I will be visiting my brother in Houston in January I see many systems are Motorola type 2 but I'm curious are they operating in type 2 or can you hear some things in type 1? mainly interested in Fire only.
Scanner would be a 396 hand held
thanks
Not sure where you are seeing 'many systems are Motorola Type II'. While there are a few of those systems, they are almost exclusively businesses.
Virtually all of the public safety agencies in the Houston metro area are on TxWARN P25, which is a P25 Phase II system.
Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
Your 396, regardless of whether it's the original 396T, or the later 396XT, cannot handle Phase II talkgroups.
There are a few talkgroups that are P25 Phase I, as noted by the
D in the mode column, but the majority are Phase II, mode
T. There is also quite a bit of encryption on the law enforcement talkgroups, and a significant number of the Fire talkgroups.
There are a handful of smaller, volunteer, fire departments using DMR or NXDN, but the majority are on TxWARN. The DMR & NXDN systems are beyond the capability of the 396 models.
Also, TxWARN in the Harris County area is largely using simulcast sites, which are also a problem for the 396 model scanners.
There are several Houston Fire talkgroups that are Phase I, and on a different layer (site) from the rest of Houston Fire which are Phase II.
There are several talkgroups, for various agencies, that are on the Broadcastify 'Calls' section. Those talkgroups are bold faced in the system listings.
