Help Needed-Waxahachie Police frequency in Home Patrol 2

[SailValentina]

We upgraded from a Uniden 355c to a Home Patrol 2 when our local feeds switched over to digital. i have downloaded Sentinel to my laptop and loaded to the HP-2, but we still cannot get the Waxahachie TX Police. Can anyone help! Thank you.

 

[rbarker]

Are you hearing anything else close to them? Fire ? EMS? Do you have the zip code entered into your radio are you in the City of Waxahachie?

 

[hiegtx]

We upgraded from a Uniden 355c to a Home Patrol 2 when our local feeds switched over to digital. i have downloaded Sentinel to my laptop and loaded to the HP-2, but we still cannot get the Waxahachie TX Police. Can anyone help! Thank you.

Update the database in your HP-2.

Waxahachie has moved to the FWRRS layer that Midlothian & Red Oak were already using.

North Texas Interoperable Radio Network (NTIRN) Trunking System, Various, Texas

North Texas Interoperable Radio Network (NTIRN) Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Ellis County & Ennis will also be moving to that system, though I do not have a time table as to when that will occur. All of these talkgroups being added are P25 Phase II, but your HP-2 can receive those. Note that this is now a simulcast layer, with five sites licensed. If you can currently hear Midlothian & Red Oak, you're also able to hear Waxahachie.

I'm seeing limited usage on additional talkgroups, but so far, not enough data to submit to the database. As I document new TGIDs, I will submit the additions to the database.

 

[SailValentina]

Are you hearing anything else close to them? Fire ? EMS? Do you have the zip code entered into your radio are you in the City of Waxahachie?

Yes, we can hear EMS and Fire. We get the Ellis County Sheriff, and Waxahachie Dispatch. I have entered the zip code and Waxahachie.
just no police traffic. LIMITED DISPATCH, NO RESPONSE, AND VERY UNCLEAR.

 

[SailValentina]

Update the database in your HP-2.

Waxahachie has moved to the FWRRS layer that Midlothian & Red Oak were already using.

North Texas Interoperable Radio Network (NTIRN) Trunking System, Various, Texas

North Texas Interoperable Radio Network (NTIRN) Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

View attachment 101377

Ellis County & Ennis will also be moving to that system, though I do not have a time table as to when that will occur. All of these talkgroups being added are P25 Phase II, but your HP-2 can receive those. Note that this is now a simulcast layer, with five sites licensed. If you can currently hear Midlothian & Red Oak, you're also able to hear Waxahachie.

I'm seeing limited usage on additional talkgroups, but so far, not enough data to submit to the database. As I document new TGIDs, I will submit the additions to the database.

Thank you for your quick response. Yes, I have updated the database from the Home Patrol Sentinel app and have downloaded the two Waxahachie frequencies. But, there is very limited discussions, with only one side of conversation. It is not clear at all on the scanner. We live in the city, could it possibly be the antennae?

 

[n5dki]

i am seeing new talkgroups showing up, too.
7777
7772
7775

today, 7777 has more traffic on it. haven't determined who it is yet.

 

[hiegtx]

i am seeing new talkgroups showing up, too.
7777
7772
7775

today, 7777 has more traffic on it. haven't determined who it is yet.

I had quite a bit of activity on 7777 the past few days. It was multiple users doing "radio checks" (on the audio clips). Maybe it's another agency about to move to the system. We know that Ellis County as well as Ennis plan to move, but so far I have not yet seen anything that I could pin to either of them.

Thank you for your quick response. Yes, I have updated the database from the Home Patrol Sentinel app and have downloaded the two Waxahachie frequencies. But, there is very limited discussions, with only one side of conversation. It is not clear at all on the scanner. We live in the city, could it possibly be the antennae?

I was looking at this system today. Earlier, I heard what was probably the dispatcher side of a conversation for Waxahachie PD, but I did not hear any sort of a reply.

