Most Popular Upgrades for Texas - NXDN/DMR/ProVoice

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rvacs

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Just wondering as I travel in Texas a bunch.

What are the most important upgrades to get in Texas?

Ex: SanAntonio uses ProVoice
..
....
.....

When driving with GPS want to purchase upgrade(s) that are used the most for Public Safety (aka Police)

Dallas/Ft. Worth area I know has a mixture....any assistance please.
Too much to search in the Database for...
 

Ensnared

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Toss Up

Just wondering as I travel in Texas a bunch.

What are the most important upgrades to get in Texas?

Ex: SanAntonio uses ProVoice
..
....
.....

When driving with GPS want to purchase upgrade(s) that are used the most for Public Safety (aka Police)

Dallas/Ft. Worth area I know has a mixture....any assistance please.
Too much to search in the Database for...

When you say you travel in Texas, you did not indicate if this encompasses the entire state, the IH35 corridor, or other major highways.

I have found all three modes in Texas: 1) Temple PD uses ProVoice, but has been migrating to a P25 system in Bell county; 2) Highland Park uses DMR; 3) Lancaster & Desoto-Cedar Park use NXDN. I could go on and on. You can forget listening to LE in Wichita Falls since I believe most of their traffic is encrypted, like Round Rock.

If I were to pick one, I suppose it would be a toss up between NXDN and PV, depending on where you travel.

I have all three in both of my 436HP radios.
 
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Project25_MASTR

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Most agencies are migrating to either local or wide are P25 systems. Example, San Antonio is in the process of building a new Harris system. Permian basin is being absorbed by GATTRS. Waco is expanding their system (now known as the Heart of Texas Regional Radio System) and adding some new simulcast sites in the next few years. Ft Worth has a regional system, Dallas is building a system…Amarillo just built a system…Lubbock has been expanding theirs into a county wide system, etc.

P16 is just about dead. DMR usage far outweighs that of NXDN but for the most part, DMR, NXDN and P25 are what you really need now in Texas.


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rvacs

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Thanks everyone...

I know I get so excited when I travel because I leave Williamson County, TX where all Police is encrypted (Hutto/RoundRock/CedarPark/Georgetown etc.) still listen to Pflugerville and Austin on GATTRS non encrypted.

Understand ProVoice is dying breed.
Mostly curious up the I35 / US75 corridor - Dallas / Ft. Worth / Denton / Sherman etc. Sounds like DMR and NXDN are ones to get thanks all.

I love all the Phase 1 / Phase II stuff cause I can use my Unication G4. But going to use my new SDS100 when I travel with GPS.

THANKS !!!
 

jasday

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Up in North Texas, DMR is the largest as far as DMR/Pro Voice etc. DFW DPS is on Pro Voice, but are migrating to a P25 with full time ENC. I'm not sure where they are as far as migration. Careflite, a large air med company in the metroplex are on the Megahertz DMR system.

Theres only two public safety systems that are NXDN that I can think of. One system around Cedar Hill and I believe another one in the North Dallas area. I could be wrong on that one.

P25 is king around the metroplex for public safety. Some analog stuff. The City of Denton is still Analog while Denton County has gone P25. Lewisville, Highland Village and Flower Mound are all on the Denton Co P25 sys along with DCSO and the Denton Co fire departments.

A few PD departments around the metroplex are full time ENC, with some only having ENC on certain channels. FWPD is all ENC. If listening to the FWRRS make sure that you have the interop channels programmed. Any multi jurisdictional events can be patched into the interop channels. FWPD had a chase a couple months ago that went east and ended up on Law I.O.
 

hiegtx

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The two North Central Texas public safety NXDN systems are SWRCC, covering Cedar Hill, Desoto, & Duncanville, and also Lancaster Public Safety. These four cities are in southern Dallas County.

Highland Park is using a DMR system. A couple of years ago, Highland Park submitted a licensing request for 700MHz frequencies, for a new trunked system. They would have been joined on this by University Park and SMU. However, I don't think the license was ever granted. They may, at some time, try it again. Or, once the Dallas/Dallas County P25 system, currently under construction, goes live, they could be invited to join it.

Many of the area school districts have either moved to DMR or NXDN, or at least updated their licensing to allow for one or both of those formats. I've noticed a couple of counties to the west of the metro area that have added NXDN to their licenses: Palo Pinto County & Comanche County. I'm down that way usually at least once a month, and so far, have not seen any activity using anything other than analog or P25 conventional. And, of course, eventually railroads will move to NXDN system-wide.

I definitely would add DMR & NXDN. ProVoice would not make a whole lot of sense, unless you spend a lot of time in the Bexar County/San Antonio area. I've read that they will move to P25, eventually, but it may be another year or two. The other ProVoice system (other than DFW Airport, which is migrating to P25) is Abilene. Abilene will also be moving to a P25 Phase II system in the near future.
 

Ensnared

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Good News

Only Wichita Falls PD, Sheppard AFB Security Forces, and some fed agencies are encrypted full time.

I am sorry, I thought it was as bad as other places. I am happy to hear there is more to monitor.
 
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