In Central Texas…but picking up Arkansas Wireless Information Network?

[txemt88]

Hello again my wonderful scanner junkies.

As many of you may know, I live in Waco and am currently sitting at home scanning all the statewide frequencies for Texas on my Uniden 436, and out of the blue I hear traffic on theArkansas Wireless Information Network system coming through just about as clear as my home county, McLennan. I heard dispatch sending police to addresses/scenes of crimes, as well as car to car communications between police of some type.

To be more specific, these are the departments and channels I heard:

DEPT.
State Police: Troop A - Little Rock
CH.
Dispatch
North Car-to-Car
South Car-to-Car

and

DEPT.
State Police: Troop B - Newport
CH.
Tac 2

How is this possible? Are their signals that strong or what?

 

[txemt88]

I actually may have figured it out. Is it possible somehow they share the same frequencies and TGID’s with a system here in my county?

Because in listening more closely, I heard them say “Send AMR” and “Transporting to Providence” and “I’m over by the Twin Bridges.” AMR is the EMS provider my county uses, Providence is a hospital in Waco, and the Twin Bridges are a common landmark just outside Waco next to the lake…

 

[nd5y]

I actually may have figured it out. Is it possible somehow they share the same frequencies and TGID’s with a system here in my county?

Yes. There are way more trunked systems than 800 MHz channels. The frequencies are reused throughout the country. It's not uncommon for some talkgroup IDs to be the same on different systems. Usually the frequency coordinators keep at least 70 miles separation between systems using the same frequencies. The system admins are responsible for assigning talkgroup IDs.

How is this possible? Are their signals that strong or what?

There is a good tropo opening this morning. It was probably happening last night when you received AR. If you would have analyzed the control channel you would have seen it was a different system than your local one.

It's possible that your scanner programming is messed up some way. That can happen with scanners that use the entire database but if you were actually hearing callsigns, street addresses, etc. from somewhere else then it was probably a band opening.

 

[txemt88]

Yes. There are way more trunked systems than 800 MHz channels. The frequencies are reused throughout the country. It's not uncommon for some talkgroup IDs to be the same on different systems. Usually the frequency coordinators keep at least 70 miles separation between systems using the same frequencies. The system admins are responsible for assigning talkgroup IDs.

There is a good tropo opening this morning. It was probably happening last night when you received AR. If you would have analyzed the control channel you would have seen it was a different system than your local one.

It's possible that your scanner programming is messed up some way. That can happen with scanners that use the entire database but if you were actually hearing callsigns, street addresses, etc. from somewhere else then it was probably a band opening.

I figured it out after some more research, and while I wish it was a band opening or something, it was actually a lot less exciting than that. Arkansas Wireless Information Network (see link in post #1) is a HUGE system like TxWARN and somehow the frequencies and TGIDs and channel numbers they use for State Police A and State Police B are the exact same as the Waco Police subgroup under our trunked system here in Waco. When I switched my favorites list from Statewide to McLennan County, I even picked up the end of the same exact conversation with a dispatcher that I was hearing on Arkansas Wireless Information Network.

So…….weird, but not that cool of an explanation! Lol

 

[ecps92]

Keep an eye on the SysID next time, that is a real indicator of what Network you are hearing

I figured it out after some more research, and while I wish it was a band opening or something, it was actually a lot less exciting than that. Arkansas Wireless Information Network (see link in post #1) is a HUGE system like TxWARN and somehow the frequencies and TGIDs and channel numbers they use for State Police A and State Police B are the exact same as the Waco Police subgroup under our trunked system here in Waco. When I switched my favorites list from Statewide to McLennan County, I even picked up the end of the same exact conversation with a dispatcher that I was hearing on Arkansas Wireless Information Network.

So…….weird, but not that cool of an explanation! Lol

 

[benny919]

Yeah my scanner has had this too. I was going on at trip to McAllen so I programmed in LRGVRRS into my 325p2. I was not picking anything up but I had full reception bars even though I was in North Dallas. They probably use the same freqs and TGIDs. Also, HFD automated dispatch uses the same 460Mhz freq as DFR automated dispatch.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Yes. There are way more trunked systems than 800 MHz channels. The frequencies are reused throughout the country. It's not uncommon for some talkgroup IDs to be the same on different systems. Usually the frequency coordinators keep at least 70 miles separation between systems using the same frequencies. The system admins are responsible for assigning talkgroup IDs.

There is a good tropo opening this morning. It was probably happening last night when you received AR. If you would have analyzed the control channel you would have seen it was a different system than your local one.

It's possible that your scanner programming is messed up some way. That can happen with scanners that use the entire database but if you were actually hearing callsigns, street addresses, etc. from somewhere else then it was probably a band opening.

HOTTRS is in a bit of an rough spot due to it being surrounded by three other large P25 systems. When users from GATRRS, FWRRS, and TxWARN roam more than about 30 miles from the edge-most sites it tends to flag illegal carrier alarms on multiples parts of the system (consoles, the trunking system itself, etc) as several of the channels used in Waco are actively used in Johnson County, Williamson County, etc.