I am getting most ops on GATRRS and patches to many different LCRA interop channels. I heard KCSO advise a rescue boat that the DPS helo was on "Kerr Backup 10" I am assuming that it might one of the vhf channels for the county. I'm not close so I would assume they are usie the VHF interop channels as well. VFIRE, VMED etc.... Anyone able to pin down any new comms? Stay safe out there.
Kerr County Flood
- Thread starter NC5267
- Start date
They’ve been on Kerr Fire Ops 1-4 so far today and talking on Firecom a lot too, which is normally a paging channel. Kendall has been on Ops 3 and 5 for Comfort and Sisterdale evacs and now a recovery.
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I have been listening and logging since 3am before the river let go. VFIRE21 was the water rescue and Helicopters but they are wrapping up at sunset. The P&W and DPS helicopters were rescuing people during the thunderstorm with 800ft ceilings. Very brave. Now the Army is flying UH-60s along with the others. Like I said VFIRE21.
LCRA and GATRRS are both in use at the moment as GATRRS was overloaded right away.
LCRA and GATRRS are both in use at the moment as GATRRS was overloaded right away.
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LCRA
10004 KCSO Independence Day Flood
10008 Kerrville Ops Independence Day Flood
10013 Kerrville OPS Independence Day Flood
10025 Kerrville Fire Tac 1 Independence Day Flood
10026 Kerrville Fire Tac 2 Independence Day Flood
10027 Kerrville Fire-Tac 3 Independence Day Flood
10030 CHECK 1-2 testing Independence Day Flood
10044 KPUB Independence Day Flood
10046 KPUB Independence Day Flood
10004 KCSO Independence Day Flood
10008 Kerrville Ops Independence Day Flood
10013 Kerrville OPS Independence Day Flood
10025 Kerrville Fire Tac 1 Independence Day Flood
10026 Kerrville Fire Tac 2 Independence Day Flood
10027 Kerrville Fire-Tac 3 Independence Day Flood
10030 CHECK 1-2 testing Independence Day Flood
10044 KPUB Independence Day Flood
10046 KPUB Independence Day Flood
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Yesterday when getting ready for the flood I subscribed to RR and I submitted a database update for the KERR GATRRS but that needs an update now.
16287 CLEAR "MOT-A Continuous Assignment Test" Lots of testing July 1, 2025.
Patched other agencies onto Kerr and Travis
I suspect that this should be added to the "Texas State Capitol"
46301 CLEAR KCSO The public pacification channel
A few times a day a call will be simulcast/patched by Dispatch along with the 46302.
Rarely a mobile unit will be here by mistake which is always corrected by the dispatcher
Dispatchers call this the un-encrypted channel
46302 ENCRYPTED KCSO This is the primary KCSO channel
Dispatchers call this the primary or encrypted channel
Sometimes KCSO will change back to LCRA for mutual aid multi agency events.
Huge amount of activity some over-nights with pursuits ending in calls to EMS and KPD
46303 CLEAR KCSO3 Only heard a few times "radio service testing"
46304 ENCRYPTED KCSO
46308 Encrypted and active on courthouse communist protest day June 14.
46313 Encrypted KERR CHS1
46315 CLEAR? only heard once
46330 CLEAR Kerr County VFDs Fire Dispatch
46331 CLEAR Kerr Fire Ops 1 Fire Operations 1
Mountain Home and Ingram are still carrying their old VHF portable radios.
Most VFDs are also carrying phones and tablets with Active911.
Kerr dispatch uses Active911 for the VFDs
46332 CLEAR OPS2 Independence Day Flood
Used during flash flooding by Center Point and Turtle Creek VFD
46333 CLEAR OPS3 Independence Day Flood
46334 CLEAR OPS4 Independence Day Flood
46335 CLEAR OPS5 Independence Day Flood
46336 CLEAR OPS6 Independence Day Flood
46337 CLEAR OPS7 HEARD once when testing May 2025
46338 CLEAR OPS8 HEARD once when testing May 2025
46339 CLEAR OPS9 HEARD once when testing May 2025
16287 CLEAR "MOT-A Continuous Assignment Test" Lots of testing July 1, 2025.
Patched other agencies onto Kerr and Travis
I suspect that this should be added to the "Texas State Capitol"
46301 CLEAR KCSO The public pacification channel
A few times a day a call will be simulcast/patched by Dispatch along with the 46302.
