San Antonio Airlife P25

[blantonl]

Today I noticed airlife comms on 151.850 (the database has this as their San Antonio backup freq) using unencrypted P25.

Are they eliminating encryption on their freqs now? Previously they were totally encrypted on 159.9525

 

[blantonl]

I can also confirm that 159.9525 is also now unencrypted.

 

[Scottm467]

SA AirLIFE

Worked there a couple of years ago and at that time were talking about taking the encryption off. They also handle all EMS helicopter traffic into San Antonio hospitals.That is done on 155.340 and they go by "Flight Com". Also, 123.025 is good to monitor for heli to heli traffic. Hope this helps some.

 

[scrotumola]

STRAC had voiced concern that the use of encryption was or would cause problems and had requested that Airlife end the practice. Evidently they complied with the request.

Note that Flight Comm is transmitting 159.9525 NAC-273 , while the aircraft are transmitting another-360.

They are also using 152.3225 DMR DCC:10 with RAS TG 6 RID 1000 (dispatch) and 202 for Airlife 2

Also in use are
155.340 pl 156.7 NFM
159.885 pl 203.5 NFM backup

They are also licensed on 151.xxx P25 for the NE quadrant and New Braunfels/Seguin.

~S~

 

[K5MPH]

STRAC had voiced concern that the use of encryption was or would cause problems and had requested that Airlife end the practice. Evidently they complied with the request.

Note that Flight Comm is transmitting 159.9525 NAC-273 , while the aircraft are transmitting another-360.

They are also using 152.3225 DMR DCC:10 with RAS TG 6 RID 1000 (dispatch) and 202 for Airlife 2

Also in use are
155.340 pl 156.7 NFM
159.885 pl 203.5 NFM backup

They are also licensed on 151.xxx P25 for the NE quadrant and New Braunfels/Seguin.

~S~

Thanks for the info will program into scanner.....

 

[NC5267]

151.520 P25 NAC 264 Comes in decent on the far NE side. Also have heard Airlife using the 155.340 VMED28 for LZ coordination with agencies outside of Bexar County. Kendall County, Guadalupe etc...

 

[blantonl]

What is the difference in usage between the P25 operations and the DMR? Seems strange they would install DMR and P25 equipment in the helos.

 

[scrotumola]

DMR seems to be their primary channel. About 40% of their ops are simulcast onto other channels, but the motherload appears here. I can only assume they hid out here thinking no one could scan them (sounds like pro-voice logic) but we know better.

 

[mostar]

Airlife was recently (within the last few months) purchased by AirMethods. This may be the reason for the changes y'all are noticing. Or it may not...I really don't know. But the timing would suggest that there may be a correlation. Some of the people who were responsible for the TRBO /crypto/etc are probably no longer in the picture.

 

[scrotumola]

The aircraft have *always* been owned by AirMethods. Baptist Health System was the original sponsor and then went into a partnership with the University Hospital System. The whole time, AirMethods was responsible for the actual airships and their maintenance.

 

[NC5267]

Recently saw two Airlife guys dropping a patient off at a hospital and both were carrying an APX 7000 from what I could see. So maybe they are using the VHF P25 more now than the DMR as primary ops.

 

[blantonl]

New Airlife System (DMR/P25 patched)

I think I've gotten Airlife's new system all figured out.

Medevac Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

It appears that they have a P25 and DMR repeater located at:

University Hospital in San Antonio
Methodist Stone Oak in San Antonio
Seguin
Kerrville
Uvalde

From what I can see most operations are simulcasted at each location between the DMR/P25 sites. Since most of the airlife birds are staged out of University Hospital, my guess is that is why that is the most "active" site among all the networks.

I still need to figure out the NACs for the P25 sites, but the DMR CC/TG/Slot details are the same across the board.

 

[Scottm467]

San Antonio Airlife

Sir, maybe you could put it on your live feed for SAFD. Maybe make feed stereo and one side AirLife.

 

[K9ROD]

DMR & P25

The answer to this question is quite simple. They have to be able to communicate with all of the fir and police departments in their area. Gonzales County is on DMR, most other are P25 with a lot of that VHF. I use to land Life Flight for a Fire Department in the area. They would come on either our channel of a Tac channel for all of the landing information.

 

[KG5HHS]

Sorry to bring up such an old thread, I just didn’t think I should start a new one, I took a trip to San Antonio and took my BCD436HP with me. I wasn’t able to hear very well on it but got amazing audio quality from the “San Antonio Airlife and STRAC Medcom” broadcastify feed (I will definitely be listening to this back home). I’ve never really scanned here in San Antonio so I’m compeltely unfamiliar how things are done here. From what it sounds like, is medcom using VMED29 to better coordinate EMS helos in the area?
Also, I programmed in all of the Analog, P25 & DMR frequencies listed for San Antonio on the Texas Medevac page, but I wasn’t able to hear them dispatching or flight following. Are their comms encrypted? I also programmed in VMED28 but heard nothing. Any information on the EMS helo process and additional frequencies (other than Helo Air2Air) would be appreciated as I will be making more trips here in the future.

 

[Dark_Side]

The page out on 159.9525 p25 is tones only

Page out in full 152.3225 DMR