Monitoring Houston Police Department Midwest Patrol
- Thread starter Bobradtx
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Your own scanner? Welcome to the RR forums
Houston public safety agencies use the TxWARN system.
Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) Trunking System, Various, Texas
Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) Trunking System Profile
www.radioreference.com
Looking at the database page for that system, I do not see any channel (talkgroup) labeled as 'midwest patrol division'.
Regardless, when you are listening to an online feed, whether provided directly by Broadcastify, or by an app on your phone or tablet (some of which may be using a Broadcastify feed), the feed is provided by someone in that area. There are restrictions of what cannot be carried on a feed, such as tactical or investigative channels, but the choice of which specific channels to carry is made by the feed supplier, who is using his, or her, own scanner, PC, and internet connection to generate the traffic you hear online or through an app. There is no requirement that a feed use separate channels for each patrol division or department. Most are devoted to a feed carrying the radio traffic of a specific city or county, and might include any combination of individual agencies, or their radio channels that are of interest to the feed provider,
If there is no specific feed available that focuses your listening to a specific agency, or designated channel for that agency, then your choice is to purchase your own scanner and choose only what interests you. Relying on an online feed, provided by someone else, your only choice is whatever a feed provider selects. Also see this post.
Yep, HPD has West, NW, and SW.
It will be "West" then.
Bobradtx
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The old HPD Westside patrol division was split into 2 divisions, Westside and Midwest. I don't know if they share a channel or not. I know very little about the P25 trunking system. Can I program a scanner to listen to a single frequency? Is there a freqency/channel list for HPD? How does the trunking effect scanner monitoring?
I began listening to HPD during 1984 and have never heard "Midwest." I can still remember most of the UHF frequencies to this day. If I am not mistaken, HPD West Dispatch was 460.15. I could be wrong. Back then, I don't know if there were two divisions or whether they used the same frequency.
At present, HPD and Harris SO use P25 trunking systems. Yes, it is possible to park a P25 scanner on one particular talk group (channel) for the "HPD West Dispatch" talk group, but this involves different frequencies working together in a trunked system. God, words escape me on this response. I am trying to answer.
Yes, you can still monitor "some" UHF/VHF frequencies associated with "some" Federal Agencies, but they have also migrated to P25 conventional frequencies, mostly with full-time encryption.
HPD has the juicy talk groups encrypted at present. Harris SO is not as heavily-encrypted.
At present, HPD and Harris SO use P25 trunking systems. Yes, it is possible to park a P25 scanner on one particular talk group (channel) for the "HPD West Dispatch" talk group, but this involves different frequencies working together in a trunked system. God, words escape me on this response. I am trying to answer.
Yes, you can still monitor "some" UHF/VHF frequencies associated with "some" Federal Agencies, but they have also migrated to P25 conventional frequencies, mostly with full-time encryption.
HPD has the juicy talk groups encrypted at present. Harris SO is not as heavily-encrypted.
TXDispatcher1
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HPD Midwest division is on the Northwest Patrol channel. Midwest units are 18 District, 18Fxx units. Midwest units work out of the substation on Regency Square, and share the channel with Northwest Patrol 4 and 5 district, 4Fxx and 5Fxx units that work out of the old Station 5 on Teague. The only Broadcastify feeds you can hear that channel on are the city-wide HPD feed Houston Police Department - All Districts Live Audio Feed and the feed that has everybody and their momma in a 5 county area on it Fort Bend County Police, Harris County Constables, Waller County Public Safety Live Audio Feed. I can't help you with specific scanner info because I'm listening to my hometown (Houston/Galveston area) from all the way across the world on Broadcastify until, God willing I'm able to go back home soon. Maybe this HPD district map will also help you out some https://www.houstontx.gov/police/pdfs/hpd_beat_map.pdf
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My! HPD districts & communications systems have really evolved in 19 years (retired 2004)
TXDispatcher1
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Man, talk about evolution-I started listening to HPD when I was 9 on an antique 4 channel RM2-4 police radio (not a scanner, of course) that my father gave me (guess that kinda gives away my age a little). Back then HPD had two patrol channels (154.86 and 155.55) on high-band one frequency simplex-one for north of Buffalo Bayou and one for south of the bayou. They didn't go to UHF repeaters until a number of years later-I thought it was so neat that I could hear all of the units talk back to the dispatcher on the repeaters.
Harris County SO, when I first started my police radio hobby had one patrol channel on low band (37.100), one frequency simple. My friends and I were Jr. Deputy Sheriffs under Buster Kern, and my friends' father was a sergeant in the HCSO reserves. We thought we were the Law West of Cypress Creek, but there was about 0 crime in that area, and you'd go for months without hearing a call in our area. Times have sure changed, and those departments have really changed and grown, and the whole Houston metropolitan area has just exploded in size. 2 AM, KKD 490, Houston PD....
Awesome! Someone else that remembers north of bayou and south of bayou. I thought I was the only one here that was around then.
TXDispatcher1
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Wow, we're some real antiques! I don't feel so old now after all....
I remember when 155.550 turned into the OC (organized crime) repeater. I can't believe they went all those years talking on it in the clear.
TXDispatcher1
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Yea, they used that for a long time. It was a multi-agency task force with HPD, HCSO and DPS detectives and Harris County DA's. Even the FBI was transmitting a lot of traffic in the clear (some was encrypted) on 163.9625 until they suddenly got this new radio system and dropped off the radar screen
TXDispatcher1
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This was my first police radio, an RM2-4. If anyone else had a radio like this we should start an monitoring pioneer's club or something. I had the two HPD patrol channels on it, DPS dispatch on low band, HCSO on low band, and one aircraft channel. It had large tuneable crystals that you tuned with a screwdriver looking thing that was plastic.
Attachments
My first was a Realistic Patrolman 3. What was so awesome about it was I could hear Bellaire PD and FD by just tuning to one or the other frequencies. It’s selectivity was less than stellar.
TXDispatcher1
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Yea, I had one of those too. The problem with that radio was that some of the channels were so close to each other that they would talk over one another and it was hard to tune in just right on one channel. It was better than nothing, but the scanners with crystals were far superior.
Memories !Before HPD, I was radio operator for DPS in Austin...42.9 & 42.740 (1972) (KKD-303); First scanner, Realistic PRO-7a...I still have it & it's still in use, albeit repurposed.
My mother and aunt were dispatchers for Navasota and DPS respectively, they remember the transition from 37.18 and 42 something to VHF High Band. Back then Intercity was alive and well and they could hear units all over the greater Houston area and dang near knew what every unit number corresponded to.
