Harris County SO question

[gbakerj]

Sorry for the question, I feel stupid asking but here goes. I have been listening to the Harris County Sheriff Office frequencies and the "HSCO HotSpot'" has been active. What do they generally use this frequency for?

Thanks. glen

 

[scanfan03]

Well, back in the day when Hot Spot use to work they would bust up in clubs and stuff and just do a bunch of crime round ups. They've pretty much done away with what Hot Spot used to be and now I don't think they do anything really. The only time I've ever heard them was when they had a no tolerance DWI deal going on other than that I've not heard much from them. They actually did away with the program for a while and then brought it back. I think they were getting federal funding for it.

 

[Robert721]

Hot Spot actually got a new name last year to "Crime Control Division", but it is a target specific section of the Patrol Bureau. They are assigned to random areas to saturate it with zero tolerance enforcement and apprehend and deter crime.

Due to lost funding and open slots in the normal patrol districts they were cut back from 4 squads to just 2 A and B. The other 2 squads were sent back to normal patrol postions.

 

[gbakerj]

Thanks for the information. The Hot Spot was busy on Monday, it was interesting listening to them work. I never knew following someone was so involved. Thanks so much for the help.
Glen

 

[Robert721]

no problem, I spent almost 30 years at the SO most of it spent supervising comm ops. Lots of changes last year.

 

[djmorgan]

Can anyone hear DPS in Downtown houston?

I'm near the very edge of downtown (just to the west .1 miles). I get very intermittent audio on TPS frequencies. On a 396XT is get an occassional conversation and on a 996XT I get nothing. I copied the frequencies and the NAC codes using Freescan and Radio Reference and I have confirmed the NAC is correct on the conversations I do hear. I get a pretty strong signal when it comes in but not as good as the Harris County trunked P25 or the Federal Correctional trunked P25.

When I do receive a choppy P25 DPS on VHF (non-trunked) I get a "P25 Err Rate" on the Freescan console which is around 1/3rd the way up the scale. This is on the 396XT with a rubber duck. No matter what I never get anything on the 996XT with a whip (located next to the 396XT) or on an indoor antenna with a slight gain.

Both radios programmed from exactly the same Freescan file downloaded to both radios.

I understand there may be some threshold setting that may be different between the two scanners that is not accessed or set by Freescan. This is the only explanation I can think of other than the inherent sensitivity differences between two radios even with similar antennas and near each other.

Can anybody suggest something I can try? It is very frustrating not hearing them when I can hear Harris County and the City of Houston clearly (although I can litterally eye-ball both those antenna sites). Not sure where the DPS transmitter site is located, however.

 

[scanfan03]

The DPS transmitter site is located at 290 and West in Jersey Village. Try turning on your ATT. If that doesn't work I have not other idea. The only thing that I can think is that the RF saturation in your area is too high and drowning out DPS. To confirm you are listening to 155.4675 and 154.6875 right? Also try turning NAC decode off and just leave it in FM mode. Sometimes my PSR-500 doesn't open squelch when I have the NAC set on it so I just leave it in FM mode (I do know you are using a Uniden, but it's still worth a try).