Hidalgo county sheriff going digital and encrypted

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dsvm2005

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Ok I am currently PARTICIPATING ON A PROGRAM CALLED CITIZENS ACADEMY TROUGH THE SHERIFF'S DEPT.I AM PRETTY SURE YOU GUYS HAD HEARD ABOUT IT. ANYWAYS YESTERDAY IT WAS A TOUR OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DEPT. I TALKED TO THE LT. AND ASKED THEM IF THEY WERE PLANNING ON GOING DIGITAL ANYTIME SOON. THE LT. TOLD US THAT THEY ARE ON THE WORKS RIGHT NOW ON DOING THAT. THEY ARE THINKING ON GOING EITHER ON THE 700MHZ OR 800 MHZ TRUNKING DIGITAL ENCRYPTED SYSTEM. HE SAID THAT IT WILL BE ABOUT 8 MILLION PROJECT COST. I ALSO ASKED HIM ON A TIME FRAME THAT EVERYTHING WILL BE COMPLETED. HE ADVISED THAT THEY ARE JUST WAITING ON FEDERAL GRANTS AND IT COULD BE UP AND RUNNING IN ABOUT 1 1/2 YRS TO 2 YRS. MAYBE SOONER.

I FIGURED I WILL BREAK THE NEWS AND LET YOU GUYS KNOW ON WHAT COUNTY IS PLANNING ON DOING IN THIS AREA

JUST ANOTHER AGENCY THAT DOESN'T WANT ITS CITIZENS SCANNING ON WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND HEARING THEIR UTL'S (UNABLE TO LOCATE) OVER AND OVER AGAIN.




sorry for the capitalization I thought it converted automatically. it did it before
 
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davidbond21

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At least ProVoice is still monitorable with a radio. It doesn't matter what type of digital or analog voice is used, if it's encrypted, it can't be heard period.

Is it known for sure that the digital system they're thinking of moving to is going to use full time encryption? Or is it possible that the comm officer you talked to just thinks it will be encrypted solely because it's digital(I ask because you can't be wavering or undecided between a 700 or 800 MHz system and yet still have all the equipment rolled out in a year and a half). I would also be suspect of the timeline he gave you as well. It was more than 2 years from the point when my local Sheriffs had all of their site equipment installed(2 digital repeaters for a 2 channel conventional system-thats it) and were handing out all the radios before the new system came online.
 

dsvm2005

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well now that you brought that up it kinda doesnt make any sense on what they are doing. Base on what he said is that they are on the process of buying the equipment but are not sure if it will be a 700 or 800 MHZ. the words that he used were that " for those who scan the county it wont be able to do so anymore" another classmate asked why. he them said; " that the system that they will be going to is a P25 digital fully encrypted trunking system meaning that its digital and all traffic will be private" I then asked him if he had a time frame on when its going to be up and running. He was not able to give me a date on that but did say that he is looking from 1 yr to 2 yrs tops. Now he is the LT. that takes care of buying the equipment for the sheriff's dept. He's the one that places the orders and all that stuff. Now he did mention that he used to have a scanner a long time ago but it broke and was not able to scan any longer so I am assuming that he knows what he is taking about. All he said that they are waiting for federal grant to get the system. Hopefully it doesnt go through I still want to be able to scan them LOL

I dont know how all the purchase thing works (radio's) but can they still be thinking on what sytem to go to? Is it something that they should already know by now? Can't they just change it later?

Sorry for those questions I assume with all this technology just by pushing a button it could be change to whatever system they want. LOL

I just hope its not anytime soon since I just got my GRE-500 about 2 months ago. I wanted to use it for a couple of yrs like my pro-97. I didnt think that living in south texas these depts would be able to get all this money to get something expensive like that. For crying out loud they dont even have computers on the patrol units. LOL They are just going to get them in and thats only in certain patrol cars not all. Thats what a patrol deputy told me when I went on there ride along.
 

davidbond21

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the words that he used were that " for those who scan the county it wont be able to do so anymore" another classmate asked why. he them said; " that the system that they will be going to is a P25 digital fully encrypted trunking system meaning that its digital and all traffic will be private"
......
Now he is the LT. that takes care of buying the equipment for the sheriff's dept. He's the one that places the orders and all that stuff. Now he did mention that he used to have a scanner a long time ago but it broke and was not able to scan any longer so I am assuming that he knows what he is taking about.
That's your best hope right there. Scanning has changed a lot over the years, and if he hasn't used one in the past 5-10 years, then he may not be aware of what the latest models are capable of. And though I'm not trying to suggest that the LT isn't fully informed on exactly how the system will exactly work, I am saying that there has often times been confusion in the media and even within law enforcement that P25 digital is unmonitorable, usually because of a failure to stay abreast of the latest scanning equipment available(though you wouldn't expect anyone outside of this hobby to really do that, so they're hardly at fault there). About a year ago, my friend (who is also an active member on here) was sitting in the passenger seat of a Gillespie County Sheriff's(who use the LCRA 900 MHz EDACS system) patrol car was chatting it up with the deputy about his radio, who told him "Yeah, we used to be on VHF for a long time and there were a number of people that they knew that lived around there had scanners, but now we're on this new 900 MHz radio system and nobody can hear us." Obviously this is not true as me and my friend on here are streaming LCRA public safety feeds. That's just an example that misinformation is out there. Now I'm not trying to denigrate what sounds like the Supply Services Division Lt; he may have a real keen sense of what's happening in regards to the radio system and purchasing of the specific equipment and their features. For the sake of being able to continue scanning, you'd better hope that's not the case.
I then asked him if he had a time frame on when its going to be up and running. He was not able to give me a date on that but did say that he is looking from 1 yr to 2 yrs tops.
.... I dont know how all the purchase thing works (radio's) but can they still be thinking on what sytem to go to? Is it something that they should already know by now? Can't they just change it later?
1-2 years tops, and they haven't even gotten the grant yet? This amount of time means that the system is largely in place and they would have to be buying, programming, installing mobiles and distributing portables which might take a good full 2 years easy, and even then they may not be ready to switch. You may have a few years yet to listen. And hopefully even more if it turns out they don't encrypt system wide.
 

