K5MPH
Member
yeah,down her in Brownsville and the valley its all most Encryption......
Border Patrol - STX area
- Thread starter rattlerbb01
- Start date
In my many months spent on the border between the McAllen and Del Rio area I found the areas where you have many crossings are less likely to use encryption consistently. Don't know if it's due to the sheer number of radios or if encryption at that point really doesn't matter as they are crossing no matter what (I suspect it's the latter).
I wasn't on the border at all last year (my last time was 11/21), but I was just amazed at how many more apprehensions I heard in 2020-2021 as opposed to previous years. Just listening to one small area I'd hear captures of 4, 5, 10, 12, whatever all day along.
I find that the users along the Old Mines Rd and Carrizo Springs area are truly about 60/40 encryption. Sometimes you get to hear both sides of a conversation and it’s pretty cool to listen to them track the walkers. Other times finding a vehicle that got away from another agent or trooper. I think they go clear when there is a big chase more often because I have heard state troopers and DPS air assets on some of the CBP nets. I’m not sure if they are patched in or just using a loaner radio because the IDs are still CBP range (511xxxx-528xxxx).
ChrisABQ
...
There has not been much mentioned about the border here on RR lately, I would like to know if anyone has heard comm's other than Gov. like FRS/GMRS, landowners, militias or other organizations communicating about border activity.
I’ve searched the military vhf band and found nothing concrete. Laughlin AFB is all business on their system. There is a networked Tier III system on the Fed 160 band but I suspect it is on the Mexican side. I haven’t searched FRS/GMRS
memo124
Member
Which are of Mexico? I'm in McAllen.
There are about 5-6 sites I’ve detected from El Indio to Comstock, it’s a Tier III system.
163.4000 CC0 H2-5.3 NL 3.2, 4.3, 5.2
163.8750 CC0 H2-4.3 NL 2.8, 3.2, 5.2
164.6500 CC0 H2-3.2 NL 2.8, 4.3, 5.2
168.2000 CC0 H2-5.2 NL 2.5, 3.2, 4.3
169.000 CC0 H2-2.8 NL 3.2
When I was in the Big Bend area and got to talk with a few different agencies, a Trooper out of Brewster County said they could get on any law enforcement in the area. Obviously, county and city channels, but he said most of the BP sector channels, Tacs, and the National Park channels. He said a lot of troopers run two radios in the car. The state-installed ones and another multi-band radio. Which around the border is usually used to scan the BP channels. At least for the Big Bend Sector.
They’ve got a lot of the Border Star repeaters in that sector too. I’ve never heard one in use but when I’m out there it’s usually with my family and the scanner is used much less when I’m with them.
Yes, but not unless you're pretty close and looking for it. Digital HTs at low power, on business itinerant freqs with encryption.
memo124
Member
I do pick up this one
| 163.875 | SLOT 2 | COLOR 0 | MEXICO | DMR |
But I have not heard traffic on it yet. And I have a TRX 1
Point of information....All Texas DPS regions have at least one mobile command vehicle. Each of these vehicles have Gateway devices that are capable of patching multiple frequencies at the same time. They also have the capability of Radio over Internet protocol. I would presume that other agencies, state & federal would have similar capabilities.
Del Rio CBP D12 Net activity has picked up lately:
169.7375 NAC 306
169.7375 NAC 306
We had a decent band opening this morning and I was able to copy the following that aren't already listed as confirmed:
169.9125 NAC 313 repeater in Del Rio sector
169.6625 NAC 310 repeater in Del Rio sector
173.9500 NAC 309 repeater in Del Rio sector
172.2125 NAC AA0 repeater
166.4375 NAC 325 (definitely an uplink/input based on DSD logs)
You can tell the difference after listing to these for a while on what sector they belong to, so after several months of monitoring the 162-174 band when I can, I've figured out the patterns:
Del Rio Sector: D1 Net to D14 Net are in NAC order from presumable 259-260 all the way to 317 is the highest I've found. It gets cloudy above 307 though, as they must have added repeaters in to fill in gaps from the time this original setup was rolled out. But from D1-D13, the input/uplink frequency uses one NAC, and adds 1 to each repeater in the Net after that.
Example:
D6 - Input - 162.8250 NAC 287
D6 - Rocks - 171.5875 NAC 288
D6 - Brack - 168.7625 NAC 289
D6 - Uvald - 169.1375 NAC 290
I've still got a lot of blanks to fill in though, as I've heard no D1/5 Net at all, minimal D2/3 Nets, and haven't truly figured out which repeaters in Dimmit/Maverick/Webb are actually D13 and D14.
In Laredo, they use mostly a uniform 301 NAC for repeater outputs, and a 324-326 NAC for repeater inputs
In McAllen/RGV, they go with A00-AB0 in South Texas, and it seems to increase from the border northwards, and some of the ICE/CBP repeaters that I have received but not located along I-10 to Houston use C00 and above for repeater outputs.
