Txdot

[SCPD]

Been listening to TXDOT a bunch today and other than being absolutely worthless I've found they use their radio's in an odd manor as well.

Spoke with a Collin Co. TXDOT sanding crew and learned Dallas, Tarrant and Collin Co. units all use nextel even though some supervisors have a radio. However, there is rumor TXDOT may go on the 700Mhz overlay in the metro area.

Today however, I listened to Lamar, Red River, Hunt, Fannin well all of Paris region crews. Aside from getting stuck a lot and BS'ing on the radio I noticed a few new characteristics.

The whole Paris region runs on a PL of 77.0 during major events. Then if they wish to talk direct to their office they use a local PL tone.

167.9 Hunt
203.5 Red River
173.8 Grayson, Fannin and Hopkins
67.0 Emory
74.7 (151.0475 but not Sherman)
173.8 (151.0550 but not sure which county)

Supervisors seem to use Truck to truck 151.0550 No tone
Ice crews seems to use Truck to truck 156.1350 No tone

After discussing this with a friend who knows a little something about State of Texas radio systems he and I came to the conclusion the 77.0 PL on the several frequencies all tie into Emory Dispatch This would be a statewide net which may be IP connected to the towers in a "Daisy Chain" configuration so that Everyone in the region or outside regions can hear the entire operation. They did this last spring too when we had the flooding. Normal day to day county operations seem to revert back to the PL tone for that specific county on a single repeater.

I heard ABSOLUTELY NO activity on the VHF Low Band today what-so-ever. So this may mean they have phased out VHF low entirely.

I have a more detailed list I'll submit later - to tired tonight Scanners have worn me out today. But wanted to throw this out and see if anyone else scanning TXDOT heard this and what they think.

 

[mikebennett]

Did you notice any antennas on the Collin Co crew vehicle? I had been hearing them occasionally on 47.06 messing around, nothing job related, but haven't heard anything in several months.

What frequencies were they using the 77.0 tone on, repeater inputs/outputs/both?

I've never heard anything on 151.055. When they initially switched to VHF-Hi I heard truck to truck communications on 156.135. This past year 151.025 became active and it's now split about 50-50 between the two. This is all in Grayson Co.

I worked one summer as an intern at the Bonham office in 1978. I found some ancient hand-helds that had 151.055 in them that were used for flagmen.

 

[nd5y]

As far as I can tell, 151.025, 151.055, and 156.135 are the only high band channels licensed for mobile and temporary base use statewide:
FCC Callsign KB8465 Details
FCC Callsign KBQ381 Details
I lived in El Paso back in the late 70s-early 80s. Back then they had several repeaters on 151.055/156.135 on mountains in W TX.

Apparently the Fort Worth and Wichita Falls districts don't have (or don't use) multiple PL tones. I have never heard any others besides the ones listed here on RR.

I have heard 151.025, 151.055, 156.135 all simplex CSQ NFM used here in Palo Pinto County at one time or another in the past several years.

 

[SCPD]

Did you notice any antennas on the Collin Co crew vehicle? I had been hearing them occasionally on 47.06 messing around, nothing job related, but haven't heard anything in several months.

What frequencies were they using the 77.0 tone on, repeater inputs/outputs/both?

I've never heard anything on 151.055. When they initially switched to VHF-Hi I heard truck to truck communications on 156.135. This past year 151.025 became active and it's now split about 50-50 between the two. This is all in Grayson Co.

I worked one summer as an intern at the Bonham office in 1978. I found some ancient hand-helds that had 151.055 in them that were used for flagmen.

151.0550 CSQ TXDOT Supervisors
156.1350 CSQ TXDOT Trucks General BS


Delta County
151.0175 67.0 Region
151.0175 77.0 Net
151.0175 173.8 Local

Fannin County
151.0625 67.0 Region
151.0625 77.0 Net
151.0625 173.8 Local

Hunt County
151.0925 67.0 Region
151.0925 77.0 Net
151.0925 167.9 Local

Red River County
151.0025 67.0 Region
151.0025 77.0 Net
151.0025 203.5 Local
151.0775 173.8 Seems to be a patch with Hopkins & Hunt.

