Houston County LTR

[fallinsouth]

I was reading some older threads and seemed as if no one had much luck with Dothan/HC's system.

I have a Pro - 97 and wanted to listen in, has anyone been able to crack the code or program a scanner to hear anything.

Also I used Win-97 and the RR database to program, but with no luck.

 

[Steve]

fallinsouth, put the scanner in manual mode on 1 of the frequencies. Then watch the scanner when you hear traffic on that frequency. If the system is regular LTR, you should see on the far right side of the display the letter R then a number. Write the R number down. That number is the channel you need to porgram that frequency into.
Example (only!)- scanner parked on 854.2375 and display shows R3, then reprogram 854.2375 into channel 3. This should work for the County's system but not for the City's main system. It may work on the City School's system also.


Steve
KD4LCY
KAF9087

 

[fallinsouth]

Having some issues programming

Ok I loaded the freq's into the scanner with the Win-97 software, drove to Dothan scanned a while and heard nothing. So I switched over to manual, and watched for the number to pop up, every so often a number would pop up but no audio, I started writing down the numbers, and I noticed that the "R" numbers were different almost every time. From the RR database there are only 13 different freq's for the county. Pro-97 loaded 10, 3 from the Ashford Site and 7 from Site-1. When an "R" number showed up it was like R20, R30, R13, R5, that kept changing, I never did see an R1 or any pattern for the others.

I got a Houston Co. radio in my hand and just went through the different channels on it. It would say something like Trunk 10, Trunk 7, Trunk 3, the text would show special event, reserves, and 10 was Sheriff primary.

I tried scanning just the 800's in the Signal Stalker mode, and fine tune mode, but still nothing, even though there was activity on the W/T.

Any advise so that I could get this system scanned would be great.

Thanks,

 

[SCPD]

I will be watching to see if anyone can figure it out. I entered all 13 frequencies in mine and only here action on one.

 

[Steve]

Wayne,
How do you have the frequencies entered - low to high or another way?
And which frequency do you hear activity on and what channel is it in?

fallinsouth,
R20, R13 and R5 sound/look like "good" R#s. R30 is a oddball.

I have a WIN97 set-up for testing in Houston Co if anyone is interested. I have the County system in 2 banks and the Dothan School system in another bank. In all 3 banks the frequencies starting Channel 21 (021, 121 and 221). The method is time consuming but pick a bank and park the scanner on channel 21 and when a transmission happens look for the R# and then program that frequency into the R#s channel slot (1-20). This is the same method I described earlier. The other method is to program the same frequency into channels 1-20 and then scan. When you hear traffic on a frequency note its channel number and then start with anohter frequency. I wish I was down in Dothan working on this puzzle but due to medical contidtions it will be several monthes before I make it back.
I will attempt to help from my location.



Steve
KD4LCY
KAF9087

 

[fallinsouth]

Ok I understand what you are saying, what I am having trouble with is that the R#'s jump around, the same freq might have 3 different R#'s. The other part that messes me up is that two or more freq's will sometimes have the same R#'s.

Example 854.2375 = R13,R2,R9
854.3375 = R20,R5,R2

So what do I do, just program the same freq in more that one place, and how should I program the multiples? And these #'s don't just pop up and hang out on the screen, they flicker on the screen and you just have to be looking at the right spot on the screen to see them. The 10 freq's that pro-97 programmed have NO audio, I guess that is why the R#'s just pop up on the screen.

Once I get that done, how or where to I locate more talkgroups, there must be more than the two on RR's database.

 

[SCPD]

855.7375 is the freq. I hear the most traffic on.

 

[ibflat2]

dothan area channels

I have found that 855.7375 is the Houston County Sheriff main channel....

I am still searching here and trying to get it all down and logged in ...


Using a Pro 2045 at home and a Bear Tracker in the truck....Got a BC 200 for back up also..

 

[DanHenry]

WPQH284 for Houston county?

Guys,

I'm across the "border" in NW Florida and too far to listen but did some checking on the RR database and FCC license for Houston County, AL. Is it possible the RR database here is missing a few frequencies?

Houston County, AL System
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=974

The reason I ask is because the "Site-1" linked callsign of KNNM675 seems to be wrong. I believe the correct callsign should be WPQH284.

