P25 Gonzales County

[JonL008]

I have a Pro-106 Radio Shack Digital Trunking Scanner. I have programmed the Gonzales Police Department Primary P25 Channel into my radio, and also I have programmed the Gonzales County Sheriffs Department. The only problem I have is I can hear them, but then for the longest time it is so quite and I know that they are doing stuff. Am I programming something wrong or are they on an encrypted system? I do hear them every now and then but then its so quite. I hear the sheriffs more then I hear the Gonzales Police department.
155.87250 is the Gonzales PD P25 frequency with a 750 NAC I have programmed this into my radio. Could it be that they really dont talk that much at all over the radio?

Help will be greatly appropriated.

Thanks,

Jon

 

[texasemt13]

Could it be that they really dont talk that much at all over the radio?

Yes. You might even want to check their old analog frequency (155.610) to see if they work on that frequency and only get dispatched on the P25 freq. Another solution is to listen to the call on the P25 frequency and then start a search through the VHF band (or if you can see the guys, meaning if you're real close to them) use the Spectrum Sweeper through the VHF Public Safety band.

You might notice DPS is hardly on the radio as well. This is because they've begun submitting DLs/LPs through their MDTs. Dispatch can handle them without talking on the radio, as can the troopers. This might be the case with GPD.

 

[JonL008]

Well I know for a fact that they dont have MDTs in their cars. So I dont think that's the case. But Ill try putting their old primary channel in and see if that works. But so far nothing on it. I guess they really just hardly ever talk. That's the HUGE town of Gonzales for you, lol.

Thanks for the help!

 

[JonL008]

Lol, well its not the old frequencies. I guess they really just dont talk at all. I mean even the GCSO does not even hardly talk, maybe once an hr ill hear the GPD and GCSO but other then that it is dead quite. I think they talk alot over their public services to. So much for hearing whats going on lol.

 

[texasemt13]

I'm not sure where you are in relation to Gonzales but I'm going to offer a few sugesstions.

Store the GPD/GCSO frequencies without any tone info (NAC for P25, CT/DCS for analog). That way, if they're using the frequency with more than one tone you'll hear it. This will open your scanner up to receive anyone on that frequency (so you might hear stuff from surrounding counties, though most stuff is coordinated better than that). For instance if GPD has 155.5875 NAC 351 for dispatch they could use 155.5875 NAC 352 (or any random number) for a "car-to-car" channel. Or they might use the input (or output) in low power simplex. Either way I leave my tones in "search" mode.

Also, try to listen to the "Caldwell County" site in the GATRRS (Austin/Travis County) system. The site appears to be near the Buc-ees in Luling. It's probably close enough to you to hear the traffic on that (not's that it's a bumpin' club either), but at least it's a P25 TRS for you. I identified a bunch of Caldwell County talkgroups in this sites infancy but haven't been monitoring it in a few months.

If you're that bored you can listen to GCSO (that's Guadalupe in this case...). Their Channel 3 reaches quite a ways and that's where you'll hear their K9s and Texas DPS for Guadalupe County.

There are also 2 LCRA EDACS sites in Gonzales County (Gonzales and Kingsbury). It looks like the Gonzales site has 3 LCNs (and maybe more if you could find them). If you set a group wildcard for these sites you'll start getting all the used talkgroups from them (if you set a private wildcard you'd hear any I-Calls or individual calls). Set each up as an EDACS Std trunked system and put the LCNs in order. Then manually select the TSYS and "analyze" it. By scrolling through the LCNs (up/down arrows) you'll find the control channel. It wil be a nasty sounding buzz, but if you look at your screen it will give you a signal strength (in %, as well as the S-Meter). You'd want about 80% or higher for good listening.

Sorry about the length, just know there is tons to listen to...

 

[JonL008]

No problem about the length. I finally got it. They are just very quite during the day. But on a Friday night they are all about traffic stops and loud music calls. Yea I live in Gonzales County and am on the EMS/Rescue team. I have my EMS radio but EMS and the GFD are still analog and the PD went digital around christmas of 09. I finally bought a digital scanner because im workin on becoming a State Trooper and I mainly want to listen to the PD's and SO's. This digital scanner really helped. But oh yea, GPD uses their primary digital channel they are just pretty silent during the day due to them being very far from a proactive department.

Thanks for all of the help