New trunked system for Hill County

[hiegtx]

I noticed a new trunked frequencies license issued to Hill County, WRUZ326, issued 10/20/2022. This has 5 frequencies for each of two sites, one in Hill County & the other in Bosque, Looking at the contact info on the license, the contact is listed as Dailey Wells, so this wil be an L3-Harris system.

I found the date the system purchase was authorized in the Hill County Commissioners Court minutes for Feb. 22, 2022.

https://www.co.hill.tx.us/upload/page/7613/docs/CCMinutes/2022/February%2022%202022.pdf

I did not see any further notes in Commissioners Court minutes from that date to the last meeting minutes posted for this year. (The last meeting posted is in September. This month, October 2022, has not been entered on the county's site.

It's not clear whether the Bosque county location for the second site will be for Bosque's use, or for coverage in Hill County. I went through Commissioners Court minutes for Bosque back to October of last year, and did not find any reference to a new system, nor an interlocal agreement with Hill County for communications. The only comments in Bosque's minutes regarding radios appears to be repairs or upgrades of existing sites and radios. Nothing new is referenced, though something might be buried in other documents that are not clearly referenced in the minutes.

 

[KI5IRE]

Did you see any hints they may tie this into one of the existing TRS cores like LCRA (since they are a Harris system)?

I'm surprised to see Hill Co. went L3 when they could've easily joined HOTRRS or NTIRN..

 

[hiegtx]

Did you see any hints they may tie this into one of the existing TRS cores like LCRA (since they are a Harris system)?

I'm surprised to see Hill Co. went L3 when they could've easily joined HOTRRS or NTIRN..

I did not see any mention of joining another system in the Commissioners Court minutes. While there are various 'interlocal' agreements mentioned in the minutes, none that I saw were even remotely related to any radio system issues. Either HOTRRS or NTIRN would have been logical regional communication partners. Hill has a common border to the north with Johnson County, which is in NTIRN, and Johnson County has a site in southwestern Johnson County near the northern part of Lake Whitney.

And HOTRRS in McLennan County is just across from the southern section of the county.

What somewhat puzzles me is the second site for Hill is near Laguna Park in Bosque County. Looking over the past year's worth of Commissioners Court agendas and minutes for Bosque, I did not see anything that indicated they were teaming up with Hill. The location of that second site could be for better coverage in Hill County, but if that was the intention, why was this site licensed with a different set of frequencies instead of the same for the Hill County & making it a two site simulcast? Are the costs of setting up a two site simulcast significantly more than using two different stand alone sites? Of course, Henderson County set up their system with four unique sites instead of a four-site multicast to cover the county.I'm not by any means a radio system engineer, but if that second site really was for Bosque to use at some later date, I would think that it's location would have been nearer the center of the county, not on the border line with Hill.

 

[texaskeystone]

Hill County is going it alone with the new system. Bosque isn't involved and in fact Bosque just upgraded their analog repeaters so I don't think they are going anywhere soon. Like you guys, I am not sure why Hill didn't partner with Heart of Texas to the south or North Texas to the north other than they do tend to be independent in their approaches overall in Hill County. The I-35 site is at the existing county tower. The Laguna Park tower is just across the county line into Bosque and I presume is intended to alleviate the coverage issues the county has had around and on Lake Whitney for many years. I have programmed both sites into a new favorites file on my SDS200 but honestly I don't know how to scan the two sites for activity when I don't have any talk groups. That is an area of monitoring I have never quite figured out but if I can, I will start documenting the ongoing talk groups as they develop. Any tips and tricks on how to search for talk groups would be appreciated. I know they are up and running but have a long runway of testing to do.

 

[hiegtx]

Hill County is going it alone with the new system. Bosque isn't involved and in fact Bosque just upgraded their analog repeaters so I don't think they are going anywhere soon. Like you guys, I am not sure why Hill didn't partner with Heart of Texas to the south or North Texas to the north other than they do tend to be independent in their approaches overall in Hill County. The I-35 site is at the existing county tower. The Laguna Park tower is just across the county line into Bosque and I presume is intended to alleviate the coverage issues the county has had around and on Lake Whitney for many years. I have programmed both sites into a new favorites file on my SDS200 but honestly I don't know how to scan the two sites for activity when I don't have any talk groups. That is an area of monitoring I have never quite figured out but if I can, I will start documenting the ongoing talk groups as they develop. Any tips and tricks on how to search for talk groups would be appreciated. I know they are up and running but have a long runway of testing to do.

Put the two sites in a new P25 system, and use ID Search instead of ID Scan.

I did see the comments (on Bosque's site) about upgrading their current radio system. The fill in site is what I guessed it would be used for, since why would Bosque spend money on upgrading the current system if they were planning to switch.

