking over each other at times, so that is why they use 3 main frequencies and separated over the state.

So....
42.120 is a Base Freq assigned to Districts 1, 5, & 8 = C, G, K
42.160 is a Base Freq assigned to Districts 2, 4, & 7 = D, F, J
42.080 is a Base Freq assigned to Districts 3, 6, & 9 = E, H, L


Oh yeah... At any time, Headquarters (is mainly referred to as Troop C) can over-ride the entire system and transmit on any tower in the state. They set it up this way due to some of the troops not having 24 hr active coverage. That way, when a trooper is called out in a district that is closed for the night, Jackson would handle the radio traffic.


DAMHIK...

[bama9999]

Very informative post, nickatnite. A good bit of it I already knew, but a good bit of it I didn't. Sometimes I'll hear a U-Union callsign used on the MHP freq in district 4. Any idea what/who that would be?

[MississippiPI]

I hear the "U" units as well, I think they are the K-9 or drug interdication

[nickatnite]

Originally Posted by bama9999

Very informative post, nickatnite. A good bit of it I already knew, but a good bit of it I didn't. Sometimes I'll hear a U-Union callsign used on the MHP freq in district 4. Any idea what/who that would be?

Originally Posted by MississippiPI

I hear the "U" units as well, I think they are the K-9 or drug interdication

It most likely is. Interstate interdiction was there in the late 90's when I left, but was up to the individual troop. T-CAP (Traveling Criminal Apprehension Program) was getting big and getting drugs with that. As far as K-9 units, there was only 1 or 2 Troopers per district back then, I know that since then they started up their own (T-CAP) units specifically for that and part of a bigger and joint State/Federal unit that I will not name.

Another note**
S = is for Troopers assigned to the Governors Detail unit.

[milf]

Also note that ALL troopers have ALL frequencies and tones to the repeaters in thier radios for when they operate in another district. Occaisionally you will hear say, a Troop M unit having to operate in District 1, or 7, and switch to the net for that area. Also on the MHP lowband repeaters, when a unit is closer to another district's repeater, they will use it instead of thier own, or use it to talk to a trooper in the other district. Works a lot better than the simplex car to car freqs... Important note, when they have trouble with a primary pair, they will and do use the district repeater for primary comms. Used to listen to this a lot in D-9/T-M when the main tower would go out. After all the Low band stuff is ancient. After MWIN goes fully alive it will be a lot easier to monitor them.

[nickatnite]

Originally Posted by milf

After all the Low band stuff is ancient. After MWIN goes fully alive it will be a lot easier to monitor them.

Tell me about it. That is why all district base stations were 300 watts and the repeaters were 100 watts. Let's just hope that the 700 coverage will work better than the first and some 800 mhz towers now. That was the bad problem, the terrain.

A second note on the MHP repeaters. On the mobile car repeaters, most of the Troopers just keep their hand helds on their sides; but, if they put them in the car charging cradle, they are able to access all of the other VHF frequencies for the State (i.e. CIB, MBN, etc) and even certain Federal VHF frequencies.

[milf]

Most if not all cars now have VHF Hi band radios installed along with Lo and the cradle convertacoms. I have been on a couple of ride alongs with a couple of Troopers in D-9 and they chatted to not only Lincoln SO, but Franklin SO MDOT, State tax Units, and one even talked to a BPD unit on Statewide Hi, and on Statewide Car to Car. Both Troop C and Troop M have the new Copiah So Hi Band Repeater in thier radios. All the Troops near the NTNP have the Fed/Non Fed interops freqs, and the officers have the NTNP primary freqs also. Does MHP have any of the new Chargers yet? I would love to see a Charger in MHP livery with those lo band whips.

[nexus]

Originally Posted by milf

Does MHP have any of the new Chargers yet? I would love to see a Charger in MHP livery with those lo band whips.

Yup sure do. I took a picture of one while they were all down here in Biloxi this past weekend for the National Governor's Conference. There must of been at least 60 to 70 MHP units here, they all pretty much parked in the employee parking area across from the Beau Rivage. I didn't see any 4 foot low band whips on the chargers though. They had two antennas on the trunk lip, both NMO style. So one was probably cut for 42mhz and the other for 155mhz.

Here is a picture of the Trooper Charger I took, you can go to my flickr account to see a larger version.



Also, Harrison County Sheriff just got a fleet of CHARGERS in too. I saw one on I-10 running interstate drug trafficking details. They must of just got them too because I never saw them before this week. I'll try to catch a picture or two and add it to my cop cars set on flickr.

[milf]

Cool .. I can see from the pic the Lo Band ant on the lid mount, and an 700/800 mag mount on the passenger side roof right at the windshield... MWIN ant???

And for a lil ant recognition training for those that aren't sure-
VHF-Lo: Either a ball mounted 40-90 inch whip, or a 2 inch base coil with a 34-40 inch whip.
VHF-Hi: A 3 to 3 and a half inch base coil with a 28-32 inch whip, or a flat base with a 12-14 inch whip.
UHF: A basic base with an enclosed 3 inch coil in the center of the 26-30 inch whip, or an 4 inch base coil with a 32 inch whip (usually a dual band VHF/UHF), or an 1 inch base stand with an 12 inch whip with an small open piggy coil in the center.
700/800/900 MHz: An 14-18 inch center coil loaded whip (pigtail), or an 10 inch mast, with a 6-8 inch pigtail whip, or an flat base with an 6 inch whip. On MHP cruisers, you may see any or ALL of these mounted. I have seen an supervisors FCVPI with all of them mounted all over the rear deck, and trunk. It was a rolling antenna farm.

These don't include various "stealth"antenna, and the newer "high gain stubby" antennas.
And of course sat net ants.... These vary from a flat "plate" dish, to a "beehive" dome, to the stealth "thick stick".

[SFD722]

Originally Posted by bama9999

Very informative post, nickatnite. A good bit of it I already knew, but a good bit of it I didn't. Sometimes I'll hear a U-Union callsign used on the MHP freq in district 4. Any idea what/who that would be?

U-units are from the Motor Carrier Division. They are commercial vehicle inspectors. Motor Carrier is also federally funded/subsidized so they are not normally on-call units. U badges are numbered like B badges. The second number is the district number. For example U-33, U-43, U-53, U-63 are district 3 units.

TCAP units are assigned regular troop numbers. C-##, D-##, E-##, etc.

Also there are X badges for Miss. Dept. of Homeland Security. Z badges are for the K9s. Believe it or not the K9s have badge numbers, too...

[hugh]

Have troopers switched to 12 hour shifts? Here in southwest Miss.(Dist. 9), they're not working the 6a-3p and 1p-10p configurations anymore. Noticed they seem to be staying out later in these parts, has anyone else noticed that in other parts of the state? just curious....

[SFD722]

Yeah, 12 hour shifts are standard statewide with the exception of Majors, Captains, Lieutenants, Public Affairs Officers, and Driver Services.

[hugh]

Thanks for the info, I've monitored MHP in this area for years and recently noticed the apparent changes. Didn't radio operators also work 8 hr shifts in the past?