You are right. There site says 10, 20, and 50. But thinking back, I actually think the reserves are 11 and 21, not 30 or 40.
Brazos Valley Activity Thread
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You are right. There site says 10, 20, and 50. But thinking back, I actually think the reserves are 11 and 21, not 30 or 40.
Odd. I heard "Dispatch, Medic 2 is clear of College Station Medical Center and in service returning to the city." It was definitely a Bryan unit. I'm still very confused about this. Last time I checked, Waller County EMS and Fire are still on their VHF channel (155.760). I would check to see if they might have gotten a new TGID or something. Even if it was Waller County EMS, how were they able to get a signal on the Type II system to radio back to Waller County? This whole situation prompted me to check and see if there was a new system here in town. I couldn't find anything, but I did pick up a weak data channel in the 790 range.
Waller County EMS is still paged on 155.760 with fire, but all operations are on HCRRS analog 16096, and tactical/bs is on 16128. Also, any data channel sounds you might hear in the 790 range are just images of 85X range data channels. I don't know why you would have heard Bryan FD on that talkgroup, but as of this morning, WCVEMS is on 16096 on the Hempstead analog tower. I have noticed that Waller County SO and EMS have bounced on the two Walker County towers some, usually when they are up in the Riley Rd./Grimes County area.
Yeah. I usually hear Waller SO off of the 021 site near the Grimes/Walker County line on Highway 30. It might of been some sort of skip, but I find that a little odd since it popped up on that TG. However, this might be some sort of indication of how things will be once the new system is in use here. I suspect that the Hensel and Millican sites will be for analog stuff (city services and possibly fire). I say this because that when Brazos County went digital, only law enforcement went digital, while fire and other services stayed analog. So it's likely that only law enforcement will be on 121/122 while fire and city services will be on the possibly analog Hensel and Millican sites. By the way, I think the reason I keep hearing Walker and Montgomery County TGs is because of a radio tech somewhere. I say this because they keep popping up on 121, and it so happens that the company working on this, Texas Communications, is based off of Highway 21 in Bryan.
All 700 MHz trunk systems will be P25 digital, no analog, except on low power (less than 2 watts) non-trunked simplex. The other two sites will be part of the HCRRS system when they have them ready. As far as whether or not city services stay on the Bryan system, I think that is a matter of whether or not they choose to keep that system on the air after public safety vacates it. Only time will tell.
Ok. I guess so. I still can't figure out why Bryan Fire popped up on Waller County EMS. It could be possible that the current system will become another HCRRS Type II site, although some of the TGIDs will need to be changed to prevent confusion with Galveston County.
I can't see them adding any more analog Type II sites, but that is just my opinion. Everything is slowly migrating to the P25 system. By the time they are moving agencies like HCSO, GCSO, and Brazoria County, they will need the additional frequencies from the analog sites to be used on the P25 sites. 700 MHz is more of an expansion to 800 MHz, not an end all to the frequency congestion problem. There will probably be a mandatory switchover date a few years down the road when Harris County has all the P25 infrastructure in place, and anybody still hanging out with analog equipment will have to switch or be responsible for meeting their own radio needs.
I recall reading an article in the Houston Chronicle a few weeks ago about funding problems for the proposed City of Houston system. The article also stated that this new Motorola system should be in place by 2012 once the funding problem is fixed.
OK, I am going to program the Hunstville analog site into my MTX8000 and see if I can pick it up from Rock Prarie and Wellborn.
You sure you didn't hear S2 or Medic 20 is clear and in service?
Waller County EMS goes to the CS Med Center from time to time so that's not out of the question.
But I am going to see if I can pick up the Huntsville tower from here. I didn't even know Hunstville had an analog tower.
You sure you didn't hear S2 or Medic 20 is clear and in service?
Waller County EMS goes to the CS Med Center from time to time so that's not out of the question.
But I am going to see if I can pick up the Huntsville tower from here. I didn't even know Hunstville had an analog tower.
