Lots of frequencies for my area, only receiving a couple

[rick2781]

Still brand new to the hobby...
I live in South Texas along the border and seem to be having difficulty picking much up on my device.
Equipment wise I picked up a $25 ham walkie talkie, along with a Nagoya antenna upgrade, and downloaded CHIRP software .

I receive the NOAA transmissions, one of the local repeaters, and some of the GMRS and FRS transmissions.

Radio reference lists a few dozen frequencies for my area however, which I seem unable to receive.

These include local Fire and EMS, school districts, mall and zoo security, and about 25 border patrol and ICE frequencies...

Also, even though Radio Reference lists about 40 frequencies for my area, broadcastify only has 2 frequencies streaming on their website...

Am I missing something on my end? As far as programming frequencies I've been doing it straight from CHIRP. Do I need to go out and buy more expensive stuff?

 

[Giddyuptd]

More than likely CBP and ice is encrypted.

Depending on your equipment various entities use trunking systems with vhf or uhf conventional frequencies as a fall back or no more use but still holding license as spare use.

You may be out of the repeater range.

What county and city and how far are you from said places?

Broadcastify is mainly user feed scanning. They most likely only care to monitor/stream 2 channels.

 

[K7MFC]

I live in South Texas along the border and seem to be having difficulty picking much up on my device.
Equipment wise I picked up a $25 ham walkie talkie, along with a Nagoya antenna upgrade, and downloaded CHIRP software .

Where exactly do you live and what specific radio did you purchase?

 

[rick2781]

Where exactly do you live and what specific radio did you purchase?

I live in Brownsville TX, which is Cameron county, 78521...
I picked up a Baofeng uv82 and also a Baofeng uv5r

 

[rick2781]

More than likely CBP and ice is encrypted.

Depending on your equipment various entities use trunking systems with vhf or uhf conventional frequencies as a fall back or no more use but still holding license as spare use.

You may be out of the repeater range.

What county and city and how far are you from said places?

Broadcastify is mainly user feed scanning. They most likely only care to monitor/stream 2 channels.

I am in Cameron county Texas, in Brownsville...
Not sure my exact distance from repeater, but RR has a repeater listed that says Brownsville in parentheses, which I seem to be able to pick up

 

[hiegtx]

As already noted, without knowing your location (city, or county, and state (TX) is sufficient) and the model of radio you are using, any suggestions are just a wild guess.

However, I will say that many of the public safety agencies in the Rio Grande border area of Texas use one or more of several trunked systems, most of them are digital. If you have a ~$25 ham walkie-talkie, that's not going to be something that can handle digital nor trunked systems.

 

[tyler3328]

Most agencies in that area are on p25 trunked systems. You’ll have to get a scanner that will pick up p25 phase 1 and possibly p2 if gatrrs switches come September and the MRG areas get updated. There are also a lot of secure operations there. CBP runs secure select switches and most are secure

 

[hiegtx]

I am in Cameron county Texas, in Brownsville...
Not sure my exact distance from repeater, but RR has a repeater listed that says Brownsville in parentheses, which I seem to be able to pick up

Your county, Cameron, as well as neighboring Willacy & Hidalgo counties, use this P25 trunked system:

Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Radio System (LRGVRRS) Trunking System, Varies, Texas

Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Radio System (LRGVRRS) Trunking System Profile

www.radioreference.com

Besides federal agencies, which as Tyler noted are usually secure (encrypted), some of the police and sheriff's talkgroups in your area are also encrypted. Look at the Mode column with the talkgroups. Those labeled as DE are digital as well as encrypted.

I live in Brownsville TX, which is Cameron county, 78521...
I picked up a Baofeng uv82 and also a Baofeng uv5r

Neither of those radios will work for your area. They are not trunking capable radios, are not capable of handling digital signals, and also do not cover the bands in use on the trunked system. The two Baofengs are dual band, but the bands they cover are 136-174 & 400-520MHz. The trunked system uses 700& 800MHz frequencies, and uses digital transmissions.

While the trunked system is currently using P25 Phase I, thereis always the possibility, as tyler noted, that they might upgrade to Phase II. If they were to stay Phase I, you could get by with a Whistler WS1040 (portable), or WS1065 (base/mobile). These can often be found in the $200 range, either used, or on Whistler's "scratch & dent" page. But if a change to Phase II occurs, those would no longer work.

To get a phase II capable scanner, your starting cost is higher: ~$340 for a BCD325P2 (portable) or around $360 for the base/mobile BCD996P2. From there, the cost goes higher if you get into the database scanners.

 

[Hit_Factor]

Looks as though Brownsville PD is encrypted. Nothing can receive their transmissions.

Look over the LRGV link in the previous post, let us know if you have questions.

 

[K5MPH]

Most of everything is encrypted here in Brownsville ......