South Texas

[rattlerbb01]

Starting this thread for anyone who listens actively to the South Texas region. I would like to cover anything and everything that is within the US 90 West and IH 10 East counties from Del Rio to Schulenburg and south of there but not necessarily the RGV metro counties or San Antonio proper. I'm talking Eagle Ford Shale central here. There is a lot going on here with NXDN covering the area, DMR all over the place for the oilfield operators and their compressor stations, pipelines and such, and AEP's massive EDACS system still kicking after all these years. We also have the Middle Rio Grande counties that are on massive system 13E P25 Phase 1 with the controller in Austin and the new systems coming online in Corpus Christi and Kingsville.

Have a question about any of these counties and cities in the region that you have been wondering about? I travel a lot in the Eagle Ford shale and have resumed what was a dwindling interest in scanning a few years ago into monitoring much of the comms that are going on now (boo to ICE for encrypting all the fun.) I can honestly say it doesn't get all that exciting but every now and then I catch a good chase or other activity. Most of the Fire and EMS are still good old VHF conventional, and with oil money pouring in, many of these departments are looking pretty professional and awesome for what was sleepy, dusty high poverty counties just a decade ago.

Any South Texas law enforcement, fire or EMS lurkers on the forums feel free to chime in. I know there are some from my travels, and you don't have to feel compelled to help with the frequencies on this forum but info on new apparatus, stations and such is welcome.

 

[nd5y]

Somebody needs to see if Laughlin AFB in Val Verde County has a trunked system.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Dimmit County law enforcement is back on analog VHF as of this weekend. I will be checking the Middle Rio Grande / GATRRS system when I get a chance to see what’s going on.

 

[rattlerbb01]

So Dimmit SO is busy on 155.790 PL 186.2 right now. I haven't heard a fire/EMS dispatch yet but I would imagine they are all crowded there right now due to the fact that pagers can't all be reprogrammed overnight. The Carrizo Springs fire repeater has keyed up a few times but no voice over it yet. It has countywide coverage from what I can tell if they have to use it.

The problem with the GATRRS appears to be that 151.0475 which is the Carrizo Springs tower control channel is broadcasting itself as Site 15 Crystal City and thinking it is 155.1450 mhz. Unitrunker verifies this weird glitch. Not sure how or when it happened. Both 155.145 and 151.0475 are broadcasting themselves as the same frequency/site. 155.145 is carrying normal Zavala county and nearby traffic while 151.0475 is displaying the same 4 radios affiliating to the same 3 talkgroups every 20 seconds or so.

I am listening to 155.145 site 15 Crystal City with no issues from Carrizo Springs, with Zavala County SO dispatching routine business. But it appears that until issues with the Carrizo Springs tower are resolved, their old analog VHF channel is back in style for now.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Dimmit County SO is back running on GATRRS tower 16 again, issues appear to have been fixed. 155.790 has returned to Fire and EMS dispatch only.

I have also heard helicopter landings in Dimmit and LaSalle Counties both coordinate with locals on VMED28. It appears to be their go to, and the dispatchers even refer to VMED28 and VFIRE21 on the radio as such. I guess the sun has set on "Mutual Aid", "AHERN" and "Intercity" with even the small departments being up to date, which isn't a bad thing!

 

[NC5267]

I have heard that most LZ coordination in the more rural counties are using VMED28 now. I have also heard city and county law enforcement in the same counties working with feds on some of the VTAC channels. Not very often, but they can communicate easier with locals nowadays in the rural counties.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Laredo's P25 system has gone Phase 2 at some point based of my trip there tonight. Unitrunker logged it as P2 and several frequencies are using 2 slots. I actually picked up Patrol 1 in the clear briefly, but it was mostly encrypted. Airport PD was clear.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Also, I updated the site frequencies. It is a three site simulcast and all talk was in English. I couldn't pick up the system until I realized that the old database info was outdated. They are not using the splinter frequencies at this time now that they have new ones licensed and using TDMA.

If you plan on listening to the system, please update your scanner manually or wait until the next database update so you have the correct info.