Rarely a mobile unit will be here by mistake which is always corrected by the dispatcher
Dispatchers call this the un-encrypted channel
46302 ENCRYPTED KCSO This is the primary KCSO channel
Dispatchers call this the primary or encrypted channel
Sometimes KCSO will change back to LCRA for mutual aid multi agency events.
Huge amount of activity some over-nights with pursuits ending in calls to EMS and KPD
46303 CLEAR KCSO3 Only heard a few times "radio service testing"
46304 ENCRYPTED KCSO
46308 Encrypted and active on courthouse communist protest day June 14.
46313 Encrypted KERR CHS1
46315 CLEAR? only heard once
46330 CLEAR Kerr County VFDs Fire Dispatch
46331 CLEAR Kerr Fire Ops 1 Fire Operations 1
Mountain Home and Ingram are still carrying their old VHF portable radios.
Most VFDs are also carrying phones and tablets with Active911.
Kerr dispatch uses Active911 for the VFDs
46332 CLEAR OPS2 Independence Day Flood
Used during flash flooding by Center Point and Turtle Creek VFD
46333 CLEAR OPS3 Independence Day Flood
46334 CLEAR OPS4 Independence Day Flood
46335 CLEAR OPS5 Independence Day Flood
46336 CLEAR OPS6 Independence Day Flood
46337 CLEAR OPS7 HEARD once when testing May 2025
46338 CLEAR OPS8 HEARD once when testing May 2025
46339 CLEAR OPS9 HEARD once when testing May 2025
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STRAC from San Antonio came before dawn with their comms packages and water rescue.
DPS, Texas Parks and Wildlife helos were here and on VFIRE21 and the 122.7 KERV Unicom. HEROIC.
The Army came around 7am and brought their own comms. Even though I loaded up some Federal stuff yesterday I did not hear them on the radio and really didn't need to as they were relaying everything via the Kerrville TAC 1/2/3.
Texas Task Force One is here but don't know when they arrived from College Station.
The state and federal people are very competent and took charge right away around 8am with their first meeting...
DPS, Texas Parks and Wildlife helos were here and on VFIRE21 and the 122.7 KERV Unicom. HEROIC.
The Army came around 7am and brought their own comms. Even though I loaded up some Federal stuff yesterday I did not hear them on the radio and really didn't need to as they were relaying everything via the Kerrville TAC 1/2/3.
Texas Task Force One is here but don't know when they arrived from College Station.
The state and federal people are very competent and took charge right away around 8am with their first meeting...
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I used my ham radio stuff to monitor the repeaters but that was not useful. Larry did operate an informal net from his QTH but there was no useful traffic. The clubhouse with the radio shack is out at the ag barn and near the 100 year flood zone and this was the 100 year flood. My family has been here in Kerr County since 1918 and this was the highest that the water came up the hill on our river front property ever.
Starting about 3am I used my SDS 100 with the stock antenna, SDS 200 with a discone up 40ft, and SDR Trunk with discone and VHF antennas.
I had put SDR Trunk on the laptop yesterday 7/3 along with four SDRs and external antennas but it was not working consistently. This afternoon I shifted SDR Trunk back to my desktop computer with no improvement. It seems to work well with GATRRS 155MHz VHF but not very well with 700MHz LCRA.
The SDS 100 and SDS 200 were very good performers. I did a couple of updates to add the new TGIDs to the SDS200 as I discovered them with no trouble and only a minute of downtime.
SDR trunk is pretty good for the on the fly updates and blocking out the multitude of other counties that showed up randomly on the LCRA Trunk.
This is what I posted at 4:04am today, Independence Day 2025
Starting about 3am I used my SDS 100 with the stock antenna, SDS 200 with a discone up 40ft, and SDR Trunk with discone and VHF antennas.
I had put SDR Trunk on the laptop yesterday 7/3 along with four SDRs and external antennas but it was not working consistently. This afternoon I shifted SDR Trunk back to my desktop computer with no improvement. It seems to work well with GATRRS 155MHz VHF but not very well with 700MHz LCRA.
The SDS 100 and SDS 200 were very good performers. I did a couple of updates to add the new TGIDs to the SDS200 as I discovered them with no trouble and only a minute of downtime.
SDR trunk is pretty good for the on the fly updates and blocking out the multitude of other counties that showed up randomly on the LCRA Trunk.
This is what I posted at 4:04am today, Independence Day 2025
SA_tx_88116
Rather listen than stream
Y’all know where all the traffic is at right now? All the Kendall OPS channels on LCRA were quiet but there was some unrelated traffic on KCSO dispatch.
