Winstar Casino

FYI to anyone in the thackerville area I noticed that as of 12/11/2014 that Winstar has modified their FCC license for TRBO so I am guessing a new system is in the works.

It appears that they have made the switch, although there are reports of Freq Jumping issues on the TRBO system causing some problems at this time.

Hard Rock Casino

It also appears that the Hard Rock Casino's frequencies have gone quiet.....

Yes this is true. LTR and analog is getting phased out for Mototrbo and other DMR which is the sign of the times. You can either purchase and program a CS-700 and hopefully locate the correct color code and time slot and hope that there is no encryption being used or wait to see if a scanner comes out in the future that may decode trbo and other DMR.

There was some strong DMR (I close-called) last time I was near Winstar.
452.2375 - WQTS536 - using color code 6
It decoded use on timeslot 1 talkgroup 6, and timeslot 2 talkgroup 7. I didn't see any encryption flags. I didn't have it decoding audio, so I don't know who was using it. Their passport LTR was still busy, so they haven't swapped everything over...

I was by there this weekend and didn't hear a peep on the LTR system as listed in the DB, was in Thackerville for about an hour and up/down the road several times, so I beleive they have completed the transfer.

Opinions?

peterjmag said:

LTR and analog is getting phased out for Mototrbo and other DMR which is the sign of the times. You can either purchase and program a CS-700 and hopefully locate the correct color code and time slot and hope that there is no encryption being used or wait to see if a scanner comes out in the future that may decode trbo and other DMR.

Click to expand...

I am not very familiar with these systems. Do you think that a scanner will be eventually available
for these systems, or are these systems simply out of reach (impossible to monitor) like Opensky

I don't know about a commercially available scanner for DMR, but technically, it seems like it would be much easier than Opensky.
There are several software programs that are fairly easy to use that will decode the voice. All you need is a scanner (old one will work) with a raw audio (discriminator) output and a computer running the software. Many people are getting the inexpensive USB software defined radios - you can do the same thing. If you already have a laptop, get one of those for ~$20 on ebay, and you are set to monitor P25 Phase1, DMR, ProVoice, DStar, X2-TDMA, and Nexedge.

Here is one for under $10: USB2 0 Digital DVB T SDR DAB FM HDTV TV Tuner Receiver Stick He RTL2832U R820T | eBay

I tried one of these, but found the sensitivity to be pretty bad - they would work fine for most things nearby, but if you are trying to find far-away stations, not so much.

Thanks for the info! If you don't mind, I am going to send you a PM, as I have several
questions about this. Thanks again

A bump for this thread...

This evening I was at Winstar and noticed that most of the security are carrying XPR7550 and the rest of the staff are carrying older model XPRs. So it looks like everyone has jumped to TRBO now at Winstar even the bartenders were chatting on a TG and did not seem to care who was listening or around. I will try and get some info in case anyone else is in the area any information you can obtain would be helpful.

mam1081 said:

Here is one for under $10: USB2 0 Digital DVB T SDR DAB FM HDTV TV Tuner Receiver Stick He RTL2832U R820T | eBay

I tried one of these, but found the sensitivity to be pretty bad - they would work fine for most things nearby, but if you are trying to find far-away stations, not so much.

Click to expand...

OTOH, $10 ...

A USB SDR (or tapped HH scanner) + Raspberry Pi + batteries might be fun ...

I already have a SDR, but I am to far away to pick this up from home. So one day with the laptop in the parking lot might be fun for a little bit. It is a pretty busy system, with 15 frequencies, so the potential for 29 conversations . I believe they put a separate conventional repeater for the hotels that is TRBO single repeater.