City of Houston Project 25 TRS

[adcockfred]

The city system with a 106 or 500 outfitted with a fox hunter loop out in the car, well damn near as good as a mother. THe changes to 1a7 all ways help. Not much LSM. Now the county system is a different story. And not much LSM there either with the 436. If you watch witch city system is talking where. When ever you receive the city tdma system that is where the county works better. Just look at the signal strength map on your. Phone.

 

[afremont]

I monitor HCSO, but not HPD. I'm using a Pro-106 and a BCD996XT, but I've never used either with an external antenna so I can't speak for how they handle overload. They are great, but don't do TDMA Phase II, so they're becoming obsolete in Harris County. I was thinking of buying a BCD996P2 since I'm already familiar with it's predecessor. I don't know enough about the 436HP really offer an opinion.

 

[adcockfred]

I have found that the 436 with a fox hunter loop is the top of the line. There is a reason it has the top resale value. But here again your experience in handling sd cards will come into play. Let's just put it this away your daddy is dead and so is Oldsmobile. Remember Intel says this is the end of the line. No upgrade next year.

 

[teknishun]

I got out of scanning for about two years due to frustration with the P25 change and getting it to work with my Pro-106. I ended up selling the Pro-106 in mid-2014 and am interested in getting into the hobby again.

With that being said, any opinions on HPD and HCSO with the BCD436HP? Can I expect higher quality by going with the BCD436HP than I was used to with my Pro-106, or is there a better option available? I intend to use this in the car with the stock antenna (no external)

Thanks!

The BCD436HP is a very fine scanner indeed. It works well in most locations.
It has a great sound. I use mine in the car sometimes myself.

But whether or not you will get "higher quality" on P25 depends entirely on your
location and what you are monitoring at the time. There could still be simulcast
distortion at times -- R2D2 gibberish or garbled transmissions -- it just depends.

Although the 436HP sounds great, when you get to driving down the road the scanner
is competing with road noise and air conditioner noise, etc. It is hard to hear that little
tiny speaker at times. You have to crank the volume way up to hear and that really
eats the batteries.

I use my 436HP in the car as well with just the stock rubber antenna.

I would suggest getting a good mag mount for the top of your vehicle and you
can get adapter cables to adapt the antenna cable to the scanner end.

teknishun

 

[nwradiorick]

Baytown Fd

I was picking Baytown FD on the Harris County Simulcast. Any one know where it went?

 

[KevinC]

I was picking Baytown FD on the Harris County Simulcast. Any one know where it went?

I would look on site 1-12 (East Simulcast).

And say "hi" to Don for me.

 

[kmartin]

i can pick the up on texas city site most of the time.
talk groups can move to different sites . try monitoring
other sites in your area if possible

 

[refereebrentbrooks]

Greetings everyone. I have been out of the scanner/monitoring loop for several years. I started listening in the 70's with an old Regency 10 crystal scanner and moved up in the world. I am looking for information on a reliable scanner that someone with no tech savvy like myself could use to hear HPD, HFD, HCSD and other LEO's and first responders in the area. I live in Spring, and do not even know if any of these are encrypted now or not. Any ideas? Thank you in advance.
Brent

 

[Ensnared]

Price?

Greetings everyone. I have been out of the scanner/monitoring loop for several years. I started listening in the 70's with an old Regency 10 crystal scanner and moved up in the world. I am looking for information on a reliable scanner that someone with no tech savvy like myself could use to hear HPD, HFD, HCSD and other LEO's and first responders in the area. I live in Spring, and do not even know if any of these are encrypted now or not. Any ideas? Thank you in advance.
Brent

Yes, you have a steep learning curve ahead of you. There are several options for listening to Phase II Digital in the area. HPD has gone to Phase II and heavily encrypted the more interesting talk groups. Now, they only open up the dispatch talk groups for the most part.

For the most part, you can get by with a digital scanner that does not work on Phase II since the system is labeled as such and various agencies are heading in that direction. There are several Phase I scanners such as the GRE PSR 500 and similar models. But, it is a matter of time before another purchase might be needed. For example, Galveston recently joined Phase II.

Then, we get into another area, major bucks. There is an outstanding radio pager that follows P25 digital quite well in Houston. It is called a Unication G5. This is not a regular scanner and does not, at the time I am typing this, follow Phase II digital. It works great for the linear simulcast distortion that exists on this system. You might need to prepare for surgery since you might have to forfeit a lung or kidney to buy this model.

I own a Uniden 436HP and it works fair in the Houston area. There are far worse models for monitoring Phase II. I suggest looking up the phrases you don't understand and read, read, read! You need to catch up.

 

[rescue674aa]

Harris/Houston

Does anyone have the codeplug for an apx for these systems? I have a quick question please email. Please don't email with negative stuff.

 

[rescue674aa]

Does anyone have the NAS bandplan for Houston and Harris Co?

 

[mfn002]

New Talkgroups?

I just stumbled upon two "mystery" talkgroups: 220 and 276. The traffic sounds like stuff having to do with the Bush funeral. They aren't listed in the DB, and I don't feel comfortable submitting them unless I know what they are for.