Sulfur Springs
151.0325 67.0 Region
151.0325 77.0 Net
151.0325 74.7 Patch
151.0325 156.7 Local

Sherman
151.0475 67.0 Region
151.0475 77.0 Net
151.0475 173.8 Local

Emory (Paris Region Control center)
151.0025 67.0 Region
151.0025 77.0 Net
151.0025 67.0 Local

Paris
151.0775 67.0 Region
151.0775 77.0 Net
151.0775 173.8 Local
151.0775 203.5 Shared with Clarksville Sanders
151.0925 167.9 Shared with Greenville

The Supervisor in Collin Co. had 3 antenna's on his truck, an 800MHz, 2 VHF whips one had a heavy spring base. But all Collin Co. and Dallas Co. Sand trucks are dispatched by Nextel phone. In the phone he had Collin Disp. Dallas Disp., NTTA Disp., CP Disp., DPS North and DPS South. a Special TG (My guess was a Group call) and a jazillion individual names.

One other thing to note is that TXDOT's first 10 to 16 channels of the radio are Common, State Inter-op and Weather channels. The repeaters don't start until ch-13 or ch-17 depending on the region the truck is based in and radio type.

 

[mikebennett]

151.0550 CSQ TXDOT Supervisors
156.1350 CSQ TXDOT Trucks General BS


Delta County
151.0175 67.0 Region
151.0175 77.0 Net
151.0175 173.8 Local

Fannin County
151.0625 67.0 Region
151.0625 77.0 Net
151.0625 173.8 Local

Hunt County
151.0925 67.0 Region
151.0925 77.0 Net
151.0925 167.9 Local

Red River County
151.0025 67.0 Region
151.0025 77.0 Net
151.0025 203.5 Local
151.0775 173.8 Seems to be a patch with Hopkins & Hunt.

Sulfur Springs
151.0325 67.0 Region
151.0325 77.0 Net
151.0325 74.7 Patch
151.0325 156.7 Local

Sherman
151.0475 67.0 Region
151.0475 77.0 Net
151.0475 173.8 Local

Emory (Paris Region Control center)
151.0025 67.0 Region
151.0025 77.0 Net
151.0025 67.0 Local

Paris
151.0775 67.0 Region
151.0775 77.0 Net
151.0775 173.8 Local
151.0775 203.5 Shared with Clarksville Sanders
151.0925 167.9 Shared with Greenville

The Supervisor in Collin Co. had 3 antenna's on his truck, an 800MHz, 2 VHF whips one had a heavy spring base. But all Collin Co. and Dallas Co. Sand trucks are dispatched by Nextel phone. In the phone he had Collin Disp. Dallas Disp., NTTA Disp., CP Disp., DPS North and DPS South. a Special TG (My guess was a Group call) and a jazillion individual names.

One other thing to note is that TXDOT's first 10 to 16 channels of the radio are Common, State Inter-op and Weather channels. The repeaters don't start until ch-13 or ch-17 depending on the region the truck is based in and radio type.

Good info. I'll put in those other two PL tones. I've never heard anything other than the local tone but could have missed it since I have the local one programmed.

I have to program in a tone otherwise I'd get interference from ODOT in Durant as they are operating on 151.040.

 

[nd5y]

As far as I can tell, 151.025, 151.055, and 156.135 are the only high band channels licensed for mobile and temporary base use statewide:
FCC Callsign KB8465 Details
FCC Callsign KBQ381 Details

I take that back... I found another one:
FCC Callsign WPKW518 Details

 

[Duster40]

TxDOT work crews in Cent. TX. still use low-band walkie talkies
with the flagmen on Maint. jobs.

 

[niklas12345]

Been listening to TXDOT a bunch today and other than being absolutely worthless I've found they use their radio's in an odd manor as well.

Spoke with a Collin Co. TXDOT sanding crew and learned Dallas, Tarrant and Collin Co. units all use nextel even though some supervisors have a radio. However, there is rumor TXDOT may go on the 700Mhz overlay in the metro area.

Today however, I listened to Lamar, Red River, Hunt, Fannin well all of Paris region crews. Aside from getting stuck a lot and BS'ing on the radio I noticed a few new characteristics.

