Balcones Heights, Leon Valley & Shavano Park PD's

[Michael-SATX]

Question for the San Antonio area folks ...
Have you noticed the Balcones Heights, Leon Valley & Shavano Park PD's on VHF have gone quiet ?

I knew Shavano Park PD has long moved to the SATX/BC EDACS Gold TRS but used to patch to VHF
155.8350 w/100.0 PL so they could work with Grey Forest PD but so far today I have not heard anything.

Also I noticed Balcones Heights PD and Leon Valley PD appear to be missing from their VHF freqs too?
It might be my location and reception ? This post is for the purpose of sharing what others have noticed.
As I type this I did however just receive the Balcones Heights FD VHF on 154.9550 /192.8 PL as normal.

Hmm, seems a tough week for owners of Analog scanners ..... first most of the Live Oak EDACS TG's
have gone quiet and can only be received with a Digital P25 scanner. Second the last 3 PD's mentioned
above have either probably gone over to the "Dark Side" as TG's on the SATX/BC Gold TRS or elsewhere?

Oh well, as of today there are 3 very small ISD PD's and a few Mall Security PD's left ... sure not like the old days !
So ya better "Tap" that old baby and bring it to life again with a little help from your new best friend "Mr DSD"

 

[NC5267]

Heard Balcones and Leon Valley yesterday on their primary vhf PD channels. It was just a matter of time for Shavano to get the Provoice radios They were still using vhf which is why they were patched to the 155.835.(have some family that works for the city). I don't know about Grey Forest, There use to be another vhf freq patched to the Shavano vhf and Helotes provoice for Grey Forest to use but I would assume they got new radios also.

 

[otter9309]

Shavano PD (9400) is now on BCSO west patrol and SFD is on Bexar county fire as station 139.

 

[NC5267]

They went back to BCSO? They were getting dispatch service from Helotes for cheap and Helotes already has a talkgroup on the system.

 

[Cataddict]

This afternoon/evening have been hearing Balcones Heights VHF, but Leon Valley PD and Helotes PD are gone from their previous spots. Balcones doesn't seem to be as busy as I would expect, though.

Heard one license check on 153.9725 (look up in the FCC database) which was probably for a Grey Forest unit given the location. As I'm typing, just heard one single unit checking in on Leon Valley PD VHF, but that's the only thing I've heard there. I'll see what I hear torrow during the day, but looks like another group is gone. Real bummer for me.

Haven't had a chance to try Selma analog yet.

 

[NC5267]

I live in Selma and they are just like all of the users in the LIve Oak area are on the LCRA P25 Live Oak site. Their Fire dispatch may still be going through the 154.415 but it would only be the dispatcher if that.

I will check with my contacts in Shavano but I bet they stayed on the Helotes and Grey Forest Primary channel and just finally got the radios for the Provoice system. Which btw Helotes has had their own talkgroup patched to the Shavano Repeater on 155.835 which now seems to be gone.

 

[Cataddict]

Leon Valley and Balcones Heights have been alive all day as usual.

Nothing heard on Helotes rptr out 155.835; however heard Helotes PD today on 158.7825 and 153.9725. I think the 158.xxx is a repeater out. I don't know the PL tone(s).

 

[NC5267]

That is the one I was trying to find. I found that loud and clear when I was up in the Grey Forest area awhile back. I think that is the patch they use for the Helotes provoice primary. If you hear any 9000 units those are Shavano Park PD units. Help us narrow down if they are still being dispatched by Helotes.

 

[Cataddict]

Heard nothing but 3xxx units today and tonight. No 9xxx units and no Shavano street names.

 

[NC5267]

Maybe they did go back to county, I know they were getting cheap dispatch service from Helotes. But it always goes back to money, maybe Helotes wanted to charge them more

 

[otter9309]

"Shavano PD (9400) is now on BCSO west patrol and SFD is on Bexar county fire as station 139."

Shavano has left Helotes dispatch services.

 

[NC5267]

Thanks for the info..man they have gone through a lot of differnet agencies for dispatch services over the years..BCSO, Alamo Heights, Castle Hills, Helotes and now back to the SO

 

[Michael-SATX]

Last night I was traveling through the Leon Valley area on Bandera Road and had a scanner on
Signal Stalker and kept getting digital unreadable traffic on 152.3225. I was not hearing any
Leon Valley PD-1 traffic on their 154.7425 w/203.5 PL and thought hmm ... I wonder if they switched ?
I always thought if Leon Valley ever migrated to anything that it would be to Pro-Voice on the Gold ?