I would love to not be so rushed and be able to take more vacations in my younger years and find more of this stuff. It really does interest me, and would be even cooler if it wasn't 75% encrypted, lol
169.9125 NAC 313 repeater in Del Rio sector
169.6625 NAC 310 repeater in Del Rio sector
173.9500 NAC 309 repeater in Del Rio sector
172.2125 NAC AA0 repeater
166.4375 NAC 325 (definitely an uplink/input based on DSD logs)
You can tell the difference after listing to these for a while on what sector they belong to, so after several months of monitoring the 162-174 band when I can, I've figured out the patterns:
Del Rio Sector: D1 Net to D14 Net are in NAC order from presumable 259-260 all the way to 317 is the highest I've found. It gets cloudy above 307 though, as they must have added repeaters in to fill in gaps from the time this original setup was rolled out. But from D1-D13, the input/uplink frequency uses one NAC, and adds 1 to each repeater in the Net after that.
Example:
D6 - Input - 162.8250 NAC 287
D6 - Rocks - 171.5875 NAC 288
D6 - Brack - 168.7625 NAC 289
D6 - Uvald - 169.1375 NAC 290
I've still got a lot of blanks to fill in though, as I've heard no D1/5 Net at all, minimal D2/3 Nets, and haven't truly figured out which repeaters in Dimmit/Maverick/Webb are actually D13 and D14.
In Laredo, they use mostly a uniform 301 NAC for repeater outputs, and a 324-326 NAC for repeater inputs
In McAllen/RGV, they go with A00-AB0 in South Texas, and it seems to increase from the border northwards, and some of the ICE/CBP repeaters that I have received but not located along I-10 to Houston use C00 and above for repeater outputs.
I would love to not be so rushed and be able to take more vacations in my younger years and find more of this stuff. It really does interest me, and would be even cooler if it wasn't 75% encrypted, lol
How are the areas divided for each BP agent to patrol within each sector? For example, if your"e assigned to the Del Rio sector, are you assigned to one of the areas a repeater covers? Like a local pd that has a district within a patrol area. I know they go all over the sector because of manpower issues, but just curious if you get assigned an area within a sector.
nd5y
Member
I doubt very seriously that patrol areas are based on where a repeater happens to be. When I lived in El Paso over 40 years ago when the agents started their shift they would call in 10-41 and give some alphanumeric indicators that were probably some type of patrol area. I don't know if it's still like that or if it was the same in other sectors. In the area from downtown El Paso east to around Ysleta they used 163.675 simplex.
ecps92
Member
my guess is by Station within the Sector
Since Del Rio has 10 Stations they likely have at-least D-01 thru D-10 for NETS with some overlapping coverage areas. (hence up to D14 for nets)
Band opening logs from the Briscoe Catarina Ranch area:
170.3375 A70 (Brooks Co area)
170.9875 A80
169.8875 304 (San Antonio CBP)
169.9125 301
171.6625 A90
173.0625 301
173.0750 analog squawks, some distant, some closer
172.7125 A70 (Brooks Co area)
172.6375 1F1 Treasury Dept - Houston
172.3125 315 NAC - talk between Base 920 (I believe this is Eagle Pass) and Base 923 (Confirmed Carrizo Springs), and multicast with 166.9875 D13 Net at times. New frequency to me and I've been around Carrizo Springs for a decade. Furthermore, units and bases were doing radio checks at 3 AM.
173.7750 C00
173.5500 A21
172.2625 A80
172.4125 A90
173.1375 A21
Mostly data bursts, some encryption, but a healthy amount of clear speech. Mainly running DLs on traffic stops, some checkpoint talk on the identified ones.
170.3375 A70 (Brooks Co area)
170.9875 A80
169.8875 304 (San Antonio CBP)
169.9125 301
171.6625 A90
173.0625 301
173.0750 analog squawks, some distant, some closer
172.7125 A70 (Brooks Co area)
172.6375 1F1 Treasury Dept - Houston
172.3125 315 NAC - talk between Base 920 (I believe this is Eagle Pass) and Base 923 (Confirmed Carrizo Springs), and multicast with 166.9875 D13 Net at times. New frequency to me and I've been around Carrizo Springs for a decade. Furthermore, units and bases were doing radio checks at 3 AM.
173.7750 C00
173.5500 A21
172.2625 A80
172.4125 A90
173.1375 A21
Mostly data bursts, some encryption, but a healthy amount of clear speech. Mainly running DLs on traffic stops, some checkpoint talk on the identified ones.
nd5y
Member
Lo-Jack
170.9875 A80 is Border Patrol Kingsville (Kleberg County).