Check out WPQH284 at the link below. It has the 855.7375 frequency that's most active along with others that aren't listed on the RR page. It also has the "Example (only!)- scanner parked on 854.2375" frequency mentioned by Steve which makes me wonder if he's working from a different list.

WPQH284
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303206
or http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=1303206&pageNumToReturn=2 for freqs page.

Steve, Get well soon so you can crack that LTR puzzle. I enjoy tracking down LTR systems.

Good luck,

-Dan

 

[fallinsouth]

855.7375

Ok I just wanted to add more info to the thread.

I have been scanning just 855.7375, this seems to be a known good freq that everyone is familiar with, this is what I came up with.

855.7375 = R05, R25, R27, R24, R18:01-00-169, R10, R23, R09, R17:01-15-144, off:01-11-116, R04:x-x-159, R11

Don't quote me on the xx-xx-xxx's, they come up so fast its hard to see that many #'s at one time.

This is how many different R#'s that I came up with in just a little over an hour.
And that is only 1 channel and I am up to 15 freq's for that system. So I know there will be some overlap, multiple channels with the same R#.

Now, How how am I supposed to program that into a scanner?

 

[Gilligan]

You have to step through each freq manually one-by-one. Start with one not used very much. Leave the radio in manual mode and when you hear something look at the R number. If you start with the less-used freqs then you can start mapping out the system. Then you can ignore those R #s on the busier freqs because when it shows the R #s that you already have mapped, it's just sending those users off to that repeater. I think I made a post about this before. Look at my first post here regarding LTR mapping. It might help.

 

[ibflat2]

more on Houston Country Sheriffs radio channels

was talking to an deputy today, they got some UHF radio via Homeland Security grants since the 800s have some dead areas...

So its gonna be a hit and miss deal, they were talking about using both and then also switching to the UHF also.... Soon as I get more info I will let you know what I find out.. Will work on getting radio frequencies for both of them and channel listings and usage..

 

[SCPD]

Houston County UHF

453.1625 is the frequency.

 

[fallinsouth]

How to Map

Ok my last question for a little while, so that I can make sure my technique is a correct method for mapping.

I set the scanner to manual mode.
Set it to the first channel.
I have the squelch turned all they down so all I can hear is static.
Sit and wait.
Write down that R#'S that appear (with of without audio????)or(only when I hear audio???)
Then wait a little more for other R#'s
Then change channel and repeat.

Do the XX-XX-XXX #'s really matter that much when mapping a system?

 

[Steve]

Set the squelch as you normally would. If you set it so you will hear static, you probably will get false hits.

Steve
KD4LCY
KAF9087

 

[Thunderbolt]

Guys,

I'm across the "border" in NW Florida and too far to listen but did some checking on the RR database and FCC license for Houston County, AL. Is it possible the RR database here is missing a few frequencies?

Houston County, AL System
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=974

The reason I ask is because the "Site-1" linked callsign of KNNM675 seems to be wrong. I believe the correct callsign should be WPQH284.

Check out WPQH284 at the link below. It has the 855.7375 frequency that's most active along with others that aren't listed on the RR page. It also has the "Example (only!)- scanner parked on 854.2375" frequency mentioned by Steve which makes me wonder if he's working from a different list.

WPQH284
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/license.jsp?licKey=1303206
or http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=1303206&pageNumToReturn=2 for freqs page.

Thank you for bringing this to light. Both sites on the Houston County TRS were "rebanded" well-over a year ago, to comply with the Nexter order by the FCC. I just updated the frequency information on the Web page and it should look fine now. Moreover, when the correct LCNs are cracked, please submit them to us.

Thank you!

73s

Ron

 

[fallinsouth]

I stayed in Dothan all weekend, I got one freq's in the LCN order figured out but, I am not so sure that all the freq's are correct. I have my Pro-97 programmed with all 13 freq's from the database and I hear traffic on just two different freqs, any thoughts. I started trying a different technique to figure out the order and it worked for one freq, but when I changed to another freq I never hear any traffic, so I got the bright idea to swap over to conventional scanning mode and try to make a list of used freqs, after several hours of scanning I heard traffic on two freq's maybe three even with a special event that many of HC's deputies were working security at.

I guess the next time I should just use Signal Stalker to verify the freq's that they use??

Any other ideas would be helpful!

I also heard through the grapevine that they are so many coverage issues that they might go back to UHF until some 800mhz system upgrades are performed.