Just FYI, I stand corrected on information I provided in a previous post! The main Dispatch Channels on the 700 mhz system (PD) will not be encrypted. This will allow for wreckers to monitor so they can respond to wrecker request calls.
Well, I'm not sure you were initially wrong, it probably comes that way after they started thinking about it. I'm still not sure it is going to make any difference at all. I suspect that when they move it will be to the current TxWARN P25 system or they will split those four simulcast sites (NE Hou, SE Hou, SW Hou, & NW Hou) and the other associated layer 3 sites off back to their own system, but it will make no difference as they are Phase 2 and they already have activity on them that no scanner can hear, encrypted or not.
In ref to Cy-Fair FD:
It's there for supervisors and the radio techs to play with. Dispatch and line firefighting ops will always be on conventional. And just to keep it on topic, they have access to the new City system.
If there staying on UHF, will they be able to narrowband in time. I not know if anybody here knows.
As for the LTR system, it was a lot busier last week then I've heard it in the past and also there was a lot of talking on the conventional channels about installing new equipment on the trucks, although I wasn't paying that much attention so maybe they were getting new radios.
In case anyone hadn't noticed, the links between UHF A1 and A6 and the 3D8 A1 and A6 talkgroups are gone. Guess that experiment was a flop.
And, whereas, I agree the experiment was a flop, they have occasionally turned on linking Tac 7, which sounds pretty bad on on 3D8 when they do. We also noted that some of the TGs that are on 3D8 are Phase 1, you can look in the DB, but most notably the HFD dispatch channel (when they turn on the link) and for some strange reason, parking enforcement.