If you get it to work, let me know. I've tried with no luck. I'm at Longmire and Treehouse.
Well some nights I've been able to pick up the Hempstead Tower, which theoretically should be the best choice up here.
If it is a Waller County medic, how were they able to get out that far? One thing I did recall about that was that it was definitely a Bryan medic because I recognized the voice of the guy talking as being a Bryan paramedic. I'm probably going to write this whole incident off as some strange form of skip, but I don't recall any of the frequencies on the Brazos County system matching those of 020/021 in Walker County.
Here's a little clarification for those who are drooling over the new HCRRS sites:
1. Walker West and Walker East both have analog 4.1 smartzone sites in addition to the 7.x astro digital sites. This is because when walker county came into the system, they came in with 4.1 sites and later upgraded them to the 7.x when it became available.
2. 4.1 smartzone sites are no longer being built out, only 7.x astro digital. The 7 sites in the BVWACS will only be version 7.x
3. Someone keeps trying to 'figure out' why they are seeing talkgroups from other counties pop up. It's very simple. With a multi-site zone system like this, any subscriber radio that happens to travel into an area where the control channel from one of the BCS sites is strong enough, it will roam over to that site. People travel every day, which is why you might see a TG from Northeast Harris County show up on a site in cat springs. It happens. There aren't any people "Throwing switches" to make it happen, if a subscriber radio travels into that site's coverage area, and there is traffic on its affiliated TG, it will pop up. Sure, it's a little odd, but it happens all the time.
Eventually, you will start seeing more P25 traffic on the HCRRS system from agencies who have historically been analog only. This is because HCRRS is going to use the SmartX technology to allow the migration process to be a little more seamless to the end user and a little more friendly to the bean-counters at the various agencies.
I would expect that, with the exception of some stray TG's here and there, the BVWACS sites will stay largely quiet until the various agencies get ready to cut-over. Putting the sites on the air was just one hurdle in the race. Now there are countless subscriber radios to flash, program, test, and eventually deploy, meanwhile they will be using their respective legacy systems until every radio is in place and ready to make the switch.
Just my 2 cents' worth. I've been watching this (and a couple other) discussion boards for a few weeks, and figured it was time to pitch in and kinda help everyone stay on track.
Good luck scanning.
1. Walker West and Walker East both have analog 4.1 smartzone sites in addition to the 7.x astro digital sites. This is because when walker county came into the system, they came in with 4.1 sites and later upgraded them to the 7.x when it became available.
2. 4.1 smartzone sites are no longer being built out, only 7.x astro digital. The 7 sites in the BVWACS will only be version 7.x
3. Someone keeps trying to 'figure out' why they are seeing talkgroups from other counties pop up. It's very simple. With a multi-site zone system like this, any subscriber radio that happens to travel into an area where the control channel from one of the BCS sites is strong enough, it will roam over to that site. People travel every day, which is why you might see a TG from Northeast Harris County show up on a site in cat springs. It happens. There aren't any people "Throwing switches" to make it happen, if a subscriber radio travels into that site's coverage area, and there is traffic on its affiliated TG, it will pop up. Sure, it's a little odd, but it happens all the time.
Eventually, you will start seeing more P25 traffic on the HCRRS system from agencies who have historically been analog only. This is because HCRRS is going to use the SmartX technology to allow the migration process to be a little more seamless to the end user and a little more friendly to the bean-counters at the various agencies.
I would expect that, with the exception of some stray TG's here and there, the BVWACS sites will stay largely quiet until the various agencies get ready to cut-over. Putting the sites on the air was just one hurdle in the race. Now there are countless subscriber radios to flash, program, test, and eventually deploy, meanwhile they will be using their respective legacy systems until every radio is in place and ready to make the switch.
Just my 2 cents' worth. I've been watching this (and a couple other) discussion boards for a few weeks, and figured it was time to pitch in and kinda help everyone stay on track.
Good luck scanning.
I thought you said you were listening on the HCRRS West Walker County Tower? Either way it's strange.
