Harris County and TXWARN

[Robert721]

This weekend there was an announcement that some towers were decommisioned and all useres were warned to use caution on the system while the changes were made. I am trying to get some information on what was going on from a source with the county.

Does anyone elese have info on the changes?

also in the data base the two locations 6900 North Gessner and the 14350 Wallisville are new but have the wrong GPS location data.

 

[mass-man]

Submit a change to the DB administrator

 

[mfn002]

also in the data base the two locations 6900 North Gessner and the 14350 Wallisville are new

That was probably what they were talking about. Site 001 (Downtown Houston) was taken down and replaced with site 028 (Downtown Houston), which has fewer frequencies.

 

[firedispatcher82]

TxWARN Downtown Analog Site Relicensed/Split

I believe the TxWARN downtown analog site was split into four sites to save costs:

Site 26: 6900 N. Gessner
Site 27: 14350 Wallisville Rd.
Site 28: Downtown
Site 29: Texas Medical Center

It has been reported that some TGID's do not have access to Site 26 with only a few channels it would overwhelm the site if a large amount of radio's affiliated with it.

You are right that the GPS coordinates are not correct at this time, hopefully that will be fixed soon.

 

[billwilliams]

Quick question about TXWARN I'm want to program a scanner for a friend that lives in Texas City, I see where they are on the TXWARN system.. it shows that they are on a MOTO type ll smartnet system. do I need to do anything special when programing a pro 164.. and where do i find the talk group id's for Texas City. when i click on the box it just shows the site map... I did some searching and found several tgids but a note says, that not all of them might have been switched over from the old to the new system..

thanks.

 

[mass-man]

Not sure about programming the Pro 164, but there appears to be a complete listing of TG's for Texas City under the TXWARN page, Galveston Co, Texas City. PD/FD/EMS to dog catcher.

 

[motorola_otaku]

This was kind of a historic moment in greater Houston radio, and it seems to have more or less slipped under the radar. The downtown site on Allied I was THE original Harris County 2318 system, on the air since the late 1980s before digital voice, Smartzone, the 866-869 NPSPAC allocation, or any of that. When it went on the air Reagan was in the White House, Klevenhagen was sheriff, the SO cars were black and white boxy Crown Vics and Caprices, and a fair number of the new system users were still using 37 and 39 MHz low-band. And amazingly enough, some of the original system radios were STILL in use when it went off the air, having only been touched a few times for talk group and ID updates. Anyone else remember listening to the phone patches in the pre-Smartzone (hell, the pre-Trunktracker) days? Heard a lot of SO admin staff talking to their wives like no one else in the world was listening.

Aaaanyway.. here's the beginnings of a user/site map for the new central sites:

North Gessner:
Precinct 4 Constables

CJC:
HC Fire Marshals
HC OEM

Medical Center:
West University
Southside Place

Wallisville:
SO District 2
SO District 3
Galena Park
All of the east county VFDs (Channelview, Sheldon, Cloverleaf, etc)

 

[mfn002]

Trouble Picking Up New Harris County Sites

I was in Houston yesterday, and I noticed that I was only picking up one or two of the new Type II sites (003 and another one I can't remember). I noticed that I wasn't picking up any HCSO/Constables traffic. Is anyone sure if the frequencies listed are correct? If it helps any, I was in the Bellaire/Meyerland area, although I was not able to pick them up even on 290 or 610.

 

[bpckty1]

The Bellaire/Meyerland area should be using the Texas Medical Center or the Missouri City sites.

 

[motorola_otaku]

The Bellaire/Meyerland area should be using the Texas Medical Center or the Missouri City sites.

This. The Pearland site also provides good coverage into that part of town.

A lot of you guys who don't live in this area will have to re-think how you have the 2318 system reprogrammed. The four new sites have reportedly been configured to only carry talkgroups for certain agencies in their surrounding areas to prevent overload and busies, so you will have to program multiple sites to cover the given areas you're visiting or traveling through. For older bank-based scanners like the BC780/785/796 this can be accomplished by programming multiple control channels into one "system" and letting the scanner lock on to whichever CC is strongest at any given time. Expect to see many of the outlying sites and former independent system sites (Pasadena, Missouri City, etc.) carrying increased traffic for countywide law enforcement and public works/infrastructure agencies.

 

[Tim-in-TX]

I noticed that I wasn't picking up any HCSO/Constables traffic

I have noticed that too. Was wondering myself if something has changed.

 

[gjhamilton]

C5, Map Van, Toll Road Law Channel, are just some of the ones that you wont hear on the Medical Center Tower

 

[motorola_otaku]

Slight update..

Aaaanyway.. here's the beginnings of a user/site map for the new central sites:

North Gessner:
HCSO District 1
HCSO District 4
HCSO District 5
Precinct 4 Constables
Precinct 5 Constables
Toll Road Law Enforcement "B"
HCPHES Animal Control
HCC Police
HCHD Security
West University PD

CJC:
HCSO District 2
HCSO MAP VAN
Precinct 1 Constables
Precinct 6 Constables
HC Fire Marshals
HC OEM
Metro PD
Metro Facility Security
HISD PD
UH PD
PHA PD
Aldine ISD PD
West University PD

Medical Center:
West University PD
West University FD
Southside Place PD
Southside Place FD

Wallisville:
HCSO District 2
HCSO District 3
Precinct 3 Constables
Galena Park PD
Galena Park FD
All of the east county VFDs (Channelview, Sheldon, Cloverleaf, etc)

 

[gjhamilton]

This is very helpful. I am tired of these Spectra's, think I am going to go with some Gre 600's. Tired of getting them reprogrammed every time something changes.