I also agree that perhaps they should have joined either HOTRRS or NTIRN. The SW Johnson County site on NTIRN is near the county line between Hill & Johnson counties.

 

[Project25_MASTR]

It'll be interesting to see yet another system sandwiched here between Austin and DFW on the I-35 corridor. As it is, the original Waco sites of HOTRRS occasionally flag illegal carriers from Williamson county and Johnson county subscribers on GATTRS and NTIRN so getting yet another independent system in there can potentially make some of those issues that much worse. NTIRN is doing some stuff right now with ISSI gateways so the thought may have been to push ISSI at some point especially as you begin to see some of the multi-vendor projects some of the smaller municipalities are beginning to look into integrating.

 

[texaskeystone]

Thanks. I’ve got a strong data carrier on both sites and have searching set, so I’ll keep an eye on it.

I was hoping they would just tack on a couple of sites to NTRIN since Johnson and Ellis are already there. I think NTRIN has their multi agency interoperability act together better that HOTRRS. On the other hand, NTRIN is about to have their hands full as they bring on Dallas.

 

[hiegtx]

Thanks. I’ve got a strong data carrier on both sites and have searching set, so I’ll keep an eye on it.

I was hoping they would just tack on a couple of sites to NTRIN since Johnson and Ellis are already there. I think NTRIN has their multi agency interoperability act together better that HOTRRS. On the other hand, NTRIN is about to have their hands full as they bring on Dallas.

Besides the City of Dallas, Dallas County is also moving.

I haven't seen a timeline, but apparently the four "Best Southwest" cities (as they call themselves) may also move from their NXDN systems over to NTIRN. That would leave only Hutchins & Wilmer as the only Dallas County cities that are not on some kind of trunked system. I haven't plowed through their city council minutes yet, to see if a change is in the air for either of them.

Combine, in southeastern Dallas County, straddles the line between Dallas & Kaufman, and they have talkgroups on Kaufman's system.

 

[favin]

Sysid: 00A
WACN: 92A5A

Site 1.1 Hillsboro - current CC 854.1375
Site 3.3 Laguna Park - current CC 854.0875

A couple of radio and TG affiliations, but no voice traffic noted at this point.

 

[favin]

Hill County SO 2 156.000 P25 has been patched to TG1 this afternoon. Likely a temporary patch for testing however there have been some radios registering and affiliating with the system and TG1.

 

[KI5IRE]

What are the voice freq?

 

[hiegtx]

What are the voice freq?

The system has been added to the database. Since this is an L-Harris system, any frequency can be used as the control channel. No talkgroups defined yet, as apparently only testing is underway at this time.

 

[nd5y]

Since it's a L3 Harris system it would be interesting to see if they still use talkgroups in the 640xx-641xx range for testing like they have done on other new systems in the past.

 

[rattlerbb01]

I know you locals will all be doing this anyhow, but if you are going to catch any clear indication of channel names, now is the time. They typically do the "Bob on S O TAC 1 how do you read" and "Testing on HPD INFO 1-2-3-4-5-5-4-3-2-1" early on like this.

 

[texaskeystone]

So far, I've only seen TG 001 used and it was a patch from the VHF P25 favin referred to above. As of this evening, they have ceased that patch. I am sure we are going to see a lot of testing. I also understand that right now, they are only focused on SO and PD. FDs will happen eventually but are not on the radar right now.

 

[texaskeystone]

I’ve been watching and monitoring this one closely. They are making slow progress. The area was not surveyed well and there are a lot of dead spots in the north and northeast areas of the county (Covington, Blum, 934). The county has approved 300k for a 3rd site in that area that will be co located on an existing Oncor tower.

 

[JTexas539]

Watch for at least one new interop TG over the next 3-6 months.

 

[KI5IRE]

Checked this system for any new activity while visiting my parents in Johnson County this evening. Still no new activity on this system other than the patches to Hillsboro and Hill County.

 

[texaskeystone]

Hill SO, Hillsboro PD and Hillsboro FD have converted, although the less than ideal coverage near Blum continues to be a challenge for the SO. The county has approved a 3rd site in the NW part of the county but it hasn’t activated yet.

The county fire dispatch is on the new 800, patched back to the conventional system because many of the volunteer FDs don’t have their 800 equipment yet.

Whitney PD is converted to 800 but usually they are dispatched by the SO on Hill Co SO Primary. (800 units).

Of course, Careflite continues to use their own system for Hill County although Careflite dispatch does have access to Hill Co fire primary on the 800 system. Careflite Air remains based on 933 in Whitney.

No changes for AirEvac based on the I35 corridor in Hillsboro.