Kerr County Texas (New Thread late 2023)

[N5ZKK]

All of the law enforcement communications in Kerr County are now encrypted. The calls that are in the clear are very few, sometimes 1 per day, and simply a way to placate us, the listener.

During this process that started in 2022 I heard no one object to replace the top-of-the-line LCRA system, and the P25 VHF system before that, and the Harris system before that; So one minor detail like hiding the daily goings on from the public won't even make the news here in Kerrville.

Kerr County just paid over Seven Million Dollars to replace a perfectly good LCRA radio system with the GATRRS radio system. No one objected.

 

[rattlerbb01]

All of the law enforcement communications in Kerr County are now encrypted. The calls that are in the clear are very few, sometimes 1 per day, and simply a way to placate us, the listener.

During this process that started in 2022 I heard no one object to replace the top-of-the-line LCRA system, and the P25 VHF system before that, and the Harris system before that; So one minor detail like hiding the daily goings on from the public won't even make the news here in Kerrville.

Kerr County just paid over Seven Million Dollars to replace a perfectly good LCRA radio system with the GATRRS radio system. No one objected.

Kerrville is still on LCRA, they built three sites for the city. Kerr County made the move to GATRRS. Kerr County studied the two proposals which would have seen LCRA add sites in Divide/Mountain Home and Camp
Verde, but the county ultimately chose GATRRS.

 

[rattlerbb01]

46331 again confirmed over the air as "Fire Ops 1" by dispatch and Ingram unit switching to it
46310 has enough clear traffic with sworn units checking out at courthouse to identify it as bailiffs at this time

What we will be looking for if GATRRS/MSI deploys this like all the other counties in the western region:
Fire Ops 2-10? (Fire-Tac) being used on the air, not sure how many actual Ops talkgroups they will have yet
VFD specific tactical/FG/training talkgroups (Fire-Tac, Fire-Talk)
EOC talkgroups (Emergency Ops)
Road and Bridge talkgroups (Public Works)
Countywide Ops talkgroups (Multi-Tac) for scenes involving LE and Fire/EMS
Possible motobridge groups that patch to LCRA or Kerrville VHF FD and EMS repeaters

I think I'm pretty confident that 46301-46316 are all KCSO groups based on unit numbers that have keyed up clear or ENC.
46317-46329 have never been keyed up
46332-46337 likely more sequential Fire Ops groups
46338 and above have never been keyed up

 

[rattlerbb01]

46332-46337 confirmed by a unit testing her radio over the air with dispatch as Fire Ops 2 to 7

 

[N5ZKK]

46332-46337 confirmed by a unit testing her radio over the air with dispatch as Fire Ops 2 to 7

Also this morning KCSO dispatch was calling Gillespie on LCRA TG 8502 and 8509. No response from Gillespie.

GATRRS testing this morning 5/20/2025
46330 "KERR FIRE DISPATCH"
COMMAND 51 ENGINE 52 BRUSH 53 and SO 4441 heard testing
46331 OPS 1
46332 OPS 2
46333 OPS 3
46334 OPS 4
46335 OPS 5
46336 OPS 6
46337 OPS 7

3995 Real County KERR TESTING OKAY
4195 Edwards County KERR TESTED OK 5/20/2025

 

[boernegang]

Also this morning KCSO dispatch was calling Gillespie on LCRA TG 8502 and 8509. No response from Gillespie.

I heard Kerr County call Kendall County on LCRA TG7001 for a "how do you hear this radio". I was driving at the time so I did not see the UID's. On playback on the SDS100 it did not display a UID on the Kerr County Transmission. Kendall did respond with a loud and clear.

Also heard what I think was KERR SO on LCRA TG10043 asking about a license or something along those lines. That TG is labeled "Communications"

Some new testing to see who can talk to who on what system?? I'm not in the radio business but I can imagine the frustration with the politics and attitudes by the different admin's over "Their system". If one of your LEO's needs to talk to another agency what the _)(&(*& is the big deal!!!! Sorry, rant over.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Ok, yeah I see where Radio ID 6276420 came up on Real and Edwards SO dispatch talkgroups around noon, but we don't have a LCRA node in Fredericksburg or Kerrville for Calls yet, and GCSO 2, 3 or Kerr Comms didn't make it onto the Boerne or Luckenbach nodes to see if they used the same radio ID. I remember that 10043 was supposed to be Kerr SO Console to Kerrville PD Console. Also agreed on the craziness of multiple systems in use for small counties. But New Braunfels and Kerrville like doing things their way while Comal and Kerr counties chose another way, and that probably won't be changing any time soon. I could see GATRRS targeting Gillespie and Kendall down the road, but Boerne would probably be another city holdout on LCRA

 

[boernegang]

Based on what you found I did some digging in my Unitrunker. I found 6276420 on the LCRA Boerne site but the history shows only KERVILLE PD back in April. Under that was 6276422, that UID was granted on LCRA TG 7001, Kendall Primary, at 11:39 today. That must be what I heard.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Based on what you found I did some digging in my Unitrunker. I found 6276420 on the LCRA Boerne site but the history shows only KERVILLE PD back in April. Under that was 6276422, that UID was granted on LCRA TG 7001, Kendall Primary, at 11:39 today. That must be what I heard.