As of this morning Kendall EOC is in operation and using OPS 3 and 5. Very little to no traffic.
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The coast guard is here. VFIRE21.
Continuing my post from last night...I got up around 3am due to the weather forecast and the big red blob of rain that had been hovering over the North and South branches of the Guadalupe. I already had all the radios running along with Proscan and SDR Trunk. Great software.
Public communication from the Sheriff's Office was a total failure. The city and now the county have encrypted all of the law enforcement radios. For most people it is too expensive to listen to the fire departments on the new GATRRS P25 system that went on line in May. Before May 2025 it was possible to hear all of the fire and ems calls from the county and the city with an analog scanner.
The public did not receive any warning from the county nor city even though the governor notified the county judge of the weather forecast.
From about 3:30am - 6am the locals were...not good... No one was in charge. There was no Incident Commander until long after sunrise. The dispatchers at KPD and KCSO were not at all prepared for the flood.
The VFD first responders were asking for notifications and tone outs as soon as the river came up as they were ready and monitoring.
Next; The very expensive CODE RED system that I helped implement in 2019 when I was county IT director was not used until after 10am. To send a CODE RED message to every cell and landline phone in the county it takes around five minutes to log in, circle the area on the map, and send the message. At 4:23am I heard the Ingram VFD commander ask 'firecom,' the KCSO dispatch, for CODE RED to be sent. 4:23am. The KCSO dispatcher responded with "I need to get that approved by my supervisor."
I of course had Proscan running and it is the bests of the best for monitoring.
The VFD first responder in Hunt asked for a tone out for evacuations at 3:39am.
The Ingram VFD commander asked KCSO dispatch for CODE RED to be sent at 4:23am and the KCSO dispatcher responded with "I need to get that approved by my supervisor."
Continuing my post from last night...I got up around 3am due to the weather forecast and the big red blob of rain that had been hovering over the North and South branches of the Guadalupe. I already had all the radios running along with Proscan and SDR Trunk. Great software.
Public communication from the Sheriff's Office was a total failure. The city and now the county have encrypted all of the law enforcement radios. For most people it is too expensive to listen to the fire departments on the new GATRRS P25 system that went on line in May. Before May 2025 it was possible to hear all of the fire and ems calls from the county and the city with an analog scanner.
The public did not receive any warning from the county nor city even though the governor notified the county judge of the weather forecast.
From about 3:30am - 6am the locals were...not good... No one was in charge. There was no Incident Commander until long after sunrise. The dispatchers at KPD and KCSO were not at all prepared for the flood.
The VFD first responders were asking for notifications and tone outs as soon as the river came up as they were ready and monitoring.
Next; The very expensive CODE RED system that I helped implement in 2019 when I was county IT director was not used until after 10am. To send a CODE RED message to every cell and landline phone in the county it takes around five minutes to log in, circle the area on the map, and send the message. At 4:23am I heard the Ingram VFD commander ask 'firecom,' the KCSO dispatch, for CODE RED to be sent. 4:23am. The KCSO dispatcher responded with "I need to get that approved by my supervisor."
I of course had Proscan running and it is the bests of the best for monitoring.
The VFD first responder in Hunt asked for a tone out for evacuations at 3:39am.
The Ingram VFD commander asked KCSO dispatch for CODE RED to be sent at 4:23am and the KCSO dispatcher responded with "I need to get that approved by my supervisor."
Myles
Member
Anyone happen to catch any air-air comms between the Blackhawks?
I was on the river in Center Point with SAR today, KCSO was encrypted but their radios sounded excellent. SAR ops and comms with DPS107 and others were on VFIRE21 right bank, VFIRE22 for left bank where we were, and VMED28 for some Helo ops but they talked to us on VF22 as well.
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I have all the VFIRE programmed but have only heard bits and on VFIRE21. The KCSO is also on LCRA in the clear the past two days. For GATRRS Fire Dispatch and FireOps 1&3 had the most traffic today.
I am a mile from the river in Kerrville and the sounds out my window the past two days are of helicopters and sirens but on the radios it is VFIRE21 and KERV UNICOM for the air traffic. Most state and federal agencies are here and when the traffic was thick on the 4th I counted seven helicopters in sight of my house. I also have 978 and 1090MHz ADSB receivers and have monitored all of the SAR STATE and FEDERAL with few hits.
