She isn't any more. I haven't heard her on there in several years now. The guy formerly known as 102 is now in charge. In fact, the 101 callsign only returned to the air recently.
Brazos County Just Went (Mostly) Dark
- Thread starter mfn002
- Start date
An update:
www.kbtx.com
Law enforcement agencies signal willingness to talk after experts question sudden policy shift
Critics agree that full encryption will slow urgent alerts, hinder transparency, and leave the public with fewer trusted sources.
www.kbtx.com
I don't either. I do know that 154.415 is still in use (for station alerting?) and so is 155.940 (for the firefighters' Minotaurs). Up until the changeover, so was 155.415 (for some reason).
If I recall correctly, when I visited Brazos County 911 in 2003 and 2004 as part of my Police Explorers membership, they had a box filled with old CSPD/CSFD VHF mobiles in a storage closet that they had no idea what to do with. I forget what brand they exactly were, but I seem to remember GE.
I haven't checked if 154.340 is still in service, but I doubt it, though it was for a very long time after I started listening.
One thing I that sticks in my mind was how powerful 155.415 was. Back in the days when I had scanners that didn't do PL/DPL, I would get bleedover all over the place when that keyed up, even all the way up into the weather radio band. I only live about a mile or so from the tower that the repeater was on. When I was little, it even bled over onto some toy radios that my friends and I were playing with. Apparently, the toy radios must've been operating in the VHF band somewhere.
I originally listened on a vintage Lloyd's World Band Radio with VHF police band that I got at a local thrift store in 1999. Originally, I only really listened to the FM broadcast band so I could listen to a radio station I liked in Houston that I couldn't pick up on anything else. I would also occasionally listen to shortwave. It also had the VHF aeronautical band on it, but I could never pick up anything. After a while, I began straying more and more over to the police band and listening there. It wasn't until 2003 when my mom got me a PRO-94 for my birthday that I really started getting into the hobby.
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Yeppers, all CS, Bryan, Brazos Co LE gone. Don't know about Tamu, generally don't monitor them.
Don't know about Grimes Co yet. Have a friend there wanting his radio programmed, but may be stuck to just the Fd's as well.
I was fine (mainly) for them going to a tac ch when something started to heat up to keep prying ears out.
Am station WTAW had a mention about all this with one of the sheriff personnel and he sounded quite angry about all the people (newscasters, gen other folks, whomever) showing up at scenes.
Don't know about Grimes Co yet. Have a friend there wanting his radio programmed, but may be stuck to just the Fd's as well.
I was fine (mainly) for them going to a tac ch when something started to heat up to keep prying ears out.
Am station WTAW had a mention about all this with one of the sheriff personnel and he sounded quite angry about all the people (newscasters, gen other folks, whomever) showing up at scenes.
I don't know if encrypting everything is going to help that. There is social media. Someone sees law enforcement doing something, mentions it, and then you have the same issue of lots of spectators. Just FYI, TAMU PD also switched over, as did DPS Bryan.
Something is definitely going on with the system recently. Robertson County Fire/EMS has been simulcasting on TxWARN for the past few weeks, and a St. Joe EMS unit popped up on talkgroup 846 asking about the diversion status of Burleson St. Joesph a few minutes ago. I have never heard that talkgroup before.
wpwx694
Member
I said might be
Ok. You just got me worried. Never say never, though. I just learned that the hard way.
The new TGs for SO/Bryan PD/CSPD/UPD are all in the 41xx range, so if you see one of those, that's what it's for.
The new TGs for SO/Bryan PD/CSPD/UPD are all in the 41xx range, so if you see one of those, that's what it's for.
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why not? If the scanner apps are the largest driving force behind it, why not discuss it? I pulled my scanner feed at least 10 years ago because I found out my feed was directly responsible for someone evading law enforcement after a home invasion where an elderly woman was injured.
I guess culpability isn't a glamourous enough topic.
I didn't particularly want to get into a big, giant debate over streaming, and possibly get this thread locked down.
Would be for me. I was at a city board meeting some years back before it's nearly as popular and wide spread as it is now and online streaming was one of the reasons it happened here. Fortunately they made other bad decisions and now are dispatched by the county and at least now it's in the clear.
wpwx694
Member
Did you add st Joseph ems 846
So far I've seen new talkgroups of 4120, 4168, 4121, 4171, 4167.
You can occasionally see a uid show up, after a bit you can figure out when its dispatch talking, fwiw.
Anyway, after a band search, I find two site 21's, which is Bryan's site. One freq is the RR listed one 774.39375 and a new one 774.64375. We're talking control channels here.
It is however somewhat weaker than the former, so not sure (assumingly further away) where its at in relation to me.
Anybody come across that yet or comments?
You can occasionally see a uid show up, after a bit you can figure out when its dispatch talking, fwiw.
Anyway, after a band search, I find two site 21's, which is Bryan's site. One freq is the RR listed one 774.39375 and a new one 774.64375. We're talking control channels here.
It is however somewhat weaker than the former, so not sure (assumingly further away) where its at in relation to me.
Anybody come across that yet or comments?
I sadly welcome ya'll to the club. We've obviously adjusted here in MoCo, but yes, it'll never be the same.
News media, watchdog groups, activists, hobbyist, general public can make this encrypted of non sensitive radio traffic a two way street. When agencies want you to vote yes on bond proposals vote NO, when agencies contact media wanting the "publics" help identifying persons of interest do as a PIO and tell them to wait, when associations have fund raisers do not attend or support.
wpwx694
Member
I haven't heard college station fd yesterday, I did hear bryan fd
Did cs fire change talkgroups?
Did cs fire change talkgroups?
If nothing else, it's nice to see the media taking notice of the trend and questioning the need. Probably won't change anything, but maybe it's the start of a trend.
It will last until it causes the death of someone or a group of people and they get crap sued out of them. After the incident in the Cavender's parking lot the other day it will not make a dent in the lookie loos or the news stories they will just get bashed without any real info.
Make no mistake, the media agencies will absolutely love it if they get their hands on their own encrypted dispatch radios and not give a single flip about scanner users. The stories will stop, the fight for open communications will never grace their pages again as long as they know you have to go to them for information and pay or click on their ad infested pages.
Absolutely. I've heard rumors, but never saw any evidence that some news agencies have received receive only encrypted radios. Maybe someone can cite an instance.
I know that when Boston MA encrypted earlier this year they made the dispatch channels accessible to the public via a website. They put that on a five minute delay, but it's there.
That's a viable solution IF the reason for encryption is officer safety.
I know that when Boston MA encrypted earlier this year they made the dispatch channels accessible to the public via a website. They put that on a five minute delay, but it's there.
That's a viable solution IF the reason for encryption is officer safety.
The system I used to manage in FL rented radios to the media. They were keyloaded, but obviously could not transmit. We used to track them all over and could tell what NBC was listening to by running a report. They only had the dispatch TGs, no car to car or tacs. The SO had the contract that at any time they could turn the radios off temporarily. We used to get calls "can you tell us which media outlest are listening to us on channel so and so".
The media HOWLED untl they were able to get access, then they didnt care. Make no mistake about it, the media does NOT care about scanner listeners. As soon as they picked up their encrypted radios, all was well in the world and they did not give a crap about the public. It was all about their listening.
When I worked at a manufacturer years ago, I commonly was asked by agencies how to keep their traffic off of the news when stuff happened and it led to a few agencies encrypting. Most of them did not care about people with scanners, it was the ease of their dispatch audio showing up on the nightly news with a "courtesy of [[website]]" that they wanted to avoid.
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