After programming my BCD436HP with the new Granbury trunk frequencies, no traffic is being heard. The conventional channel at 153.89 still has dispatch but no TAC channels are being heard. I'm thinking the control channels are not in the database. Has anyone else experienced this?
Granbury Regional Radio Network
- Thread starter JLyons
- Start date
I've been in that area several times, including this past weekend. I've recorded traffic then reviewed the audio files to see which TGID is used by what agency.
The control channels in the database are correct. But in several trips, including this past weekend when I was in the area almost all day, I have yet to hear any radio traffic on GRRN that sounded like Hood County (or Granbury) Fire. Possibly, since new radios that can receive that system are fairly expensive, it's possible that fire has not yet migrated to the system as the various VFDs in the area are not yet equipped to use it. If they used a simplex channel (no repeater), then you might well miss that from Glen Rose.
When monitoring that system, I always enable ID Search to find any new TGIDs that are not yet in the database. While I'm hearing Erath S.O., and Hood S.O., along with Stephenville PD & FD, so far, I have yet to hear anything that sounded like Erath County fire dispatch, with one possible exception: I caught what sounded like a Fire tone out, on TGID 4018. I only caught the tone, no voice. (The scanner used was monitoring that general region, including Palo Pinto & Parker County, so it might have missed any additional voice traffic.) Being a 4xxx TGID, I presume that would be Stephenville. Stephenville handles dispatch for many of the VFDs on the conventional channels.
I will continue to try and monitor that system when I am in range. It's obviously too far from Dallas for me to hear it from home. I suspect that TGID 1001, tagged as Hood County S.O. may actually be a combined dispatch for both the S.O. as well as Granbury. A couple of times, I heard one of the dispatchers speak to another, asking the county (or the city) to handle the call. I would presume that not everyone has converted to the system yet, so as time passes, we likely will see other users pop up on the system.
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Hello im New to the Ham / SDR world I'm currently not a licensed operator ... however i have been exploring the software defined radio side of things while studying for my Technicians License I've setup a stream on broadcastify using SDRtrunk for the Granbury Regional Radio Network what would you recommend (Software / Hardware ) for acquiring new talk group IDs I'm currently Using 2xRTL-SDR V3s. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
nd5y
Member
| 1025 | 401 | D | Hood TAC 5 | TAC 5 | Law Tac |
| 1025 | 401 | D | Granbury Fire | Granbury Fire | Fire-Tac |
You suppose the Tac groups are Multi-Tac and Granbury regularly uses Tac 5???
nd5y
Member
I have no idea. All I know is there probably isn't two talkgroups with the same ID.
HiddenLefty
Member
Tac 5 gets mentioned a lot on dispatch and may be multi tac. That was my impression from my last couple of runs through.
Hi All,
I am setting up my TRX-2 for the GRRN and have spent most of this week, with no luck.
I'm about 3 miles NNE of downtown Granbury. My setup is the import from RR with the Talkgroups associated with Hood County Simulcast, Stephenville <Erath>, and Glen Rose <Somervell> each in their own scan list. TG Wildcard and Radio ID Wildcard are each in all three scan lists.
And so far, I have not heard a peep.
On my PRO-197 with no antenna (it's connected to the TRX-2) I can receive one of the site frequencies, 771.053250, and see details listed as well as hearing the (apparently) idle data and the change in sound when there is (apparently) traffic.
Antenna is a Radio Shack discone at 25 feet AGL, approximately 45 feet of RG-8 feedline.
I noted in prior comments here that @hiegtx commented "When monitoring that system, I always enable ID Search to find any new TGIDs that are not yet in the database." as well as having heard units from all three counties.
I have tried ATT on the Hood and then all sites, still nothing heard.
I have set squelch for 6 which is my normal "no noise on VHF" setting, and down to 2, 1 and off at various tries with still, no results.
I feel like (or maybe just hope) I'm missing something simple. I do hope that someone can comment and correct my mistake or point me in a direction that I can experiment with, to help.
