BCD996XT in TX DPS chopper

[ILikeHatchChili]

I was watching the program "Texas Drug Wars" on the Discovery Channel the other night. There was a segment where a TX DPS chopper was following a semi on a freeway. The cameraman in the chopper panned on the dash of the chopper. I recognized the lit- up front panel of a Uniden 15 or 996. DPS must have chosen the 996XT I would guess..

I wonder what they listen to with that commercial scanner that does not decode encrypted, since they have more sophisticated and hi-tech equipment like night vision goggles and flirs, etc.

[Montz816]

This may sound weird but for large agencies that conduct mutual aid and assist multiple agencies they / we would listen to off radio channels on the scanner and also listen to our district radio. In a way it is a way to jump a call if DPS 100 is in county A and listening to county A radio traffic on the Motorola and have county B running on the scanner and over hear a officer / trooper / deputy call for air support they can shoot over and switch the moto over to that channel while listening to county A and C on the scanner. I hope I didnt confuse you

GOOD CATCH

[KC5EIB]

In the 70's CHP had scanners in their patrol cars to monitor the California Highway department and the Highway dept had scanners to monitor CHP in the area of Grapevine Hill going north out of LA. This way, they could talk to each other but stay on their own radio system. I have also heard of officers in other departments use scanners to listen to surounding agencies incase something was coming their way. It's not that un-common.

[MaxTracker]

CHP still does - saw an article a few years back where they purchased a few thousand PSR-600's to outfit the fleet.

Marshal's also use them and in many Incident command centers you'll see them.

That was a GREAT episode/mini-series. Didn't know Texas Rangers did all that!

[Ensnared]

Originally Posted by MaxTracker

CHP still does - saw an article a few years back where they purchased a few thousand PSR-600's to outfit the fleet.

Marshal's also use them and in many Incident command centers you'll see them.

That was a GREAT episode/mini-series. Didn't know Texas Rangers did all that!

If I am not mistaken, Scanner World U.S.A. used to carry a professional scanner for LE. Reportedly, this was not available to the general public. I might be wrong in my recollection, but I thought this radio was capable of intercepting wireless communication. I looked for this radio online, but could not find it.

[ILikeHatchChili]

Originally Posted by Montz816

This may sound weird but for large agencies that conduct mutual aid and assist multiple agencies they / we would listen to off radio channels on the scanner and also listen to our district radio. In a way it is a way to jump a call if DPS 100 is in county A and listening to county A radio traffic on the Motorola and have county B running on the scanner and over hear a officer / trooper / deputy call for air support they can shoot over and switch the moto over to that channel while listening to county A and C on the scanner. I hope I didnt confuse you

GOOD CATCH

I always make it a point to check out the commo gear in clips like that. I once found a Juarez police frequency (now the use of which was made defunct or the reapeter of which was made defunct by you know who. A Juarez news reporter was touring Lisa Ling and talking about the drug wars there. Lisa Ling's camera fell on the Mexican reporter's analog scanner (the Uniden racing scanner) and noted the frequency on the scanner.

Later I backed up the DVD to that shot and confirmed that is was one of the frequencies I gotten from scanning .

[al95]

Originally Posted by Montz816

This may sound weird but for large agencies that conduct mutual aid and assist multiple agencies they / we would listen to off radio channels on the scanner and also listen to our district radio. In a way it is a way to jump a call if DPS 100 is in county A and listening to county A radio traffic on the Motorola and have county B running on the scanner and over hear a officer / trooper / deputy call for air support they can shoot over and switch the moto over to that channel while listening to county A and C on the scanner. I hope I didnt confuse you

GOOD CATCH

Last night I heard the term DPS100 your clear to land. It was landing at my local airport because the frequency the DPS was using was 118.9 which is a KBRO frequency SPI / Brownsville international airport. So DPS100 is a callsign for the chopper right. I live near the border to mexico and almost every day I CBP or DPS choppers fling over my house, if not them then their a coast guard airplane fling low when it is passing thru the river.

[OCO]

Originally Posted by Ensnared

If I am not mistaken, Scanner World U.S.A. used to carry a professional scanner for LE. Reportedly, this was not available to the general public. I might be wrong in my recollection, but I thought this radio was capable of intercepting wireless communication. I looked for this radio online, but could not find it.

Uniden MR8100 ?? Tough radio...There's a thread here on RR about the MR8100 also.... The supplied software had a "secret" key to allow LE access to the cellular frequencies blocked by the ECPA of 1986 .. The key was obviously created by someone at Uniden with a good sense of humor..

[texasemt13]

Originally Posted by al95

So DPS100 is a callsign for the chopper right?

Yes, DPS 100 being the first in the series, and I think they go up to 116 or 117, I'm not sure anymore. Local airports are the best place to listen for DPS Air, they have to refuel sometime, and that's always at an airport. They won't mess with large airports usually, because the whole "line up and hold" mentality doesn't suit them. In San Antonio they fly out of Stinson Field rather than SAT.

