CHP Air Speed Enforcement

[stingray327]

What happened to the speed enforcement via airplane? I used to hear them but now I hardly ever hear them.

 

[rylvir]

What happened to the speed enforcement via airplane? I used to hear them but now I hardly ever hear them.

I haven't heard them lately in the Auburn area

 

[stingray327]

I haven't heard them lately in the Auburn area

I always used to see them in the Red Top area of Fairfield. I have heard some air going up towards Sac. when they patrol around that Meridian Exit on 80.

 

[LAflyer]

Budget cuts -

The California Highway Patrol still has 15 planes used to catch speeders, but spokeswoman Fran Clader said that as the department's annual air operations budget has dropped from about $12 million to $8 million, aircraft became more focused on supporting searches and pursuits.

"We still enforce speed with the fixed-wing aircraft but in a much-reduced capacity," she said.

Cost grounding states' airborne speed traps - Business on NBCNews.com

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[ScannerDude244]

Budget cuts -

The California Highway Patrol still has 15 planes used to catch speeders, but spokeswoman Fran Clader said that as the department's annual air operations budget has dropped from about $12 million to $8 million, aircraft became more focused on supporting searches and pursuits.

"We still enforce speed with the fixed-wing aircraft but in a much-reduced capacity," she said.

Cost grounding states' airborne speed traps - Business on NBCNews.com

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ahh That's why I haven't heard anything in about a year I was wondering if the blue channel was still working here.

 

[davedaver1]

Even the ground speed details seem to be gone - it's odd, because between both of those, they would be bringing in a lot of revenue. I don't mean that in the sense of speed traps, but the sheer need to have an enforcement presence. Speed details in the Auburn area usually nets upper 80s and 90's routinely, as fast as they can get them handed out.

The carpool lanes on I-80 are a joke - they NEVER enforce them, another lost opportunity to both enforce the law and remind drivers, as well as to bring in revenue.

 

[LAflyer]

CHP has big budget problems.

They are understaffed by something like 1,200 FTE, the ones working have had to take furlough days equivilent to 5% of their pay, while there is no non-essential overtime.
This all means there are less units on the roads at any given time.

With a 10% budget chop for 3-years running the department can barely cover the basics, and things like capital budgets for facility upkeep or even buy enough cars to finish the CHPERS project are victims.

 

[stingray327]

CHP has big budget problems.

They are understaffed by something like 1,200 FTE, the ones working have had to take furlough days equivilent to 5% of their pay, while there is no non-essential overtime.
This all means there are less units on the roads at any given time.

With a 10% budget chop for 3-years running the department can barely cover the basics, and things like capital budgets for facility upkeep or even buy enough cars to finish the CHPERS project are victims.

All of the California State workers got hit with a furlough program / cut salaries.

 

[stingray327]

Even the ground speed details seem to be gone - it's odd, because between both of those, they would be bringing in a lot of revenue. I don't mean that in the sense of speed traps, but the sheer need to have an enforcement presence. Speed details in the Auburn area usually nets upper 80s and 90's routinely, as fast as they can get them handed out.

The carpool lanes on I-80 are a joke - they NEVER enforce them, another lost opportunity to both enforce the law and remind drivers, as well as to bring in revenue.

Whenver in the Sac. area I always see them out using laser pointing them like rifles at cars.

 

[russianspd]

Listening to CHP in the Stockton area on 44.92 about 2 weeks ago or so I could hear the AIR unit pointing out cars and their types that were good for a stop. I couldn't hear the units response to it, they must have been on the BLUE possibly? It was interesting though because Base would continue to carry on default dispatch duties while the AIR unit would butt in between transmissions while doing their detail. Might of been patched in possibly? My only guess to that detail would be the speed enforcement that you mentioned.

 

[stingray327]

Listening to CHP in the Stockton area on 44.92 about 2 weeks ago or so I could hear the AIR unit pointing out cars and their types that were good for a stop. I couldn't hear the units response to it, they must have been on the BLUE possibly? It was interesting though because Base would continue to carry on default dispatch duties while the AIR unit would butt in between transmissions while doing their detail. Might of been patched in possibly? My only guess to that detail would be the speed enforcement that you mentioned.