Someone busted the TFR a little while ago and the helos were talking on the KERV UNICOM and the battalion commander was warning the airlife and others via LCRA EMS DISPATCH.
If you are very close by VFIRE21 and KERV UNICOM. Maybe Houston Center when the jets come and go. Local first responders make up 99 percent of the radio traffic.
Shutdown time was 8pm today and I hope that all the people that have come here to help have a comfortable place to sleep tonight.
I am a mile from the river in Kerrville and the sounds out my window the past two days are of helicopters and sirens but on the radios it is VFIRE21 and KERV UNICOM for the air traffic. Most state and federal agencies are here and when the traffic was thick on the 4th I counted seven helicopters in sight of my house. I also have 978 and 1090MHz ADSB receivers and have monitored all of the SAR STATE and FEDERAL with few hits.
Someone busted the TFR a little while ago and the helos were talking on the KERV UNICOM and the battalion commander was warning the airlife and others via LCRA EMS DISPATCH.
If you are very close by VFIRE21 and KERV UNICOM. Maybe Houston Center when the jets come and go. Local first responders make up 99 percent of the radio traffic.
Shutdown time was 8pm today and I hope that all the people that have come here to help have a comfortable place to sleep tonight.
Where any of the FD guys with your crew? I know I've heard them on all the ops channels for Kerr County and the city guys on some new TAC channels I hadn't seen before on LCRA as well as patches.
I haven't used CODE RED personally, so I'm not sure how the login process works when it comes to multiple users being logged in at the same time, or if it logs people out automatically due to inactivity. But at my agency, everyone is logged into the same programs at the start of their shift, CAD, alerting systems, all radios, etc. so anyone can step into any role and assist where needed. Obviously, each person has their own assignment (dispatcher, call taker, etc.), but we maintain the flexibility to jump in and act fast because everything is already open and ready. If CODE RED limits how many people can be logged in at once, or automatically times them out, that could definitely slow things down at the worst possible moment.
The part that really stood out to me was the supervisor approval requirement. I’m signed up for CODE RED in the city where I live, and the last time I got an actual emergency alert was several years ago. They still do annual test alerts, but that lack of regular use tells me it’s intended for extreme emergencies (at least here). So if someone is specifically calling out for a CODE RED to be sent during the unfolding of a major incident, that should be enough for action. I understand needing oversight, but if it takes more than a quick shout across the room to get an answer then dispatchers should be empowered to make that judgement call. We are already trusted with life and death decisions every single day. I'd rather get an alert, be prepared, and it turn out to be nothing, than never get one, and be caught off guard when that alert could save lives.
Thanks for sharing this inside info, it's frustrating but incredibly valuable. I’m sure everything you mentioned will come up during the after-action review, and hopefully it leads to better workflows and good policy changes.
I've setup 2 Broadcastify Calls Playlists
This one covers Kerr, Kendall, and Comal operations:
www.broadcastify.com
This one covers Burnet and Williamson operations
If there are any talkgroups missing that should be added to either, please let me know.
This one covers Kerr, Kendall, and Comal operations:
South-Central Texas Flood Coverage
Kerr, Kendall, Comal County response operations
www.broadcastify.com
This one covers Burnet and Williamson operations
If there are any talkgroups missing that should be added to either, please let me know.
Thanks for doing this.
I don't know what TGs you have the Burnet/Williams, however GATTRS 3522 which the RRDB has as DPS for Travis County is actually used for Travis and Williamson. All of the Williamson FD TGs are active, including a couple of rarely used ones. Finally, TX DOT for Travis and Williamson are busy with road work to improve access for SAR activities.
I don't know what TGs you have the Burnet/Williams, however GATTRS 3522 which the RRDB has as DPS for Travis County is actually used for Travis and Williamson. All of the Williamson FD TGs are active, including a couple of rarely used ones. Finally, TX DOT for Travis and Williamson are busy with road work to improve access for SAR activities.
LCRA 6522 Fire Comm 3 was very active today with multiple agencies.
Also TDEM comm techs were working on getting LCRA interop channels programmed into the Kerr County radios. Apparently they can talk with KPD and KFD but only have the regional GATRRS interop channels. One of the TDEM guys was saying that the LCRA system worked all through the river bed.
Also TDEM comm techs were working on getting LCRA interop channels programmed into the Kerr County radios. Apparently they can talk with KPD and KFD but only have the regional GATRRS interop channels. One of the TDEM guys was saying that the LCRA system worked all through the river bed.
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