City of Houston Project 25 TRS

[mfn002]

Great point about the wrecker drivers. Houston PD doesnt telephone wrecker companies, they just call over the air "need a wrecker at 12000 SW Freeway" and when 1 or 20 shows up the officer on scene says "no more wreckers 12000 SW freeway" It sounds crazy but actually works pretty well in Houston.

There are hundreds of wreckers outfitted with UHF radios or scanners that will have to be retrofitted to accommodate this new system.

I am getting fairly worried. I don't want to be "left in the dark" every time I to go to Houston, which I have been listening to for the past 9 years or so. I bet as soon as the Houston Chronicle runs an article about it, all hell's gonna break loose for the Houston-area scanner community.

 

[motorola_otaku]

Right now it's running X2 TDMA, so for at least the initial phase everything that isn't encrypted will be monitorable with the PSR800.

It also looks like the city of Pasadena will be joining the system in some capacity; a new tower went up next to the new PD building last week. Initial indicators are that PD and fire will be moving over to CoH while public works stays on TxWARN, and that the existing TxWARN tower will stay up for the foreseeable future.

 

[mfn002]

Right now it's running X2 TDMA, so for at least the initial phase everything that isn't encrypted will be monitorable with the PSR800.

It also looks like the city of Pasadena will be joining the system in some capacity; a new tower went up next to the new PD building last week. Initial indicators are that PD and fire will be moving over to CoH while public works stays on TxWARN, and that the existing TxWARN tower will stay up for the foreseeable future.

Okay. I guess I'll have to get a PSR800. Is there any way to search and store new TGs on a PSR800?

 

[mfn002]

Here's an interesting article on why the City of Houston is building this new system:
Houston plans to get HPD, HFD employees new radios amid ongoing complaints of poor transmission | abc13.com

 

[nd5y]

I bet if they got rid of the speaker mics most of their hand held radio dead spots would come back to life.

 

[mfn002]

I bet if they got rid of the speaker mics most of their hand held radio dead spots would come back to life.

Are you talking about the ones that have antennas on them?

 

[nd5y]

No, I'm talking about a straight speaker mic with no antenna and wearing the radio on your belt with the antenna up against your back or side like at 1:50 in the video in the news article link above.

 

[trumpetman]

Ah, the good old Sabers. They're going to have to get rid of those anyways once narrowbanding rolls around.

 

[procopper7005]

Right now it's running X2 TDMA, so for at least the initial phase everything that isn't encrypted will be monitorable with the PSR800.

It also looks like the city of Pasadena will be joining the system in some capacity; a new tower went up next to the new PD building last week. Initial indicators are that PD and fire will be moving over to CoH while public works stays on TxWARN, and that the existing TxWARN tower will stay up for the foreseeable future.

Ive heard Bellaire PD/FD will also be joining.

 

[mfn002]

Ive heard Bellaire PD/FD will also be joining.

Don't they have TGs on TxWARN?

 

[mfn002]

Ah, the good old Sabers. They're going to have to get rid of those anyways once narrowbanding rolls around.

If I recall correctly, the ASTRO Saber 2s that some of the officers use can be narrowbanded. There's also some HT1000s and MT2000s floating around.

 

[trumpetman]

Ahhh, I didn't know they were ASTROs, the buttons looked darker like it might have been a Standard/Systems Saber rather than the blueish buttons on the ASTRO radios. Thanks for the clarification.

 

[motorola_otaku]

The audio clip they played is indicative of an analog Saber (of which HPD has probably several hundred in active street service - HFD has been an all-XTS fleet for years now) with microphonics issues - basically the shields and modules in the radio work their way loose over time and create intermittent loss of transmit audio or power. It can be especially frustrating because it doesn't usually affect receive so the radio "sounds" like it's working fine. The APX mobiles have been rolling out steadily for several months now, and I'm kind of surprised that the handhelds haven't been issued yet.

HPD will never get rid of their speaker mics (the original coverage specs in the RFP for the 700 system specified on-belt portable coverage) and AFAIK there are no plans to keep anything on UHF rolling past the narrowbanding deadline, aside from possibly a backup station alerting system for HFD.

 

[N5AMS]

Don't they have TGs on TxWARN?

yes they have 2 talkgroups on there in analog right no but no activity yet

 

[JCasiano]

Hey fellas, longtime lurker and Houston fireman. I don't know much about radios other than how to program my scanner. With that in mind, when we switch ( Houston Fire) to this new system, I will need a BCD396XT in order to hear whats goin on? Thanks in advance.

 

[N5AMS]

well from what I hear even when you (HFD) switch the talkgroups will be phase 2 which makes all scanners bricks so even having a 396xt will not work unless they goto phase 1 at first which i doubt

 

[JCasiano]

Ok thanks, will this system be similar to SAFD's EDACS?

Guess I should start getting more involved with radio testing to get some inside scoop.

 

[loumaag]

Ok thanks, will this system be similar to SAFD's EDACS?

No. It will be a P25 system, but using the Phase 2 TDMA type of voice channel usage. The GRE PSR800 was designed to handle the Motorola TDMA (X2) implementation but does not work (yet) on the actual Phase 2 type.

Guess I should start getting more involved with radio testing to get some inside scoop.

Knowledge is power.

 

[grem467]

Initially HFD as well as the migrated talk groups from 2221 will be X2 on 3D8, but once the move to 1A7 is complete, the talk groups will be promoted to Phase II.

 

[N5AMS]

well there is activity on 3D8 now tg ids are so far are as follows 1-20 i can't monitor the because I don't have a GRE800 I can only run an analizer from the hp-1