Help with 396T and Houston Police Department

[daveyasko]

I've been scanning for years, but took a six month hiatus to get married. Now I'm back and can't figure out how to pick up HPD on my Bearcat 396T. I've tried both Butel and Freescan but I can't get past the "finding control channel" and silence. I've got the latest firmware downloaded and tried using the custom as well as the APCO II system names. I get the idea I'm missing something really simple, but can't seem to find any information on it at all. Anybody out there want to meet for coffee and let me pay you to walk me through it? I'm really only interested in listening in to HPD. Thanks, Dave

 

[KevinC]

Post your FreeScan file here and I'll (and probably others) will take a look at it and try to massage it for you.

Also, what part of town do you live in?

 

[daveyasko]

I live in SW Houston by Sugar Land. I'll post the file when I get to that computer. Thank you very much for helping.

 

[W8RMH]

Looking at the DB it appears that the majority of HPD is Phase II or encrypted and your scanner can not receive either.

 

[KevinC]

Looking at the DB it appears that the majority of HPD is Phase II or encrypted and your scanner can not receive either.

All of the HPD/HFD dispatch channels are also broadcast in FDMA on site 3-005 which the 396T will handle just fine.

 

[wtp]

on mine

on my 396t i have not seen anything about fdma. could you be more specific ?

 

[KevinC]

on my 396t i have not seen anything about fdma. could you be more specific ?

Phase 1 P25 is FDMA.

Translated that means regular old P25 is FDMA.

But let's not get too far off-topic.

 

[wtp]

thanks

i have never heard it called that.

 

[loumaag]

And, of course, there is always this explanation.

 

[daveyasko]

Here are the frequencies I put in using Freescan.

Frequency LCN L/O Vol Adj Num Tag
853.72500 1 False 0 NONE
854.01250 2 False 0 NONE
854.38750 3 False 0 NONE
854.46250 4 False 0 NONE
856.43750 5 False 0 NONE
856.73750 6 False 0 NONE
856.76250 7 False 0 NONE
857.26250 8 False 0 NONE
857.43750 9 False 0 NONE
857.73750 10 False 0 NONE
857.76250 11 False 0 NONE
857.93750 12 False 0 NONE
858.26250 13 False 0 NONE
858.43750 14 False 0 NONE
858.61250 15 False 0 NONE
858.76250 16 False 0 NONE
858.93750 17 False 0 NONE
859.76250 18 False 0 NONE
859.26250 19 False 0 NONE
859.43750 20 False 0 NONE
859.93750 21 False 0 NONE

 

[daveyasko]

One more question. On the setup for Freescan you can set it for Motorola type 2 p25 P25 Standard or P25 one frequency trunk digital. It defaults to Motorola type 2 P25. Which is correct? Thanks

 

[daveyasko]

Display TGID L/O Pri AudioType Comment
HouGSD Fleet 45012 False False All Fleet Management
HouGSD North 45011 False False All North
HouGSD South 45015 False False All South

 

[KevinC]

You can't listen to the Phase 2 TDMA TG's on the 396T only the FDMA ones.

Here is a very basic file to get you going. It has the HPD/HFD FDMA TG's..

Be sure to save your current configuration first in case you don't like what I made for you.

 

[daveyasko]

Thanks, I loaded the file on my scanner and let's see how it does. Thanks again