Erath County

[KevinC]

Anyone listen to Erath County? I see they have a license modification with new locations and one new frequency pair.

FCC Callsign WQGJ468 (ERATH, COUNTY OF)

FCC Callsign WQGJ468 (ERATH, COUNTY OF)

www.radioreference.com

 

[nd5y]

I lived in the next county to the north until about 8 years ago and used to be able to receive most of the stuff there. That's not the only license modification since then. The db probably hasn't been current for several years.
Don't be surprised if nobody else posts anything.

 

[hiegtx]

Anyone listen to Erath County? I see they have a license modification with new locations and one new frequency pair.

FCC Callsign WQGJ468 (ERATH, COUNTY OF)

FCC Callsign WQGJ468 (ERATH, COUNTY OF)

www.radioreference.com

I spent most of the day down in Stephens County (borders Erath on the north) a couple of weeks ago. I had all frequencies listed for the county, as well as cities, programmed in my TRX-1, including these newest ones). That was just after this license was issued. Very little to note on the newer licensed frequencies, nor, for that matter, on the existing ones. I had the TRX-1 set up to record any activity it heard, regardless of mode.

I'll be back down there sometime in the next few weeks, and will try again. Several years ago, the county, as well as Stephenville, had switched to P25 conventional, even though they were not licensed for that mode. at the time.

I also took a shot at the Brownwood/LCRA sites, but no luck. Just too far away. I've added the new frequencies for Brownwood (from another thread this forum), and will try those again next time I go.

 

[GTR8000]

Word on the street is that they've upgraded to a fancypants 3 site, 3 channel mixed-mode simulcast.

 

[hiegtx]

Word on the street is that they've upgraded to a fancypants 3 site, 3 channel mixed-mode simulcast.

Well, there are zero, none, nada, public safety related trunked licenses in Erath County. But that did not make them blink a few years ago when they upgraded to P25 conventional without being licensed.

Took a look at the meeting agendas & minutes for the Erath County Commissioners Court back to the first of this year. A couple of comments, one in May, the other June, about a Motorola radio project, plus another comment, in June, about 'discussion for repair to the existing radio system'.

I did find comments in the Stephenville City Council minutes about 'approving a contract with L3 Harris', but no details as to what was being purchased. That might be buried in earler meeting minutes, possibly even last year, but I did not get that heavily into research.

Of course, if either the city or county is purchasing a new system, and using frequencies from the state allocation, as was done for the LCRA sites in Brown County, there would not be a specific license listed in the Erath County FCC license data.

 

[GTR8000]

Well, there are zero, none, nada, public safety related trunked licenses in Erath County.

I never said anything about trunking. I said a mixed-mode simulcast. VHF conventional, Motorola hardware.

 

[hiegtx]

I never said anything about trunking. I said a mixed-mode simulcast. VHF conventional, Motorola hardware.

Well, apparently Stephenville is going with L3-Harris for something. The county records give no details other than a nebulous reference to Motorola.

And your original comment did not mention Vhf.

Word on the street is that they've upgraded to a fancypants 3 site, 3 channel mixed-mode simulcast.

 

[GTR8000]

And your original comment did not mention Vhf.

Why would I need to specifically mention VHF, or conventional for that matter, when the WQGJ468 license is very clearly both VHF and conventional?

 

[rattlerbb01]

WQGJ468 does have 8K70D1W emissions (P25 LSM) for each of three repeaters at three sites, Stephenville, Bluff Dale and Huckabay. Frequencies are 151.250, 155.115, 155.190. This is what GTR is referring to. Like you said though, if Stephenville is talking to L3Harris about anything, never hurts to scan the 700 band when close by. LCRA does a lot of projects on the state license and it usually takes not hearing someone for a while before we go sleuthing.