Moving to DFW. Do I need DMR/NXDN for my SDS?

EAFrizzle

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I know y'all have a MUCH more complex set of PS trunking systems than I've had here in Harris County (seems a bit strange to be grateful for TxWARN). I also enjoy listening to just about any type of traffic, especially med and airmed stuff. Would the DMR/NXDN upgrades be useful for me? I'll be in Kaufman County near the Trinity river/Ellis County line. I bought both the SDS100 and 200 to prep for all the simulcast, I'd just like to know how others feel about the need for the digital modes in the DFW area.


Just from a quick glance, looks like y'all have a lot more non-p25 digital than we do in the HTX.
 

hiegtx

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I know y'all have a MUCH more complex set of PS trunking systems than I've had here in Harris County (seems a bit strange to be grateful for TxWARN). I also enjoy listening to just about any type of traffic, especially med and airmed stuff. Would the DMR/NXDN upgrades be useful for me? I'll be in Kaufman County near the Trinity river/Ellis County line. I bought both the SDS100 and 200 to prep for all the simulcast, I'd just like to know how others feel about the need for the digital modes in the DFW area.


Just from a quick glance, looks like y'all have a lot more non-p25 digital than we do in the HTX.
DMR would let you monitor the trunked system used by CareFlite. That’s a very active air medical fleet of six helicopters based in various places in North Texas. Recently, they moved “CareFlite 4” from its (then) base in McKinney to Terrell in Kaufman County. Besides scene responses to accidents and other events with seriously injured patients, there are a large number of inter-facility transfers where a patient at one of the small, satellite, hospitals, affiliated with one of the larger hospitals in the DFW area, is taken to a hospital with the equipment or staff needed, that the smaller facility does not have. A large number of businesses, and some school districts, use DMR, either as a trunked system or conventionally. There’s likely a large number of DMR users that have not yet been found and documented, and added to the database.

NXDN is not used nearly as much. There are a couple of systems that businesses can use for their operations, and a few of the schools may use NXDN. Currently, I do not have any NXDN systems programmed, but I have not run across any users that interest me enough to be added for normal scanning. There were four smaller Dallas County suburban cities that were using NXDN, but they have since moved to NTIRN, a regional system , P25 Phase II, used by a large number of cities and their counties in the DFW metro area.

Kaufman County has their own system, but TxWARN, a large regional system stretching from the Houston area up to Kaufman county, and used by some of the other agencies such as Tyler and Smith County. Ellis County, and its cities and towns, are on NTIRN. There should be several additional systems monitorable from your location.
 
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