 

[K5MPH]

Thanks for the update.....

 

[troubadour1318]

Laredo P25

Is the Laredo Fire Dept still encrypted?

 

[rattlerbb01]

Is the Laredo Fire Dept still encrypted?

you'll have to listen, i didnt hear any traffic while I was there

 

[rattlerbb01]

LaSalle County Fire and EMS has moved to GATRRS, TG 4154. Very active last night with helicopter landing and sick calls, and they have dropped the 60’s from their unit numbers and are just identifying as Medic 1,2,3 and so on. VHF repeater was toning earlier but they have stopped that and are now using an alert tone on the TRS only, assuming they are getting electronic alerts now.

 

[rattlerbb01]

On S&P Communications South Texas (System ID 303), I verified TG 2301 as Jourdanton ISD buses. I am pretty sure 2201 is Pleasanton ISD buses, but no streets or names to help out just yet.

Atascosa County is all digital on the law enforcement side now, I have not heard analog in years. The fire departments all get toned out on 153.950, but Pleasanton also gets toned out on 155.085 by their PD. I am trying to figure out why, as I hear them on both their channel and the county channel during every call, and they had a pretty good structure fire yesterday morning that had Poteet, Ata-Bexar, Leming and Pleasanton all rolling up 281.

 

[Syncopations]

I have TGID's(using ID Search) 502, 601, 4200, 4301, and 4400. Did we ever figure out who they are? Also, you can add 3600 as Flatiron Construction. I noted that one down when I saw the radio ID as Flat Iron.

 

[rattlerbb01]

4301 is mostly Spanish, I haven’t heard those other ones yet

 

[Michael-SATX]

My active TG list I have recorded on the S&P NXDN System 303 Site#1 NC-SA just 2 days this week:

Note: I already made a RRDB submission today with my few updates noted so far:

500 D BearCom Techs - BearCom Radio Techs (was A&B/S&P Comm) Business
6-seconds for just Thursday and Friday this week

1904 D Alamo Concrete - Alamo Concrete Delivery Trucks - Beeville Plant
142-seconds traffic earlier this week when they were pouring a job here in SATX.

2201 D Pleas ISD Buses - Pleasanton I.S.D. Buses Schools
DSD+ RIDS: 2200,2201,2204,2205,2207,2212,2217,2219,2220,2222
Bus#'sAlias=45,HS,Trans Base), NONE verbally mentioned yet also just 63-seconds traffic so far in 2 days
Verbal Names: Rosa,Ray,Donna,Paula,
Verbal Schools: PIC = (Pleasanton Intermediate Campus) @ 1170 Jolly Street, Pleasanton, TX 78064
Verbal Streets: Loop 1604, Jolly Street,
Verbal Traffic: Drivers waiting on students at PIC (which stands for Pleasanton Intermediate Campus)
Pleasanton Intermediate Campus

2301 D Jourd ISD Buses - Jourdanton I.S.D. Buses Schools
11-seconds for just Thursday and Friday this week

3801 D Poth Bus DIsp Poth ISD Bus Dispatch Schools
21-seconds for just Thursday and Friday this week

4500 D Beasley Tire Svc Beasley Retail and Mobile Tire Service Business
600+ Seconds this week - 2nd busiest TG on system - Site#1

4701 D Premier Tank Trk Premier Tank Truck Services Business
600+ Seconds - busiest TG on system - Site#1 (active 24hrs a day and weekends.)

 

[rattlerbb01]

Yeah, 2301 had me baffled the other day because I was ready to nail it as Pleasanton, and then a bus said they were at the River Oaks subdivision which is in Poteet ISD. But Poteet doesn’t show to have any buses higher than 8, and 2301 has unit IDs that say Bus 40, 53, etc...

 

[Syncopations]

On TGID 601, radio ID showed "JACKSON" and "JACKSON P."

 

[rattlerbb01]

Dimmit County SO and Zavala County SO both are using new handheld radio IDs and a little bit of user selected encryption on their primaries.

 

[memo124]

Laredo P25

Is the Laredo Fire Dept still encrypted?

Yes they are encrypted.