Okay, yep I found that transmission on calls, but didn't see Kendall console respond

 

[NC5267]

On the LCRA side, I think I caught Kerr SO on the listed 10004, both dispatch and units, a day or two ago. I am nowhere near the Kerr County area, but they came across the Comal LCRA site. I don't know if that is going to be a patch to GATRRS or just cross-system testing, but they were clear with standard day-to-day type of ops.

I've been in and around the radio business for a while. Switching between GATRRS and LCRA is just a push of a button or two on a Harris or Motorola P25 radio. If they are programmed correctly and have the keys for encrypted agencies like KPD, etc, if one agency is fully encrypted and has issues with another, they may limit who gets the keys. Instead of all surrounding LE, they can limit it to dispatch only, command staff, or supervisors. One benefit of encryption from an agency point of view is that the agency can control who they want to have access, and in some cases, no outside agencies except DPS. I have seen it in a couple of places before.

 

[NC5267]

NC5267, The fact that people like you gaslight us into believing that encryption is fine is why the radio techs, sales people, dispatchers, and politicians that enable this level of secrecy need to be moved into another line of work ex. dog catcher.

Haha...I'm not a policy maker or sales person. Just a grunt passing on the reality of the field in the 21st century. Encryption decisions are above my pay grade.

 

[N5ZKK]

A fire in Mountain Home and a storm with a swift water rescue jammed up all the 2 or 3 frequencies on the new GATRRS system last night. All the VFDs were complaining about radio trouble.
Wednesday Ingram VFD was on the front page of the newspaper saying that they are carrying two radios now and were keeping a log of radio troubles.

This morning KCSO primary dispatch was simulcast on the previous well working LCRA system.

 

[rattlerbb01]

A fire in Mountain Home and a storm with a swift water rescue jammed up all the 2 or 3 frequencies on the new GATRRS system last night. All the VFDs were complaining about radio trouble.
Wednesday Ingram VFD was on the front page of the newspaper saying that they are carrying two radios now and were keeping a log of radio troubles.

This morning KCSO primary dispatch was simulcast on the previous well working LCRA system.

I figured that would be a problem. Two working fires and deputies doing their routine traffic stops and dispatching will overload 3 voice channels in a hurry. Phase 2 may help but I have yet to see GATRRS use it, and honestly have not seen a VHF Phase 2 Simulcast transmission in person yet.

 

[rattlerbb01]

I'll add that I have seen Boerne area LCRA sites absolutely overload several times with call denials due to all 4 frequencies being in use, so it's not just a Kerr issue, the area has grown so much out here that 4 voice channels doesn't cut it, especially with so many FDMA only radios still floating around.

 

[TLR2019]

I have been looking for a job again. Sorry I cannot be listening to the air as of recently recently. Great work my guys

 

[rattlerbb01]

I have been looking for a job again. Sorry I cannot be listening to the air as of recently recently. Great work my guys

Best of luck to you, I recently changed careers myself, getting out of oil and gas and more into clean environmental tech. Its a completely different world in some ways, and more of the same in other ways that I have adapted to very well. Don't be afraid to reach outside your comfort zone, there are some great opportunities out there.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Noticed today that 62763XX radios were appearing on Comfort Fire 1 on 700 LCRA. So looks like they may have a handful of Motorola radios for Kerr Co that are authorized on both systems. Comfort has territory in both Kerr and Kendall so I'm sure they have something worked out.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Noticed today that 62763XX radios were appearing on Comfort Fire 1 on 700 LCRA. So looks like they may have a handful of Motorola radios for Kerr Co that are authorized on both systems. Comfort has territory in both Kerr and Kendall so I'm sure they have something worked out.

Pretty much anyone who might need to interop on the LCRA system from GATRRS has LCRA programmed into their radios with a bare minimum of the PUBCOM, FIRECOM, and TOC talkgroups. Not really a big deal...most of the programmers for GATRRS not only have system keys for GATRRS but also have LCRA keys.

 

[rattlerbb01]

Pretty much anyone who might need to interop on the LCRA system from GATRRS has LCRA programmed into their radios with a bare minimum of the PUBCOM, FIRECOM, and TOC talkgroups. Not really a big deal...most of the programmers for GATRRS not only have system keys for GATRRS but also have LCRA keys.

I kind of figured that would be the case. Too much overlap in the hill country and 35 corridor not to. How would potential LLA implementation affect that down the road though?

 

[N5ZKK]

There was LCRA activity tonight on KCSO PRIMARY TG 10004 showed UID 999334 between dispatch and the mobiles.
Edit: There is also testing tonight between KCSO and someone using LCRA TG10014 which is new to me.

From what I can tell Kerr County has been switching back to the "old" LCRA when there is an incident with mutual aid. On memorial day and then again on Friday KCSO was on the old LCRA TG10004 in the clear and again just tonight.