Monitoring NMSP

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Go-West

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Last Sunday we had quite the blowing dust/sand with NMSP being extremely busy. I was able to listen to the dispatcher for my area, but I was not able to monitor the troopers on scene from all those wrecks. Is there a frequency to tune into to hear the troopers at the wrecks in district 4 (Las Cruces).
Thanks.
 

wd9cms

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The NMSP operates remote bases rather then standard repeaters so you have to listen to two frequencies for each District. District 4 base frequency is 155.520 and the mobiles operate on 155.535. NMSP has the capability of operating some stations in repeater mode under control from the dispatcher which they do some time in Santa Fe District 1.
 

MrAstroSaber

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Your not going to hear the officer in his car enless he is close by I would say maybe 10 miles give of take. There older radios in the cars were Moto Spectra's pushing 110watts now I have seen in there brand new units at the dealer with Kenwoods and I would guess pushing around 55 watts. There system is old and out dated but it works. Santa Fe is the only area where they run on a repeater. You would think the larger cities would be on repeaters like ABQ and LC just because of the traffic and amount of officers and dot guys. Maybe someday
 

SCPD

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The reason they still use this old system is if needed they have the satellite dispatch option. But I do know they plan to update things in the future and are looking at a p25 setup, but its in the talks with nothing put to stone.
 

KB7MIB

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Does the 155.520/155.535 pair cover the whole of I-10 from the AZ line to the TX line? What else would I want to monitor along that route?
 

SCPD

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You will be crossing these districts 4 and 12 from Las Cruces to AZ and can possibly here district 8 from Las Cruces to El Paso depending on several things.

Pertaining to I-10 From AZ going to TX, (remember its a duplex so youll need the TX/RX freqs to hear both sides)

Deming D12 from AZ line to Lordsburg, Deming to West Dona Ana county (Las Cruces)
155.565 dispatch
155.655 mobile

Las Cruces D4 From Deming (Luna county half ways) to LC to Sunland Park and TX state line
155.520 dispatch
155.535 mobile

Alamogordo D8 This may be heard along South I-10/I-25 to El Paso if a D8 unit is near the "gap" basically his repeater is carrying across the gap youll see the mountains end for a distance then build back up with a gap that goes towards chaparral NM and his signals going through the gap would be to your east going south on I10/I25. If a SP is on the top of the Saint Augustine pass east of Las Cruces it may carry over also as the highway 70 goes right through this and where Districts 8 and 4 meet along the mountains going south east of Las Cruces.
155.790 dispatch
155.730 mobile


VRS, this system is setup different ways depending on each time frame and version or type of radio each unit/officer has. The whole NMSP setup is kind of funny and old but it works but too much to go into detail lol. But monitor the VRS portables relay. It works near units and carries the signal pretty far from the unit repeater. Some officers leave the VRS on when there home sometimes for short periods and many do live along Interstate 10 in communities going south. Youll hear all traffic in his scan list on the VHF side thats relayed to the VRS UHF. However you may pick up a mexico chatter being close to the border on this channel, some areas of NM there is DPLs used but I dont not recall them. But some officers carry 2ch Ht1000s or 16 Channel Ht1000s UHF radios and the 16 channel portables has the local UHF med channel to monitor.

NMSP VRS for portables 460.150

Monitor these as depending on every group of officers or pair some like to utilize these with the other or group on duty. 155.550 is usually used if the duplex goes down or fails on either side of someones repeater and mostly for car to car talk.

155.550 state car/ NMSP T/A
155.475 LEN
154.920 NMSP F4
155.370 NMSP LEN
155.160 NMSP E Net
155.4825 VLAW32

South west intercity base to base
154.800 Output
154.875 Input

I would also monitor the sheriff freqs from Hidalgo county, Grant County, Luna county, and Dona Ana county. Sometimes NMSP may be utilizing this if hes alone and the officer works close with a deputy friend on the highway along I-10. Dona Ana sheriff youll want to enter all the output freqs listed in the RR database page as they do use different repeaters for north and south. Youll hear sunland park NM if you enter that too.

