Rio Grande Valley

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rgv_tech

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Willacy CO. Upgrade from VHF to 800 Mhz P25 Trunking

Willacy County Will be moving from VHF too 800 MHz P25 trunking. On Jan. 25, 2010, Willacy County applied for 800 MHz frequencies and they were granted a temporary License “WQLI223.” The repeater outputs will be 866.0375, 867.0375, 866.5375, 868.0375, 868.5375. Again, this is a temporary license that expires on July 26, 2010.
What this means is

  • Willacy County will have to reapply for an extension of the license and the call sign could change.
  • It is quite possible that the frequencies could also change.

Until The United States and Mexico come to an agreement on the re-banding of the 800 MHz band there will be no permanent licensing on the 800 MHz band. This means that Willacy will have to reapply every six months for an extension of their license.

The System should be functional by July 2010. According to a Willacy County Official “All Willacy County City Governments, Emergency Services, and Willacy County Agencies will operate on this system.” This will make The Willacy County system a really active system.
 

rgv_tech

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Willacy CO. Upgrade from VHF to 800 Mhz P25 Trunking

The change over has begun. Willacy County SO has begun to install the new 800MHz radios in their new units that they have purchased. and the rest of the 800MHz system will be completely implemented within the next three to four months. At least thats the word from a Willacy County Official.

The radios have capability for encryption installed . I hope that they do not use it.
 

Thunderbolt

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Willacy County's Project 25 TRS, is part of the "Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Radio Project" (LRGVRRP) that includes their county, along with two others. Would the Pharr/Edinburg P25 TRS, be part of this new multi-county trunking system?

In a letter to the FCC, Willacy County, described the area of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Radio Project, as being along the US-77 corridor. I would have to believe that this radio system will, in-time, cover Cameron County and the city of Brownsville?

Letter 1

Letter 2

Yours truly,

Ron
 
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rgv_tech

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Willacy CO. Upgrade from VHF to 800 Mhz P25 Trunking

At this time Willacy County is still using VHF. As to the construction of the new 800 MHz system, I could only guess that it is in progress at this time.
I know Frank Torres personnally. Maybe he could shed a little light on the matter. The next time I see him I'll inquire as to the status of the system. I hope to be able to read one of the radios soon, but I fear the new Motorola Astro radios may require an advance key,. If that is the case I will not be able to read any of the radios. The advance key is a device called an "I Button." It is a chip encased inside of a metal case that looks like a watch battery. This case is then installed into a device that looks like a pin drive and it plugs into the USB port. It's really, some cool technoligy.
 

al95

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At this time Willacy County is still using VHF. As to the construction of the new 800 MHz system, I could only guess that it is in progress at this time.
I know Frank Torres personnally. Maybe he could shed a little light on the matter. The next time I see him I'll inquire as to the status of the system. I hope to be able to read one of the radios soon, but I fear the new Motorola Astro radios may require an advance key,. If that is the case I will not be able to read any of the radios. The advance key is a device called an "I Button." It is a chip encased inside of a metal case that looks like a watch battery. This case is then installed into a device that looks like a pin drive and it plugs into the USB port. It's really, some cool technoligy.

Thanks for the update.
 

al95

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Raining All Week

We got hit by a hurricane Alex, now the flooding by Mexico release water to the Rio Grande River, and now we got hit again by TD #2. It has been raining almost everyday this week. I hope we get a break in the rain so we can dry off.
 

rgv_tech

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It has been raining almost everyday this week

We got hit by a hurricane Alex, now the flooding by Mexico release water to the Rio Grande River, and now we got hit again by TD #2. It has been raining almost everyday this week. I hope we get a break in the rain so we can dry off.

Hec, We are lucky that we did not get the amount of rain that Monteray, Mexico received. They have had a lot of destruction from excessive flooding.
 

fire1429

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hey im from willacy county and when they change will u be able to find out the new freq. and control channels...i have heard they are real close to switching over....:)
 

rgv_tech

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Willacy County Update

Willacy County Sheriffs Department Has been ready to switch over to the new system for a long time. The new system was suppose to be up six months ago but due to a few road blocks there is no telling how long it will be before the new system is in place. The programming is broken up into 3 zones. Zone 1 is for Willacy County Communications, Zone 2 is for Valley wide Communications and Zone 3 is for state and federal Communications.
The problem is that Zone 2 and Zone 3 operating frequencies have not been decided on. Until the officials for zone 2 and 3 decide what is what. Willacy Counties communications system will be sitting in limbo.

While the system is in limbo I would suggest that departements start working on getting grant money to pay for the new radios they will need.
 
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al95

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I heard this in City Police Station I was making an alarm permit payment. That they had to have the new radio frequencies by the year 2013. The thing that caught my year is that they might start building the system by this year it will be a p25 system, almost all of the radios the city have brought in the past are P25 complaint.
 

fire1429

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???

Would u happen to know what grants are out there for radios... or a web sight of some sort thank you.......Yes the pd and so office has bought efjohnson p25 vhf in the past but the only entity that was using that system is so office.
 

rgv_tech

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WCSO Communications system

***UPDATE*** The programming has been decided on and the rest of the uninstalled equipment will be installed and active within the next two months. Part of the system has already been installed in the WCSO. The system will be P25 trunking on 800MHz. As for the frequencies I'll have to get back to you on that.

As for the grants, you would need to find a good underwriter to handle the grants. I know someone with Harlingen PD that knows alot about that stuff. I'll see if I can pick his brains as soon as I can reach him. Normally he is working or fishing. So he is hard to get a hold of. Send me a phone number & name to vrc-repair@sbcglobal.net and I'll talk to you about it.

73's de N5SLI
 
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rgv_tech

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Actually, from what I have been told, Every department in Willacy will be operating on the new willacy County system. Also All departments in the valley will be able to communicate with each other at least Cameron, Willacy and Hidalgo Counties. I'm not too sure about Star County or any of the counties north of us.
 
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