dsvm2005

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Grand Haven Mi
thats a good point an all of this. I just hope that the Lt. was just throwing that out there to have people stop scanning or not even bother of purchasing the new scanners. When he mention that, I said to myself " there goes my 400.00 scanner. out the door". LOL but base on what you are saying on this it sounds like they are not ready yet for it and if they are I dont think that it will be encrypted. He did mention that they still have to put the digital antenna's up but when he was saying this he was not telling me that he was telling a senior citizen female about it. He did also lower his voice on that. I was about 25 ft away from him and was still able to hear him. Anyways hopefully he didnt know what he was talking about.

On another hand I figured I will throw this out there. Border Patrol is encrypted here in my area and also everday I could hear what they are saying. Its just that I miss parts of it since I guess some are encrypted and others are not. But I usually dont pay attention since they basically talk in only numbers. From what I had heard anyways.


Thanks for the input on the topic very intresting and hopefully they just stay digital like DPS is now.
 

davidbond21

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Yeah, there's no difference between analog and digital antennas. Antennas are dependent on being resonant to the desired frequency, not voice mode so if he said that, then maybe you can hold out a glimmer of hope that not everything will be encrypted, though it's not something you can exactly take to the bank.
 
N

N_Jay

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Yeah, there's no difference between analog and digital antennas. Antennas are dependent on being resonant to the desired frequency, not voice mode so if he said that, then maybe you can hold out a glimmer of hope that not everything will be encrypted, though it's not something you can exactly take to the bank.

Most every new system gets new antennas.

He might just have been using the word "digital" to differentiate the old from the new system.

If he is on the procurement side rather than the technical side he may not understand everything he is saying (or everything he has been told),
 

dsvm2005

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hopefully thats the case that he didnt understand what he was told LOL

One other question where does Radio Reference get the frequencies from. How do they know about them?

I am just curious about that. Since theres some cities in my area that are not listed here.

Thank you
 

tj20

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Information is sent in by fellow users of this site like you. If there is a city not listed, and you have information, send it in.
 

davidbond21

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Most every new system gets new antennas.

He might just have been using the word "digital" to differentiate the old from the new system.
Fair enough; I was only using this tidbit of information to help provide a little evidence to what is your second point below.

If he is on the procurement side rather than the technical side he may not understand everything he is saying (or everything he has been told),

That's exactly what I was driving at (or at least what I'm using to help fuel the speculative fantasy that this system doesn't end up being fully encrypted :wink: )
 

texasemt13

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cool that is nice to know.

Thank you

To further this topic for a second- this community is run by knowledgeable members (as you have surely experienced with davidbond21) who use many methods to identify new frequencies (ever wondered why that PSR-500 had Spectrum Sweeper and the Search modes?).

When you get to a point where you're the knowledgeable one, you can submit the information. On the top left hand side of every database page you'll see a grey toolbar, with the "Submit" tab. That's where it is submitted . Then in a few hours a database admin adds the information to the respective page (sometimes it's a new frequency, sometimes a new talkgroup on a trunked system, sometimes, just a better usage description).

You're a part of a huge hobbyist group now whether you like it or not... I kid, I kid.
 

dsvm2005

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Grand Haven Mi
That is awesome hopefully I will get as knowledgeable as others here. I do know that I have learn alot from reading this site.

thank you all for the info.
 

rgv_tech

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Information

Information is sent in by fellow users of this site like you. If there is a city not listed, and you have information, send it in.

Another way to get information is to go to the FCC Database and search for data in your area. Alot of times there are freqs. licensed to your area that you may not know about. Then you can scan these freqs. and contribute them to the RR Database once you get a hit on the freq.

License Search - Geographic Search

This is just one tool to use while your having fun.
 

rgv_tech

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Alamo PD

Hey thank you for that info too. One question to you. Do you happen to have the frequency from ALAMO PD?

Thanks again


154.1750 82.5 Simp 82.5 25 Alamo F.D..
155.6700 82.5 151.0100 82.5 25 Alamo P.D.
461.0500 162.2 466.0500 162.2 25 North Alamo Water Supply Corp.
 

letarotor

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DSVM2005,

I wouldn't panic any time soon. If this LT is waiting on grant money to pay for his 8 million dollar gee-wizz radio system he will be waiting a looooong time! There simply isn't that much federal grant money available for individual counties to pay for sophisticated digital trunked systems like he is talking about. The county will have to pony up most of the money, and most likely have to have a bond election first. And even if they do purchase a 700 P25 system most of the normal operating talkgroups will not be encrypted. Encryption boards add a considerable cost to each radio. They may buy a few for their special units like SWAT or Narcotics, but most likely normal patrol or fire channels will not be encrypted. All you will need is a digital scanner to monitor them, and even then the more likely time frame for all that to happen is five years +. If the economy doesn't improve any time soon, increase that time frame.

Mark
 
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