DPS gets new portables

[otter9309]

EFJ, Inc. announced today that its EFJohnson subsidiary has received
an order for $920,000 from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).
The order calls for EFJohnson to provide the DPS with its Project 25
compliant portable radios.

"We have been expanding our operations in Texas over the past year,
and we are pleased to continue providing the Texas DPS with our P25
solutions", said Michael E. Jalbert, chairman and chief executive
officer of EFJ, Inc. Added Colonel Thomas A. Davis Jr., Director of Texas DPS, the radios will be used by the Texas Highway Patrol and other agencies.
"We operate a large VHF network, and the EFJohnson portable radios
will be used every day to help our officers keep our motorists
protected."

"The company will ship the radios during the third quarter," Jalbert
said.

 

[scanfan03]

Is this going to include every DPS entity? Or only part of DPS? I hope DPS Houston doesn't switch.

 

[otter9309]

I would guess that DPS will get a deep discount on these. I figure a selling price of $2K (rough number) per radio, that would give them 460 radios. Not quite enough to cover the whole state.

 

[scanfan03]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's only going to be for rural areas. Most DPS Houston units already have STAR-Net handhelds and mobiles. So i doubt they will switch if the city they are by already has a system, but maybe who knows?

 

[pitcockm]

Has anyone actually heard the Houston area Troopers on STAR Net?

 

[bpckty1]

I've heard DPS on Starnet often, but most comms are on the Brazoria County and Fort Bend County talkgroups. Most DPS Houston/Harris County comms are "meet me" related. They still use Channel 2 (DPS 1 mobile) for close comms.

Hope this helps.

 

[scanfan03]

Has anyone actually heard the Houston area Troopers on STAR Net?

They actually get on the HCSO Dispatch channels and do routine traffic on there. They also have a designated DPS back channel on STAR-Net which they use pretty often. They have 159.210 for BS stuff.