I know from my EOC/SO contacts that not all (fire) are on the new system yet or at least as of a couple of months ago at our last meeting - but there are certainly Hood County units there, likely encrypted as they were on VHF and P25 before, but some signal to see...
Thanks for your time taken reading this, and hopefully for any help!
Jerry
N0JY
I am setting up my TRX-2 for the GRRN and have spent most of this week, with no luck.
I'm about 3 miles NNE of downtown Granbury. My setup is the import from RR with the Talkgroups associated with Hood County Simulcast, Stephenville <Erath>, and Glen Rose <Somervell> each in their own scan list. TG Wildcard and Radio ID Wildcard are each in all three scan lists.
And so far, I have not heard a peep.
On my PRO-197 with no antenna (it's connected to the TRX-2) I can receive one of the site frequencies, 771.053250, and see details listed as well as hearing the (apparently) idle data and the change in sound when there is (apparently) traffic.
Antenna is a Radio Shack discone at 25 feet AGL, approximately 45 feet of RG-8 feedline.
I noted in prior comments here that @hiegtx commented "When monitoring that system, I always enable ID Search to find any new TGIDs that are not yet in the database." as well as having heard units from all three counties.
I have tried ATT on the Hood and then all sites, still nothing heard.
I have set squelch for 6 which is my normal "no noise on VHF" setting, and down to 2, 1 and off at various tries with still, no results.
I feel like (or maybe just hope) I'm missing something simple. I do hope that someone can comment and correct my mistake or point me in a direction that I can experiment with, to help.
I know from my EOC/SO contacts that not all (fire) are on the new system yet or at least as of a couple of months ago at our last meeting - but there are certainly Hood County units there, likely encrypted as they were on VHF and P25 before, but some signal to see...
Thanks for your time taken reading this, and hopefully for any help!
Jerry
N0JY
I don’t have the TRX-2, but do have its handheld sibling the TRX-1. But When the system was first starting to become active, I spent some time in the county , and nearby (in Stephen’s County visiting friends. I had my Tex-1 set to record any and all activity on the system.
I ended up with several hundred audio files. But all were useless. Simulcast distortion made the audio garbled.
Hood County is a four site simulcast layer. Your Tex-2 may be suffering from that. Go to the system’s page and sect the site to see a map of the tower locations.
I would take the TRX off of the external antenna. Use either a rubber duck antenna, or even just a paper clip for an antenna and see if you can get something useful, When dealing with simulcast sometimes less antenna is better.
You could also try using the Erath County site. Looking at my logs and audio files from last February (I spent four days down in Stephen’s County around the SuperBowl weekend, logging and monitoring, I was seeing quite a few transmissions being carried on more than one site.
I’ll be down in Stephen’s County most of the day tomorrow and will be monitoring the system as much as possible.
(Pardon some of the typos. I’m having to use just my phone. My power is still out from early Tuesday. All the o the her streets in my neighborhood have been back up since midday Wednesday, but the houses, like mine, that connect through one specific alley remain dark. I think Oncor has forgotten we’re here.)
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Thanks, Steve. I did wonder whether just one site would work. I am very very close to equidistant from the east hwy 377 site and the cemetery site, with the former being the one with the frequency that I saw on my PRO-197 without the antenna. The cemetery is line of sight from my yard.
I may try no antenna and see if that does anything, then pick one and then the other of the two again with no antenna, and look at any results.
If none, I'll add a small antenna on the unit and repeat.
Overall I would like to be able to use the discone because this network is not the only scanner listening interest I have, of course.
Too, this was/is my mobile radio and I just brought it in for updates and to add GRRN. Mobile-wise though, I'll be going between these two most of the time so I'll figure that out as I go along.
I might add a second TRX-2 in the shack to work with the PRO-197 for more options and as always welcome, more radios!
I appreciate your help and I will let you know when (hopefully not "if") I get the TRX happy, what the solution was.
73
Jerry
This might not help, or make a big enough difference to notice.
But you might try setting the frequencies on the Hood County site to attenuate.
Like I said, might not make a difference, but wouldn’t cost more than a few minutes of your time to try.