My MTX8000 can pick up the West Walker County Tower no problem from Rock Prarie and Wellborn, so it is very possible for Waller County EMS to hit that tower with their mobile unit from the CS Med Center.
My MTX8000 can pick up the West Walker County Tower no problem from Rock Prarie and Wellborn, so it is very possible for Waller County EMS to hit that tower with their mobile unit from the CS Med Center.
As for the subscriber radios, I have yet to hear any sort of traffic indicating that radios are being tested. In fact, I have heard nothing from the radio techs recently. The traffic on the two sites has actually decreased and now I am only occasionally hearing stuff, and it's usually MCSO 1. I'm suspecting it might be a while before anything significant happens. Also, I have not seen any new, unidentified TGIDs pop up.
As for the Waller County EMS thing, I couldn't really tell which site it was coming over because I was using my 396XT and I had both sites entered in the same bank, but I suspect it was 021 because I often pick up Waller SO there.
N5AMS
Member
ok so the theory of forcing tg onto a certain site for testing of stuff like that is not correct either right there isn't a possibility of that happening somehow i find that hard to believe
just my 2 cents
n5gqb
Member
Hello radioman:
Yea I thought the throwing switches thing was kinda funny."Well back in the old days sonny......."
Yea I'm familiar with the "follow me roaming" these systems have as I call it. I'm sure that counts for a chunk of what's on the system here. But due to the fact of them just now setting up the sites here and doing testing, many of us were figuring as part of this they were linking in various talkgroups to simulate activity on the system. Checking channel rotation, audio pass through, controller function, networking between peer sites, so on and so on. Sometimes you would hear an active talkgroup for a while and then it would stop and then pick back up. Or you would hear a dispatched call but not the replies or vice versa. Some of the conversations on the talkgroups heard here very sporadic, while some were very consistent. As if the techs were messing with stuff, plugging and unplugging, which I'm sure they probably were.
Feel free to jump in anytime with comments.
Yea I thought the throwing switches thing was kinda funny."Well back in the old days sonny......."
Yea I'm familiar with the "follow me roaming" these systems have as I call it. I'm sure that counts for a chunk of what's on the system here. But due to the fact of them just now setting up the sites here and doing testing, many of us were figuring as part of this they were linking in various talkgroups to simulate activity on the system. Checking channel rotation, audio pass through, controller function, networking between peer sites, so on and so on. Sometimes you would hear an active talkgroup for a while and then it would stop and then pick back up. Or you would hear a dispatched call but not the replies or vice versa. Some of the conversations on the talkgroups heard here very sporadic, while some were very consistent. As if the techs were messing with stuff, plugging and unplugging, which I'm sure they probably were.
Feel free to jump in anytime with comments.
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The techs did channel rotation testing a few weeks ago, prior to them announcing that the system was "functionally tested". As for the other stuff, I do occasionally see a Huntsville PD cruiser going back and forth between here and Huntsville, so that could be what's causing it. As I said before, I have heard absolutely NO traffic on that "test" TG (2396) since then.
Another thing...
Does any one know when the P25 sites in Walker County are going to be rebanded?
Another thing...
Does any one know when the P25 sites in Walker County are going to be rebanded?
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n5gqb, It is true that the system managers can set up certain talkgroups to bring up a channel at certain sites regardless of there being any radios affiliated to them, but that is a very inefficient use of resources and I would imagine is probably not the norm for a system of this size. The theory would be, if there aren't any radios affiliated to a site, then why would anyone care if that talkgroup was coming out of it??? The only benefit there would be subscriber radios' ability to scan (Because trunking scan is SO reliable), but again, it is a very inefficient use of resources and could potentially cause a site to busy-out unnecessarily.
A good sign would be when they either modify the existing license, or get a new one, so that the rebanded frequencies are properly licensed. I think a lot of the 4.1 sites have a temporary exemption due the enormous workload the system techs will have trying to reband 25 analog sites and a few digital sites.
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