Fire ground scanning

[braddaniels2001]

At a fire today and saw firefighters using their radios but I could not catch their traffic with Closecall on. What am i missing. I get the traffic to dispatch but not "tac" frequency. BC125AT, Howard Co Texas

 

[trap5858]

It depends on where you are and what the departments protocols are. In Philadelphia the dispatch is in the clear but fireground frequencies are encrypted.

 

[doctordialtone]

At a fire today and saw firefighters using their radios but I could not catch their traffic with Closecall on

If they are on this system, you're not going to receive them with an Analog scanner.

Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System, Austin, Texas

Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

BC125AT - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[hiegtx]

At a fire today and saw firefighters using their radios but I could not catch their traffic with Closecall on. What am i missing. I get the traffic to dispatch but not "tac" frequency. BC125AT, Howard Co Texas

Are you talking about the county fire dispatch frequency? Or Big Spring.
The frequency listed for county dispatch, 155.115, is on a license that expired in 2017, and there does not show to be a replacement, so they are no longer licensed for it.

As Doc noted, if they moved to the trunked system, your scanner will not receive it. I do see a site listed for Howard County on GATRRS, but there are no talkgroups shown for either the county, or Big Spring.

You might also want to have your thread moved to the Texas forum. To do that, do not create a new thread. Instead, click on the Report in the lower left corner of one of your posts, and request that a moderator move your thread to the state forum. Someone in the area would be more likely to see it there.

 

[hiegtx]

I would add that, just because no talkgroups are currently shown for your county, that does not guarantee that no one is using GATRRS. What you see in the database is based on what somebody in the field has been able to monitor, and submitted the details to be included on the system's details.

 

[BenScan]

You might also try scanning the interoperability channels. Some departments, like Fort Worth, occasionally will use what they call "Direct 16", it's actually one of the channels below...

National Interoperability

8TAC95D	-	851.550000
8TAC96D	-	853.050000
8TAC97D	-	853.350000

And it may just be a conventional channel of their own that is not going through a trunked system, or even a separate talkgroup on a trunked system.
Happy Scanning,
Ben

 

[braddaniels2001]

Thanks for the input. I know very little about radios and their systems. Are radios that are truncated able to switch channels to broadcast on and analog channel? I thought the radio had to be one way or the other. Maybe this is where my problem lies. Also in the missing $600 for a digital scanner. Lol

 

[braddaniels2001]

I'll also move this thread to the TX forums. Thank you again.

 

[doctordialtone]

Are radios that are truncated able to switch channels to broadcast on and analog channel?

The word you want is Trunked.

The answer to your question is "It Depends on the model".

 

[fredva]

In some places, the fire dispatch channel will be on both an analog frequency and on the digital trunked system, but the fireground channels will be only on the digital trunked system. The use of an analog frequency allows the use of analog pagers for dispatch.

I don't know if that pertains to the situation you encountered, but would be one possible explanation.

 

[nd5y]

They could be using some of these 700 MHz, 800 MHz (or VHF if they have multiband radios) frequencies for fireground channels:

Texas Common/Shared (TX) - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

There is a 700 MHz trunked license for Howard County that isn't in the database.
I don't know if this is part of GATRRS, a stand-alone system, or if it is even on the air.

FCC Callsign WRBQ293 (HOWARD, COUNY OF)

FCC Callsign WRBQ293 (HOWARD, COUNY OF)

www.radioreference.com