Well It just must have been a slow night as this morning I am hearing Leon Valley PD on 154.7425.
I looked up 152.3225 in the FCC search on RR and it comes back as either Air Evac off Medical Dr
or Guadalupe Co NexEdge. I ran it through DSD and it starts to indicate MotoTRBO encryted maybe?
Later at home ( 281 & 1604 ) I am also receiving regular use of 152.3225 just unreadable digital noise.

Any Ideas on 152.3225 ... and what agency this is ?

 

[NC5267]

I know Airlife has a few new vhf freqs I picked up some digital encryption on a 151.xxxx while in the Medical center before and at the same time on there 159.xxxx encrypted channel.

 

[Michael-SATX]

These are what I have ... still does not explain who 152.3225 is ? (maybe GCSO NexEDGE ?)

Airlife-BHS-SATX 159.885000 FM CTCSS 203.5 ( Analog)
Airlife-P25eSATX 159.952500 NFM NAC 273 (Encrypted)
Lifeteam AirEvac 464.025000 FM CTCSS 162.2 (Analog)

 

[numanoid17]

Leon Valley, TX Police Dept

I live less than 3 miles from Leon Valley, TX city limits so range is NOT the issue. I have listened to police dispatch on 154.725 for many years. Just recently I have taken an interest in listening to Leon Valley police again. But now I notice I only hear the dispatch and NOT the patrol cars. Does anyone know the freq for the patrol cars? They used to be on a repeater and I would pick them up all over Bexar County. The dispatch and the patrol cars. But those days are gone. Hoping someone knows the freq for their patrol cars responding to dispatch.

 

[NC5267]

There Main PD channel is patched to the San Antonio ProVoice System so maybe just the dispatcher is patched on the vhf side. 154.725 is still in repeater mode. Haven't monitored them in a long time but they were the last remaining municipality i n Bexar County that had not moved over the the ProVoice System. Seems like they have been slowly transitioning for awhile.

 

[numanoid17]

Helotes, TX PD freqs are accurate.

Hello, I was wondering if any other smaller police depts are still transmitting on VHF HIGH freqs? I still have a Bearcat 760 XLT. It is old, but still works fine. Any help from locals or anyone familiar with my part of Texas would be greatly appreciated. I used to listen to Bandera County, Texas PD. But I no longer hear them anymore. I know it is time to upgrade to a modern scanner...lol

 

[NC5267]

The Bandera Sheriff Channels are P25 and encrypted now so no way to monitor them. Helotes is on the San Antonio/Bexar County System and are Provoice so they can only be monitored through a computer using a Digital Speech Decoder program.

 

[kem554991]

I have a relative that has been involved with Balcones Heights PD for many years and is in charge of purchasing their radios. They are on SA/BC EDACS ProVoice although they kept their VHF repeater and portables and I believe had their VHF programmed into their Harris radios as a backup. They are capable of patching their EDACS talkgroups to the VHF repeater, but the dispatchers were having some issues with that system so they haven't been doing it regularly. Bexar County Fire Alarm also toned all stations the other day to announce that they were having radio issues and that Dailey-Wells had been notified. It is possible that BHPD switched back to VHF temporarily as a result of those issues. The BH Fire Talkgroup is still intermittently patched at least while they are dispatching a call. I have not been hearing PD but it's not impossible. There was some use of Fire VHF for a structure fire at 801 Gentleman a day or two ago that also had Leon Valley and/or Castle Hills dispatched as well as Bexar County Rehab 149 over BC Fire Alarm. Leon Valley is also migrating to SA/BC EDACS following the fire situation in which the dispatcher waited too long to call Acadian, possibly resulting in the death of a burn victim. They are still at least partially patched to their VHF repeater and I have heard an odd mix of units as well as the dispatcher. Bandera County has P25 encrypted using NAC and analog using PL/DPL on the same frequencies, which means that since they haven't fully migrated you can hear the dispatcher and some units on VHF mixed with digital transmissions if you use CSQ. Enabling PL allows you to hear only the analog transmissions. I hear them frequently on a daily basis and can confirm they are still using some analog. I've also heard at least one Deputy give an LPN over analog and ask for the return over digital, similar to how Medina County uses a separate P25 frequency as a Secure channel for sensitive information.

I monitor all of these departments regularly and know one or more people involved in several of them, so let me know if y'all have any questions.