Alamo Area Regional Radio System (AARRS)

[BCSO-Insider]

Alamo Heights Dispatch has gone encrypted for law enforcement. The police departments of Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills are using Harris XL-200s and Olmos Park is using Motorola APX 8000s. The audio quality improvement of one versus the other is significant.

 

[NC5267]

Monitoring them right now. I'm getting them on 39576 Phase 2 in the clear. Olmos Park PD units appear encrypted. AH and TH units and dispatch are coming across in the clear

 

[BCSO-Insider]

They are supposed to be. Maybe some officers don’t have their radios in a secured state or Dispatch is running in the clear.

 

[KevinC]

Alamo Heights Dispatch has gone encrypted for law enforcement. The police departments of Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills are using Harris XL-200s and Olmos Park is using Motorola APX 8000s. The audio quality improvement of one versus the other is significant.

But does the APX have the “safety feature” of activating the emergency button when it gets wet?

 

[BCSO-Insider]

Thankfully NO. But it can do an amazing thing…it can stand up without falling over when placed on a desk or other surface. 😎

 

[BCSO-Insider]

And you can also use it in the wind or in a noisy environment without contorting your body or grip to make the noise cancellation feature work.

 

[boernegang]

I have been listening to site 2 on Fredericksburg road, and site 6, which is near IH10 West and Fairoaks parkway. These and many others are not listed in the database. I'm guessing many changes will happen when it is fully functional and the EDACS system is gone?

 

[NC5267]

Seems like most agencies have switched over. Only a couple I haven't personally heard yet. Encrypted or in the clear. Any new info on the system?

 

[BCSO-Insider]

It’s a mess. CoSA being CoSA. The good news is that you can tell which agencies are using Motorola radios and which aren’t by the audio quality.

 

[blantonl]

The EDACS system is still up and running and SAPD is patched in the clear there. But all SAPD operations on the new system are encrypted. Given that, they must not have moved all of SAPD over yet.

Bexar County Sheriff Dispatch is in the clear, but Tacs are all encrypted (the way it should be IMHO).

Bexar County Fire Alarm seems to have moved over, they sound good, and lots of new talkgroup assignments as well.

SA Fire seems to be moved over and has the same talkgroup setup all in the clear.

Coverage of the system seems to be excellent.

 

[rattlerbb01]

The EDACS system is still up and running and SAPD is patched in the clear there. But all SAPD operations on the new system are encrypted. Given that, they must not have moved all of SAPD over yet.

Bexar County Sheriff Dispatch is in the clear, but Tacs are all encrypted (the way it should be IMHO).

Bexar County Fire Alarm seems to have moved over, they sound good, and lots of new talkgroup assignments as well.

SA Fire seems to be moved over and has the same talkgroup setup all in the clear.

Coverage of the system seems to be excellent.

I’ve noticed less SAPD non dispatch channels being used on the EDACS when I go through there, in fact the EDACS is much quieter than a few years ago. I really hope they decide against encryption on the dispatch channels, or at least give you the hookup with a delayed feed for transparency sake

 

[BCSO-Insider]

Bexar County Dispatch will eventually go fully encrypted. But won’t until all agencies are programmed. CoSA won’t let the State agencies on the new P25 layer yet.

 

[NC5267]

I heard from a dispatcher at SAPD and they are not liking how the e-tones are coming across the system. Lots of garbled tones and cut off voices. Also the old system is still up on their end while they work out some "kinks" and other non city agencies fully switch. But she said she hasn't seen anyone keying up using the old system.

 

[NC5267]

The EDACS system is still up and running and SAPD is patched in the clear there. But all SAPD operations on the new system are encrypted. Given that, they must not have moved all of SAPD over yet.

Bexar County Sheriff Dispatch is in the clear, but Tacs are all encrypted (the way it should be IMHO).

Bexar County Fire Alarm seems to have moved over, they sound good, and lots of new talkgroup assignments as well.

SA Fire seems to be moved over and has the same talkgroup setup all in the clear.

Coverage of the system seems to be excellent.

I am seeing encrypted units on SO dispatch channels randomly. A couple supervisors etc....More latley than usual. Also on one of the tac channels heard a full operation in the clear. So idk how the sporadic encryption works. I know.they don't notice a difference on their end because of having the key loaded.

 

[KevinC]

It’s a mess. CoSA being CoSA. The good news is that you can tell which agencies are using Motorola radios and which aren’t by the audio quality.

I heard during testing even with all the audio enhancements turned off the MSI radios still sounded better. And they still chose Harris…interesting.

 

[NC5267]

This morning after roll call my Unication G5 went silent on SAFD dispatch. No tones or voice. Radio lights up showing call, radio ID and P25T non encrypted just no voice or tones. This just me or happening to everyone? All other traffic coming across as normal.

 

[KI5IRE]

What site are you listening on?

 

[ta1kradio]

This morning after roll call my Unication G5 went silent on SAFD dispatch. No tones or voice. Radio lights up showing call, radio ID and P25T non encrypted just no voice or tones. This just me or happening to everyone? All other traffic coming across as normal.

I'm monitoring using SDRTrunk and P25-P2 all is unchanged for me.

 

[NC5267]

I went and checked after work. All is back to normal. They were not using the auto dispatcher after roll call. Just a good ole human. There must have been problems with the auto dispatcher. Thanks for the replies.

 

[Sanscanman]

Found this tonight and submitted to the database. I think this might be the CPS Rio Nogales site in Seguin.. It has no sites affiliated , but has the current active patch list for the system. I am able to pick it up and decode it on my 325 with a rubber duck.

System ID : 0D2
System Name :
WACN : 91F78
Tower Number (Decimal): 9-9
Tower Number (Hex) : T0909
Tower Description :
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration,Authentication
Flavor : Phase 2
Call Sign(s) :
Timestamp : Wed Feb 8 21:06:53 2023

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,1
08,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-0320","c",855.01250,"00-0320",810.01250,0,0
"00-0336","a",855.21250,"00-0336",810.21250,0,0
"00-0526","a",857.58750,"00-0526",812.58750,0,0