I'm making some lists, I'm checkin' 'em twice..... (Harris County)

[AndrewGS]

OK, so I've got my new scanner, the fabulous Uniden BCD436HP, and I'm not really sure what all to scan. I'm living in Humble most of the time, so I've got a list for Humble PD/FD/ISDPD on the Humble site for scanning at home. I'm also interested in making HCCO Precinct 4 and HCSO Districts 1 & 2 lists that I can monitor both here and at my other home in Spring. I also want lists for HPD and HFD as well as IAH and Spring VFD. What else is interesting? Any Fed in the clear?

As for my lists, I know now to use Zone 3 sites for HPD and HFD while using Zone 1 & 2 sites for county, but I'm lost when it comes to tactical channels in the HCSO. I know I'll use dispatch for Districts 1 & 2, but what else should I add to that list?

List 1: Humble PD/FD/ISDPD
List 2: HCCO (In Humble)
List 3: HCSO (In Humble)
List 4: HCCO (In Spring)
List 5: HCSO (In Spring)
List 6: Spring VFD
List 7: HPD (In Humble)
List 8: HPD (In Spring)
List 9: HPD (Around Town)
List 10: HFD (In Humble)
List 11: HFD (In Spring)
List 12: HFD (Around Town)
List 13: IAH Ground Operations
List 14: IAH Aircraft
List 15: Amateur Radio
List 16: ?
List 17: ?

 

[Wes]

Might also consider Cypress Creek EMS Comm Center and Harris County Emergency Corps' dispatch. Both dispatch for the majority of the fire and EMS on the north side. Cy-Fair Fire and Tomball Fire/Northwest EMS might be good options too. All of these are conventional VHF and UHF.

 

[motorola_otaku]

Humble is in HCSO District 2. You want SO Dispatch 2, Harris County Tac 2 (used for interop between SO and constables) and SO Tac East-A. I would advise against putting in any other SO districts, as they are extremely busy and will tie up your radio with activity far out of your immediate area.

Humble is split between Constable Precincts 4 and 3. Pct. 4 covers a huge swath of north Harris County and their dispatch is another extremely busy channel. Between 4, 3, and SO District 2 you will have a radio that never shuts up 24/7. Consider keeping individual agencies locked out/inactive unless you are in their patrol area, or setting up GPS steering if you're going to be mobile a lot.

Spring VFD is dispatched by the Cypress Creek Communications Center, which is commonly referred to as the Comm Center. All of the member agencies are grouped together under a common set of "Comm" channels. I'd recommend plugging in Comm 1 through 14, since major incidents and routine structure fire calls will be moved to a tac channel at dispatch and Spring has automatic mutual aid agreements in place with their surrounding departments. Cy-Fair and Northwest VFD/EMS are clear across the county from Humble (note also that Northwest EMS does NOT cover Northwest VFD's territory - NWVFD is covered by ESD1 EMS, which is a whole other dispatch agency and set of very busy channels.)

Post back if you have any other specific agency questions. It's very easy to build a scanlist for your area that keeps a scanner tied up but doesn't provide much relevant local information.

 

[AndrewGS]

Thanks for the input guys. I'll adjust my lists accordingly.

I'm trying to figure out which sites to program in and trying to set up the options like resume delay, etc. I'm not really a fan of this Sentinel software.

 

[AndrewGS]

OK, I'm getting frustrated.

I'm monitoring the Northeast Simulcast site for HPD and the little traffic I'm hearing is distorted and almost impossible to copy.

I'm also trying to find where the heck Harris County went. I've tried multiple analog and digital sites and on the analog sites I hear no traffic while I can't seem to find a digital site that covers the Humble area.

I put up an antenna here at the house yesterday and now I can only hear Humble traffic, amateur repeaters, weather stations, aircraft, basically everything but Harris County and now Houston PD and FD are nearly unreadable despite a strong signal.