[al95]

Originally Posted by texasemt13

Yes, DPS 100 being the first in the series, and I think they go up to 116 or 117, I'm not sure anymore. Local airports are the best place to listen for DPS Air, they have to refuel sometime, and that's always at an airport. They won't mess with large airports usually, because the whole "line up and hold" mentality doesn't suit them. In San Antonio they fly out of Stinson Field rather than SAT.

Thanks for the info. I'm listening to the KBRO and KHRL airports using my Aor AR-8000 and an antenna maldol v/uhf air band handy al-500h. I hear them loud and clear.

[Montz816]

Originally Posted by texasemt13

yes, dps 100 being the first in the series, and i think they go up to 116 or 117, i'm not sure anymore. Local airports are the best place to listen for dps air, they have to refuel sometime, and that's always at an airport. They won't mess with large airports usually, because the whole "line up and hold" mentality doesn't suit them. In san antonio they fly out of stinson field rather than sat.

sorry took so long to reply but john is correct in his response. :d

[stevenzs]

A little bit of inside knowledge...The scanner in the DPS helicopter is GPS enabled and tied to the mapping system GPS antenna. The newer (post 2008) helicopters are equipped (8 helicopters). The idea was that although there are 15 helicopters operated by DPS, with the state this size, the aircraft are very spread out and, with maintenance, fires, border ops, they go all over the place. The police radios in the helicopter have local scan lists in them. If a helicopter is going any distance, they get outside their local scan list. A helicopter could be over an incident or near one and not know it. One of the crew in the Dallas station develop the program/template for the scanner (for all 250+ counties in the state...you can imagine how long that took) and set various "fences"...ie if the helicopter was close to a municipal agency, it would automatically unlock that agency when X miles from it. If it was close to a county agency, it would unlock it X miles from it, etc, etc. This way, via the scanner, they are only listening to those agenices (local, county, state) that are close to them as they go from point A to point B (as well as usually monitoring the closest DPS base sation). If they hear something of importance, they can lock onto that agency with the scanner and then go to that channel in their police radio...or so I have heard. Long time reader of this site, just registered, first post.

[texasemt13]

Stevenzs,

Thanks for that info, that makes perfect sense. I'm not a Uniden guy, but that limits this to a few possible Uniden scanners (the XTs and HP-1 I think, for digital, and in all reality, it's most likely the 996XT as the OP mentioned). Kudos to the crew who set this all up, I'm sure it works well (especially being in the air, and having great reception).

Thanks for the post (a good one for a first time poster), and welcome to RR.

[KC5EIB]

Originally Posted by stevenzs

A little bit of inside knowledge...The scanner in the DPS helicopter is GPS enabled and tied to the mapping system GPS antenna. .

One Word .......W O W

[al95]

Thanks Stevenzs for the information

[Ensnared]

Originally Posted by old_CJDC_ops

Uniden MR8100 ?? Tough radio...There's a thread here on RR about the MR8100 also.... The supplied software had a "secret" key to allow LE access to the cellular frequencies blocked by the ECPA of 1986 .. The key was obviously created by someone at Uniden with a good sense of humor..

Yes, that surely looks like the little beast. Thanks.

[Montz816]

@stevenzs great reply . I do wish there was a scan list out there. I once wanted a N/S/E/W districts for Austin but damn I can't imagine doing it for ALL OF TEXAS. great Reply.

On a side note if anyone can share a their scan list for Austin Travis county and surrounding areas so I can try to do the same as DPS I would surely appreciate it. I'll be your friend ;p

[stevenzs]

Made a phone call or two...the scanner is a Uniden 996XT. The police radio I referred to is a Technisonic TDFM 7000 in the newer aircraft and a TDFM 6000 in the older aircraft. They are essentially Motorola XTS cards (3 in the 6000 and 4 in the 7000) in one box. And thanks for the comments. This web site is a wealth of information and even the new people like me are treated nicely .

[UPMan]

Since the HomePatrol-1 came out, the RRDB has become many magnitudes better in regards to location tagging. You should be able to import the dB (including the location info) into your Uniden DMA scanner and be pretty good-to-go.

[radiosquirrel]

I use a 396XT daily to listen to the Sheriff's Office, State Police, Ambulance, and surrounding Fire Departments to know what is going on. Several times I've heard the S.O. ask for us (City Police) to be dispatched outside the city for help and have almost been on scene by the time their dispatch called ours and ours actually dispatched us. A Trooper's life was saved in West Baton Rouge Parish a few months ago as a Sherriff's Deputy was scanning and the Trooper starting calling out shots fired. The Deputy arrived in time to see the suspect standing over the Trooper about to take a fatal shot and the Deputy fired through his vehicle windshield striking and stopping the suspect.