I parked my SDS200 on the Waxahachie PD TGID for a while. Seeing a number of transmissions, but the scanner display is calling them "data". I have a suspicion that it may really be encrypted, but a format that the scanner thinks is data (not seeing the normal ENC show up). I parked the scanner over on the Midlothian PD dispatch TGID for a while, & saw the same thing happening. When Midlothian first moved to this system, as well as when Waxahachie first joined, I had no problems hearing either of them,

(As I was typing this, again heard the Waxahachie dispatcher as for a tag #, but did not hear a voice replay.)

If, as in your first post, you are hearing Fire & EMS on the trunked system, then it is not an antenna issue, and probably not simulcast issues either. I'm well out of simulcast zone issues, and the SDS series scanners handle simulcast really well anyway, then I think they may have decided to 'go dark' (encrypted). If that's the case, then no scanner can overcome encryption. I'm seeing much the same as you, so it's not a problem with your scanner.

(Just now, another long conversation from dispatch, but no voice reply from field units.)

 

[n5dki]

mansfield, midlothian, red oak, waxahachie are not encrypted...yet. i hear both sides of the conversation using a 996p2.
there are several frequencies being used on the midlothian site. i would suppose if you are not "following" the conversation as it hops frequencies then you may be missing parts of the conversation.

 

[hiegtx]

mansfield, midlothian, red oak, waxahachie are not encrypted...yet. i hear both sides of the conversation using a 996p2.
there are several frequencies being used on the midlothian site. i would suppose if you are not "following" the conversation as it hops frequencies then you may be missing parts of the conversation.
View attachment 101473

I'm well out of range of Mansfield. But until recently, I was hearing both sides of the conversation for Midlothian & Waxahachie. Now, however, it appears that I'm only getting the dispatch side. And it is programmed correctly, with all the assigned frequencies in place.

 

[n5dki]

i typically don't hear a lot of mansfield. my guess is when they are on the east side of town they are hitting the midlothian site and then i hear them.
also seeing tg 7742 showing up this morning which may be a new waxahachie tg.

 

[hiegtx]

i typically don't hear a lot of mansfield. my guess is when they are on the east side of town they are hitting the midlothian site and then i hear them.
also seeing tg 7742 showing up this morning which may be a new waxahachie tg.

Yep, probably when they are far south, near Hwy 287, where parts of Midlothian, Grand Prairie, and Mansfield intersect. I added all the Mansfield TGIDs to my Midlothian system, then set them as Avoid. Occasionally, you'll also hear an EMS unit talking to one of the mospitals on FWRRS, again where they are far enough south & east to get a better signal from Midlothian than from their 'home' site.

 

[KevinC]

I had quite a bit of activity on 7777 the past few days. It was multiple users doing "radio checks" (on the audio clips). Maybe it's another agency about to move to the system. We know that Ellis County as well as Ennis plan to move, but so far I have not yet seen anything that I could pin to either of them.


I was looking at this system today. Earlier, I heard what was probably the dispatcher side of a conversation for Waxahachie PD, but I did not hear any sort of a reply.

I parked my SDS200 on the Waxahachie PD TGID for a while. Seeing a number of transmissions, but the scanner display is calling them "data". I have a suspicion that it may really be encrypted, but a format that the scanner thinks is data (not seeing the normal ENC show up). I parked the scanner over on the Midlothian PD dispatch TGID for a while, & saw the same thing happening. When Midlothian first moved to this system, as well as when Waxahachie first joined, I had no problems hearing either of them,

(As I was typing this, again heard the Waxahachie dispatcher as for a tag #, but did not hear a voice replay.)

If, as in your first post, you are hearing Fire & EMS on the trunked system, then it is not an antenna issue, and probably not simulcast issues either. I'm well out of simulcast zone issues, and the SDS series scanners handle simulcast really well anyway, then I think they may have decided to 'go dark' (encrypted). If that's the case, then no scanner can overcome encryption. I'm seeing much the same as you, so it's not a problem with your scanner.

(Just now, another long conversation from dispatch, but no voice reply from field units.)

Assuming the dispatcher is wireline into the core they may have disabled repeat from the console.