If your going into El Paso look at the El Paso county TX page. Youll hear the sheriffs office and surrounding VHF towns police depts like Anthony, Horizon, etc. Youll hear Sunland Park all way to down the Mesa and I-10 and NMSP/Dona Ana SO to Sunland Blvd / I-10. Utep still uses there conventional setup but has a 2nd mobile radio thats on the El Paso trunking system.

Texas DPS (p25 clear) in El Paso can be heard all the way into Dona Ana and Otero County. Troopers will cross into New Mexico by chaparral in Otero going into Dona Ana in these two counties using the highway that goes off from 54 south near Fort Bliss range that crosses the "gap" back to I-10 into West El Paso. This gap highway saves allot of time for various law enforcement wanting to get on the other side of the trans mountains. El Paso sheriff also uses this route and can be heard into Otero and Dona Ana (Las Cuces). There are various deputies and cops from both states living on either side of both state lines since that area is jammed with towns on both sides. So you may see NMSP in El Paso west, or Sunland NM cops in El Paso since they live there or El Paso deputies living in Sunland Park.
 

SCPD

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Also if you go by Deming see if you can enter Deming pd (Luna county) from the New Mexico RR database. I would like to know if they use encryption full time now days. They use to use the old masc scramblers in the early 90s. curious to know if they gone to a ADP or DES full time or opened the air up. This was annoying for state officers and deputies as they always called needing assistance yet you could never hear them as they encoded every transmission and couldnt xmit in open. It was a Dispatch to dispatch relay deal every time and they didnt have ability to use any interop channel without being scrambled. It was a stupid setup the Deming communications did back then. Very retarded and dangerous. I use to find it funny they said they did it because of being near border and drug issues. Yet USBP was always in the clear, Luna SO was in clear and had no issues with any bust or operation. It was one of them deals where some one sold the local PD a boogie man is out there to get them so buy this encryption board for each radio.
 

SCPD

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There are a few locations in the state using fixed repeaters, mainly on mountaintops to do relays to Santa Fe on microwave links. Some do use VHF repeating but its a few at these relay sites. District 8 has Benson Ridge.

Your not going to hear the officer in his car enless he is close by I would say maybe 10 miles give of take. There older radios in the cars were Moto Spectra's pushing 110watts now I have seen in there brand new units at the dealer with Kenwoods and I would guess pushing around 55 watts. There system is old and out dated but it works. Santa Fe is the only area where they run on a repeater. You would think the larger cities would be on repeaters like ABQ and LC just because of the traffic and amount of officers and dot guys. Maybe someday
 

KB7MIB

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Thank you for the detailed info. I'll keep it for any future road trips. IIRC, the mobile version of the database doesn't show the mobile side of the channel pair. My primary DB access is via my phone.
 

com_chaser

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Last Sunday we had quite the blowing dust/sand with NMSP being extremely busy. I was able to listen to the dispatcher for my area, but I was not able to monitor the troopers on scene from all those wrecks. Is there a frequency to tune into to hear the troopers at the wrecks in district 4 (Las Cruces).
Thanks.

Try this:

NMSP Car to Car 155.55 pl. 127.3
 

rdoty

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The reason they still use this old system is if needed they have the satellite dispatch option. But I do know they plan to update things in the future and are looking at a p25 setup, but its in the talks with nothing put to stone.

Actually the NMSP has changed their radio system. Effective Jan 1, 2012, they went to digital mountain top repeater systems, which are tied into the State Radio Microwave. The department purchased P25 compliance Kenwood Radios, TK-5710 mobile radios and TK-5320 portable radios. Each patrol unit has the C-56 Satelite System and a receiver Satelite System for their base stations.
 