The whole Paris region runs on a PL of 77.0 during major events. Then if they wish to talk direct to their office they use a local PL tone.

167.9 Hunt
203.5 Red River
173.8 Grayson, Fannin and Hopkins
67.0 Emory
74.7 (151.0475 but not Sherman)
173.8 (151.0550 but not sure which county)

Supervisors seem to use Truck to truck 151.0550 No tone
Ice crews seems to use Truck to truck 156.1350 No tone

After discussing this with a friend who knows a little something about State of Texas radio systems he and I came to the conclusion the 77.0 PL on the several frequencies all tie into Emory Dispatch This would be a statewide net which may be IP connected to the towers in a "Daisy Chain" configuration so that Everyone in the region or outside regions can hear the entire operation. They did this last spring too when we had the flooding. Normal day to day county operations seem to revert back to the PL tone for that specific county on a single repeater.

I heard ABSOLUTELY NO activity on the VHF Low Band today what-so-ever. So this may mean they have phased out VHF low entirely.

I have a more detailed list I'll submit later - to tired tonight Scanners have worn me out today. But wanted to throw this out and see if anyone else scanning TXDOT heard this and what they think.

Are you sure they are using PL 77.o in a net setting?

They do not have any interconnected sites in the Paris area or for that matter any place in north TX.

Maybe using the rep output with diff PL for talkaround.

My list of freqs does not show any such use nor does a codeplug I have seen.

 

[Kfred]

txdot high band

Worked for txdot for about 28 years so far, thanks for the kind words. Did away with low band radio's at the maintainance section in this part of central TX. Use motorola MCS-2000 in trucks and Icom F-50 handhelds on the 151.075 and other 151 mhz freqs. Big improvement in radio performance since going to high band. kfred.

 

[niklas12345]

Worked for txdot for about 28 years so far, thanks for the kind words. Did away with low band radio's at the maintainance section in this part of central TX. Use motorola MCS-2000 in trucks and Icom F-50 handhelds on the 151.075 and other 151 mhz freqs. Big improvement in radio performance since going to high band. kfred.

You must work for TxDOT in or near the BWD or WAC district based on your equipment and freq (Eastland in BWD is 151.0175 and Hamilton is 151.0175 in WAC and BWD uses lots of MCS and Waco has a few).

The agency is 95%+ VHF HB now with LB only in the ELP, SJT and AMA districts. There is a tiny bit of LB in DAL in the outer MNT sections but not much as they use mostly ..... dare I say it....Nextel (

Since TxDOT got kicked off the 900Mhz TXU trunk system in DAL and FTW districts, the DAL district went and bought a bunch of Nextel phones and uses them.

I dread the day that something big happens in DAL and Nextel crashes and is useless.

There is no VHF, UHF or 800 freqs in DAL and 700 is just now clearing the FCC RPC process for being able to apply for the licenses.

The DAL area COG is building a 700 trunk system or will, as well as DAL county is making plans also.

The agency as a whole is moving towards P-25 and where regional systems are available, trunking (800-700 and VHF) with encryption in many cases.

Stay tuned....

 

[Kfred]

txdot

Yes- BWD. These radio's scan and are narrow band analogue voice, You think they would have gotten radio's that could do digital also so they would not have to buy new radio's every three years to support a major equipment supplier. The main advantage to these radio's is that police and fire in this area have not gone digital and we are "interoperable" with them. By the way MaxT what do you do for a living, since you already know everything about my job, not trying to start an argument just thought I would ask. kfred.

 

[niklas12345]

Yes- BWD. These radio's scan and are narrow band analogue voice, You think they would have gotten radio's that could do digital also so they would not have to buy new radio's every three years to support a major equipment supplier. The main advantage to these radio's is that police and fire in this area have not gone digital and we are "interoperable" with them. By the way MaxT what do you do for a living, since you already know everything about my job, not trying to start an argument just thought I would ask. kfred.

Wellllllllll..... this is niklas12345, not MaxT, I just know a bit about the TxDOT radio system.

Some sections have XTL2500's. The Eastland Section and most supervisors do now.

