houston county going digital ??

[kmartin]

while listening to houston county vhf dispatch today, i heard one
user say can you hear me on the digital channel ?
i was wondering if anyone has info on this, mabe a new vhf digital
county freq ? or the p25 system out of crockett??

[hiegtx]

Originally Posted by kmartin

while listening to houston county vhf dispatch today, i heard one
user say can you hear me on the digital channel ?
i was wondering if anyone has info on this, mabe a new vhf digital
county freq ? or the p25 system out of crockett??

Not being in the area, I can only offer a couple of suggestions.

Looking at the FCC data for the county, it shows that back on 08/25/2011, their license was modified to add a digital emission code. So it's possible that, for now, they could be operating in "mixed mode", both analog and digital, on the same frequency. I'm seeing that in other areas, as agencies transition from analog only to digital transmissions. If you have a PL (CTCSS) tone or DCS code set for the frequency, you would not hear any of the digital traffic. If you have a digital scanner, try programming the frequencies a second time, using a "NAC search". If you don't have a digital scanner, then add a second entry for the frequency without the PL (or DCS). If you hear only a strong static hiss, instead of the voice traffic, that's your digital confirmation. I don't see any new frequency grants, just the added emission codes for digital.

The other possibility, which you mentioned, is that the county may have begun to use the TxWARN P25 system, which does have a site there in Crockett. I don't see any talkgroups listed for Houston County yet, but perhaps, if they are just now starting a transition, no one has identified & submitted any.

[motorola_otaku]

A while back I saw a Houston County fire marshal van (looked like an old 80s-vintage converted ambulance) driving around on the south side of Houston city. It had a 700/800 Motorola-branded pigtail antenna on the roof in addition to the VHF antenna, and I remember thinking at the time that TxWARN must have expanded up into that part of the world.

[rattlerbb01]

I know that the ETMC ambulances have VHF radios in Crockett and Trinity Counties. I haven't seen anything on the Sheriff cars recently to indicate that they are upgrading with 700 MHz.