SCPD

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Like I said mix and match. There is no SP office in the south part of the state using p25. There may be once district up top using this but all my old buddies still carry old UHF HT1000s and use the mobiles kenwoods and spectras under year 2010. A few are p25 capable but are programmed analog. I have yet to hear anything on any of my APXs and its all set to the proper specs. NMSP has never done fleet wide updates due to budgets in one go, more of last major updates took 10 years. In a sense there already mostly compliant in analog since they have used a 12.5 step for many years. I would imagine if there is any up north using p25 they have ability to button it on and off rather it being set for AES/DES. This I know as some MPS guys here bought equipment for Mounted Patrol and are playing with the digital p25 using the soft button to enable p25 in the clear. Itll take time to move up the entire network and fleet to a digital format. So if anything there using it is by choice to play with/test with ability to analog still as most the fleets still analog.
 

MrAstroSaber

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Well I know ABQ and Santa Fee are not p25 and you still only here one side. It would be nice if they would switch to something at least that is on repeaters for both the officers and us that want to scan them. I have seen a few of the officers with an XTS3000 for there portable but I have not seen any of the keenwood portables just the kenwood mobiles in there new cars
 

SCPD

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Yup allot of the portable fleet is also mixed and matched over the years in the VRS UHF. If your a ham user and really want to hear NMSP I would use a seperate mobile VHF with a good antenna on the roof of your car or highest point on your home setting the duplex in/out for areas you go or monitor. Set the scan to 1 second or less drop after receiving audio for the scan list for a seamless conversation. Believe it or not this is how allot of mounted patrolers scan or talk back on the VHF duplex and it works pretty good unless you have other agencies scanning on the list. Always set the home district mobile and dispatch as primary and secondary primary in scan list I would suggest operator select if possible on newer radios so you can change the district when needed in the scan list. Where currently a dual band comes in handy is you can monitor the VHF duplex using the in and out frequency with a scan list drop of 1 second or lower if applicable. Then also adding the VRS UHF frequency on the dual band in the scan list. It has worked for the volunteer side for those that couldnt afford the other stuff. If I get a opportunity to show a demo in a video of a HT1000 doing the above Ill post a link here.
 

SCPD

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If you take notice of some photos youll see different portable types in use. Some use the VRS, some do not. Some use VHF HT1000s on 155.550 as it is also NMSP T/A and dispatch does reply on it for the ones who do not have or use the VRS UHF. Keep in mind not every transmission is on the duplex dispatch may call on the duplex VHF but officers may chooseto reply back on the state car, NMSP F4, or other channel. The scan lists for the NMSP radio is at the default drop. Why most of the time youll hear them say 834 to Mary 233 on vlaw32, state car, local, etc. so they know what channel to reply on. The newer setups are connected to the MDT and it will allow the channels to be replied on and displays what your on or what last channel the audio came in on. Even if NMSP was to go to a DVRS 700mhz it would be like the past where half the fleet is using the DVRS 700mhz while the rest are still UHF VRS. Gotta love budget crunching. Here is photos showing the different handhelds some have.

Google Image Result for http://www.timkellerphotography.com/timkellerarts/Images/MCIdrillEMS/NMSP.jpg

Google Image Result for http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VMFVYmhIKYA/TNA4tQ7yNAI/AAAAAAAAAFk/2bHfEFXxvKA/s1600/10:10:31-NMSP-PSA_1534w.jpg

Google Image Result for http://www.nmmtdpolice.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/MVC-016S.jpg

If you do other searches it will show various hand helds used depending on what district it is.
 

SCPD

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It is also kept in mind the VHF is considered for most part if need be a secondary now days as there is use of the satellite communications. However majority still use the VHF most the time, and can text im the dispatch location, info through the MDT and dispatch finds it easier to just reply over the air allot or vice versa. To one not on the VRS or duplex/ MDT & satellite it would seem confusing but when your in the car or at the console youll see and hear everything and it is not a problem as some would think.