I think the Eastland section is all XTL's now.

A number of the supervisors around the agency now have XTL's so then can talk to DPS and agencies who have gone P-25.

There are sections in the SAT district that are full time P-25 and soon the PHR district too.

Take care...

 

[Kfred]

txdot

I should have done a better job of seperating the two parts of my post. Sorry for the confusion NIKLAS12345. I would be interested in what anyone does for a living, however thats probably another thread. kfred.

 

[SCPD]

Are you sure they are using PL 77.o in a net setting?

They do not have any interconnected sites in the Paris area or for that matter any place in north TX.

Maybe using the rep output with diff PL for talkaround.

My list of freqs does not show any such use nor does a codeplug I have seen.

I rarely scan inputs anymore unless I'm really trying to narrow something down. The 77.0 pl just came up during the Winter Storm we had last week and it was on Every single TXDOT Frequency in the Paris District. This was what they used for Sanding. When they talked local it was on the Assigned PL they use for each county. Now it is VERY possible that the 77.0 was indeed a Talk around channel. My antenna's are very sensitive, so much that I get regular Front End overload from repeaters across the river in Oklahoma. And with a Low Pressure front Parked on top of North Texas the Skip can make Talk around sound like a repeater.

I aint no TXDOT pro, Just reported what I logged and heard. If you guys say they don't use those tones then I dunno what to say. But I have a nice Win500 file that says different.

Commercial Two-Way radio dealer/Vehicle Installations and OEM Technical support, Kfred.

 

[niklas12345]

Hummmmm....

I am sitting here looking at a XTL2500 codeplug from the Paris district and the only sites that have 77.0 are 151.0925 and 151.0675. There are allowed for TA with 77.0 in on those freqs.

Not being familiar with the layout of the land other than looking at a map of the district, don't know.

If they were in TA on one of those freqs the XTL will TX on 77.0 but all others on the PL of the site it is set for like Hopkins on 156.7.

The sections do ALOT of cross section coordination and could have been using one of those freqs as a tactical comm channel.

They have a number of VFD folks that work up there for TxDOT and they understand the use of fireground and tac-channel usage. Could have been doing that some.

One thing for sure, there is no organized or linked net up there.

What is Win500???

 

[SCPD]

Hummmmm....

I am sitting here looking at a XTL2500 codeplug from the Paris district and the only sites that have 77.0 are 151.0925 and 151.0675. There are allowed for TA with 77.0 in on those freqs.

Not being familiar with the layout of the land other than looking at a map of the district, don't know.

If they were in TA on one of those freqs the XTL will TX on 77.0 but all others on the PL of the site it is set for like Hopkins on 156.7.

The sections do ALOT of cross section coordination and could have been using one of those freqs as a tactical comm channel.

They have a number of VFD folks that work up there for TxDOT and they understand the use of fireground and tac-channel usage. Could have been doing that some.

One thing for sure, there is no organized or linked net up there.

What is Win500???

Win500 is a software Programmer/Radio control for the GRE PSR-500/600 Radio Shack Pro-106/197 Digital Trunk Tracker Scanners. It also logs activity.

So, since the Record snowfall was a fluke is it possible TXDOT set up a Patch using 77.0 for a Region wide Operational net where Everyone could be heard on a single channel since this Weather event caught everyone off guard? Also Last spring during the heavy rains (and the summer before that) TXDOT had several Paris Dist. Counties again using the 77.0 hz. tone when they were monitoring the flooding and consistent road and bridge closures.

What would be nice, is if you would kindly post the Paris region codeplug to the Database so WE All can finally have the correct info and not have to speculate this and have fingers pointing in our face saying were wrong. I just report on What I scan. Thanks.

 

[VictorXray]

What would be nice, is if you would kindly post the Paris region codeplug to the Database

Thanks I was just about to post the same suggestion. niklas12345 you can email me direct as well if you want, address is below.

 

[niklas12345]

Win500 is a software Programmer/Radio control for the GRE PSR-500/600 Radio Shack Pro-106/197 Digital Trunk Tracker Scanners. It also logs activity.