 

[KevinC]

I had quite a bit of activity on 7777 the past few days. It was multiple users doing "radio checks" (on the audio clips). Maybe it's another agency about to move to the system. We know that Ellis County as well as Ennis plan to move, but so far I have not yet seen anything that I could pin to either of them.


I was looking at this system today. Earlier, I heard what was probably the dispatcher side of a conversation for Waxahachie PD, but I did not hear any sort of a reply.

I parked my SDS200 on the Waxahachie PD TGID for a while. Seeing a number of transmissions, but the scanner display is calling them "data". I have a suspicion that it may really be encrypted, but a format that the scanner thinks is data (not seeing the normal ENC show up). I parked the scanner over on the Midlothian PD dispatch TGID for a while, & saw the same thing happening. When Midlothian first moved to this system, as well as when Waxahachie first joined, I had no problems hearing either of them,

(As I was typing this, again heard the Waxahachie dispatcher as for a tag #, but did not hear a voice replay.)

If, as in your first post, you are hearing Fire & EMS on the trunked system, then it is not an antenna issue, and probably not simulcast issues either. I'm well out of simulcast zone issues, and the SDS series scanners handle simulcast really well anyway, then I think they may have decided to 'go dark' (encrypted). If that's the case, then no scanner can overcome encryption. I'm seeing much the same as you, so it's not a problem with your scanner.

(Just now, another long conversation from dispatch, but no voice reply from field units.)

Any update on the one-sided conversations? If it's not encryption I'd still bet they have repeat disabled form the console (either intentionally or by accident).

 

[hiegtx]

Any update on the one-sided conversations? If it's not encryption I'd still bet they have repeat disabled form the console (either intentionally or by accident).

Kevin,
The strange behavior has been "off and on".
At times I'll hear both sides of the conversation for both Waxahachie & Midlothian, then, without any noticeable event, it's back to one sided only. When it's one sided, I still see 'data' come up & a signal for a few seconds, but no audio.

Turning off repeat at the console may well be what is happening at times. Running another Discovery session at present, trying to nail down some of the occasional unknown TGIDs. So far, no sign of Ellis County, unless they were behind the multiple 'radio checks' I was getting the other day. I'm well with range, so doubt that poor signal strength is part of the issue. Also no indication, yet, of any activity from Ennis and one other city that is slated to join (have to check my notes, I believe the other one is Palmer).

 

[SailValentina]

Thank you for your help and ideas. I will keep trying. I am using a Home Patrol 2 with download app HomePatrol Sentinel. The scanner is new to me, so I am still figuring it out.
Any suggestions on....on my laptop, under the frequencies for Ft. Worth, there are four for Waxa Police. But, on my App, it still only shows two. I have updated, but no new frequencies. Any ideas...just wait for the app to update? Thank you,

 

[hiegtx]

Have you updated the database in Sentinel, then had Sentinel send that to the scanner?

Attached is an "Ellis County" Favorites list for your HP-2.
Save the file to your PC.
Then use Windows Explorer or other file utility to extract he 'Ellis County.hpe' file.
Once you've extracted that file, import it into Sentinel for your HP-2.

In your Profile in Sentinel, set this list to be downloaded & monitored. I have included the location data in case you want to use Location Control. I have included the listed conventional channels for Ellis County.
And also the Midlothian portion of FWRRS. I have that set as "ID Search, so that any new talkgroups that show up, but not yet in the database, will be received.

I'm getting a fair amount of activity on TGIDs 7771, 7775, & 7777. Mostly radio checks, but also some conversations between field units. I have a string suspicion that these will be used by Ellis County. Those are out of the expected ranges for Midlothian, Red Oak, & Waxahachie. Heard one of the units tell another that he was on "business 287, near Sardis".

We know that in addition to Ellis County, Ennis & Palmer will also migrate to the trunked system, though I have not run across any specific timeline for those cities to make a move. But with the system set as ID Search, you would hear any new talkgroups. Since they are not (yet) in the database, you would only see the talkgroup ID number in your HP-2. No text tag unless & until they are identified & details submitted to the database.