The fixed repeater concept with repeated traffic on one frequency per district is in the talk for possible future use would be in the same locations as the microwave links because they are on the highest point in each district and all are currently turned on and off by district dispatchers and Santa Fe control. Dispatch offices in the districts also have repeater capability turned on and off if need be. The p25 is just talk with nothing set to stone yet however Mounted Patrol being a volunteer law enforcement they buy there own equipment and are playing with p25 on xts/xtls currently (those lucky enough to afford it) using the side button to enable digital audio but primary ops for them are analog. Many are buying xts/l 2500s due to most agencies going to the low cost xts2500 option and since they mostly work close with those agencies its best to match what options they use. Most of MP runs off local Sheriffs channels and uses interop freqs allot depending where and what assignment is occuring unlike the past they would be stuck with just a mobile on the NMSP duplex and no portable as most couldnt afford the whole setup with the VRS. Some assist small community police forces for daily duties so you may find some on local police also, in ALB they mostly assist BCSO with events/ DUI blocks and are assigned a LPE radio or radio to work on the system thats property of BCSO and APD. Most still have there own personal VHF handhelds and use them for assignments outside of those 2 agencies when needed.

I do know in Los Alamos there is several NMSP officers in that district who were assigned a trunking portable radio for that setup on the Los Alamos system to monitor it and assist if need be. Last I knew and to now Mounted Patrol to my knowledge has not been given authority to carry one yet on the Los Alamos system.

Some NMSP in Las Cruces have a Ericcson I believe trunked portable to monitor the LCPD. A few radios were granted to district 4 some time back when the system was first put on. Same for the Lea county setup in that district but not all officers carry one on there visor in the unit on both. Mounted Patrol was never given anything on these 2 also since everyone would go to a patched interop frequency and MP would run on a VHF channel patched to the systems then the patch would be shut off at the completion of the agency event assist assignments.
 

SCPD

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District 1 has two seperate dispatch outputs, and two mobile inputs. One set considered District 1 local and other District 1. Some do flip flop as dispatch and units can hear it all. Unit may key up on district 1 and dispatch may reply via satellite, text, or district local dispatch. Vice versa on both ends it could work either way. I do know being the capital at times satellite would be used after it was initiated in District 1 first for both ends of the convo or just one side with other opposite end replying on VHF.

SF District 1 local Duplex
Dispatch 155.565
Mobile 155.655

SF District 1 Duplex
Dispatch 155.595
Mobile 154.905

The duplex setup was NMSP old method to get comms out and in at high power and for both sides to talk at same time. duplex setup back then and now worked well. Itt still works and they only consider the officer hearing not scanners still. It all works flawless for the officer and dispatch the way its all setup but I do know what you mean. But they know people have a hard time following on scanners most the time and it keeps prying ears out as most get fed up trying to hear both sides. But it is possible. For the average scanner if your close to units, or mainly the local dispatch office your in luck. Some officers will turn on the VRS when there off duty at home for short periods to hear local traffic and SP traffic so if your lucky and live by one and he has it on youll hear his scan list from the VHF over to the VRS UHF channel.

Well I know ABQ and Santa Fee are not p25 and you still only here one side. It would be nice if they would switch to something at least that is on repeaters for both the officers and us that want to scan them. I have seen a few of the officers with an XTS3000 for there portable but I have not seen any of the keenwood portables just the kenwood mobiles in there new cars
 

SCPD

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Any one else seeing new towers erected at NMSP dispatch offices or areas in there districts? Noticed 3 districts so far erecting new towers and 2 out of the 3 were testing p25 in clear on the local duplexes with dispatch as ID 1 and techs with radio IDs following whats looks to be a format of district number then tech unit number. It was coming over duplexed repeated not simplex repated. I do know they use and are installing now mobile kenwoods capable of p25 and the other kenwood digital format.
 
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