The cars are low powered transmissions aren't they? I can hear the cars alot in other counties which is strange but the air enforcement ground units are always weaker in signal strength. The plane also but line of sight may play alot in this. Signals fade in and out.

 

[russianspd]

The cars are low powered transmissions aren't they? I can hear the cars alot in other counties which is strange but the air enforcement ground units are always weaker in signal strength. The plane also but line of sight may play alot in this. Signals fade in and out.

I think signaling and the ability to have it work for CHP goes hand in hand with their need for those long whip antennas. I don't know if their ground enforcement units are necessarily weaker or not. But I would assume that since I could only hear the AIR unit is that maybe AIR was patching it's ops from the BLUE onto the CHP Stockton freqs since that is where they were working the detail.

 

[ScannerDude244]

The cars are low powered transmissions aren't they? I can hear the cars alot in other counties which is strange but the air enforcement ground units are always weaker in signal strength. The plane also but line of sight may play alot in this. Signals fade in and out.

When they usually do speed enforcement they always use car to car on the base and if your not near them you wont hear them. I'm not sure what power the new Kenwood radios put out I only can get them for a few miles. The old GE radios put out some power 110watts!

 

[stingray327]

I don't understand what is patching?

 

[stingray327]

When they usually do speed enforcement they always use car to car on the base and if your not near them you wont hear them. I'm not sure what power the new Kenwood radios put out I only can get them for a few miles. The old GE radios put out some power 110watts!

In the past I have picked them up on my base using a Chanel Master antenna.

 

[russianspd]

I don't understand what is patching?

Patching is where audio from one radio channel is automatically pushed through to another channel.

Example would be Escalon PD radios are on their own frequency. After business hours their Dispatch is picked up by Ripon PD. So their audio from their frequency is pushed onto Ripon. That way they don't need to have secondary radios or keep manually changing their frequency they are on. It also allows Ripon PD on their main channel to communicate with Escalon officers that are on their channels during the graveyard shift. I.E patching. It is combining of frequencies.

 

[stingray327]

Patching is where audio from one radio channel is automatically pushed through to another channel.

Example would be Escalon PD radios are on their own frequency. After business hours their Dispatch is picked up by Ripon PD. So their audio from their frequency is pushed onto Ripon. That way they don't need to have secondary radios or keep manually changing their frequency they are on. It also allows Ripon PD on their main channel to communicate with Escalon officers that are on their channels during the graveyard shift. I.E patching. It is combining of frequencies.

oK I see. I notice that with some agencies or maybe it's a simulcast as I can hear dispatch on two different frequencies.

 

[russianspd]

oK I see. I notice that with some agencies or maybe it's a simulcast as I can hear dispatch on two different frequencies.

I'm not entirely sure but I want to say that if it is the same Dispatcher going over multiple channels that those frequencies have been tied together.

 

[stingray327]

anything like that is fine by me just to make this hobby easier to enjoy. All of this trunking and digital stuff can get confusing and very expensive. Good thing most of what I monitor is still the same as it was decades ago.

 

[jlanfn]

It was interesting though because Base would continue to carry on default dispatch duties while the AIR unit would butt in between transmissions while doing their detail. Might of been patched in possibly?

What you describe is the air unit speaking with the ground units in simplex (sometimes called "direct" or "car-to-car") mode on the base frequency. This is a very common practice with CHP any time one field unit wants to talk directly to another field unit. This is not a "patch" because it doesn't involve the traffic from one channel being rebroadcast on another channel through a dispatcher console.

There is a good description of this in the CHP Wiki.

The base station (the dispatcher), the air unit, and the ground units involved in the speed enforcement are transmitting at different power levels and at different elevations. The base station is high power and high elevation and has the strongest signal. The air unit and the ground units transmit at much lower power, but the air unit transmits at high elevation while the ground units transmit at near ground level. This is why (assuming your scanner is connected to the factory antenna) you will hear the base station loud and clear, the air unit much weaker, and the ground units perhaps not at all. This is also why when transmitting direct on the base frequency the air and ground units transmit in between the base station transmissions because if they transmitted at the same time as the base station their transmission could be overpowered by the base station.