So, since the Record snowfall was a fluke is it possible TXDOT set up a Patch using 77.0 for a Region wide Operational net where Everyone could be heard on a single channel since this Weather event caught everyone off guard? Also Last spring during the heavy rains (and the summer before that) TXDOT had several Paris Dist. Counties again using the 77.0 hz. tone when they were monitoring the flooding and consistent road and bridge closures.

What would be nice, is if you would kindly post the Paris region codeplug to the Database so WE All can finally have the correct info and not have to speculate this and have fingers pointing in our face saying were wrong. I just report on What I scan. Thanks.

Hi....

I guess it would not work on the Uniden series like the 996 then. Oh, well. I'm looking for some really robust logging software for the 996 series. Got some bad buys I need to track down.

Here is what is for the Paris district. This is direct dump for the repeater TX from the codeplug....trust me on this...

DistrictWide 151.0550 PL 167.9
District HQ 151.0775 PL 203.5
Delta County 151.0175 PL 67.0
Fannin County 151.0625 PL 77.0
Franklin County 151.0475 PL 192.8
Grayson County 151.0475 PL 173.8
Hopkins County 151.0325 PL 156.7
Hunt County 151.0925 PL 77.0
Lamar County 151.0925 PL 203.5
Rains County 151.0025 PL 203.5
Red River Cnty 151.0025 PL 136.5

Anything beyond this, I don't know why you are seeing 77.0 pl, as the above is what is in the radios and no more.

There is no network or ring or patch.

TxDOT does not have dispatch centers other than the local section office.

They do not have a very sophisticated radio system. Simple, single site repeaters for each county.

Sorry, not pointing fingers, but in this case, I am quite sure of my facts.

 

[SCPD]

HOLY COW!!!

Thanks - This will certainly clear up a lot of the question, guesses and speculations. While I am involved in the Communications world, I am a Hobby Scanner enthusiast. So when Scanning I use no hidden knowledge or tool. I am just like the next guy here and just listen and post up whats heard.

Now its always Nice when State Folks (We have a few of them here) come visit and drop the nitty gritty stuff on us such as DPS, TXDOT, TP&W, TDCJ (Almost forgot ya Rattler) It sure helps and makes our Texas DB look even prettier.

But I really like to site back and scan and bring what I hear into the Forums to be kicked around and listened to by others then when everyone agrees someone make the submission to the DB. That's the Fun scanning I like.

Now I will admit, When I re-programmed a few County Radio's I did submit to the DB the way they were Really programed.

Anyways Niklas, thanks for this. We can now reprogram our scanners correctly and never miss another Sanding truck again. Heh, I wonder if you Have the Rest of the TXDOT State radio system ....

 

[niklas12345]

HOLY COW!!!

Thanks - This will certainly clear up a lot of the question, guesses and speculations. While I am involved in the Communications world, I am a Hobby Scanner enthusiast. So when Scanning I use no hidden knowledge or tool. I am just like the next guy here and just listen and post up whats heard.

Now its always Nice when State Folks (We have a few of them here) come visit and drop the nitty gritty stuff on us such as DPS, TXDOT, TP&W, TDCJ (Almost forgot ya Rattler) It sure helps and makes our Texas DB look even prettier.

But I really like to site back and scan and bring what I hear into the Forums to be kicked around and listened to by others then when everyone agrees someone make the submission to the DB. That's the Fun scanning I like.

Now I will admit, When I re-programmed a few County Radio's I did submit to the DB the way they were Really programed.

Anyways Niklas, thanks for this. We can now reprogram our scanners correctly and never miss another Sanding truck again. Heh, I wonder if you Have the Rest of the TXDOT State radio system ....

Glad to help, but I am limited some in what I can do cause of security of systems.

I bet the sand trucks are busy today...

However, RadioReference is a GREAT!!!!!! database and site and I have used it for years!!.

Actually most of the freqs in the database for TxDOT are pretty much correct. Better than some other lists I know of at times.

Right now I am trying to update my freqs for City of Austin system and Williamson county as they are in the middle of re-banding and Williamson county is about to fire up a new site in Florence and Caldwell county is bring up 2 sites around Lockhart.

Still working on those.

Take care...gotta go play in the snow...hehe.