San Antonio News Media

[precoislen]

How are the different news affiliations keeping up with what SAPD and SAFD is doing on an day to day basis? Has the city issued permission to use or buy an radio capable of monitoring their activities, or are they relying on us as citizens to alert them as things happen.
See them on the news everyday at different scenes, the SWAT deal last night, MVA's, etc.....

 

[TXEMT]

you can buy a radio from dailey-wells for around 1500 dollars but with only patrol channels programmed in for city and county and i guess fire and ems also. And I assume the news media may have gotten a reduced rate.

 

[precoislen]

Daily Wells is selling those radios to the general public or just people that SA/ Bexar County allow to have that programming? Like the news media.

I'll just patiently wait for the day that they will become monitorable by scanner again. In previous posts it was mentioned that SAFD might go back to analog comms on that system, and I'd much rather listen to Fire/EMS anyway.

 

[TXEMT]

from what has been said in other post they sell them to the public I think with a backround check. But I think they made the cost so high that it will discourge most of the public from getting them. Kinda of sad since most of the people who monitor are hobbyist like us or other agencies.

 

[precoislen]

I'd like to see some more clarification on that before I buy into the program. For some of us, I hope you're right.
It could turn into an decent investment for those of us who would not abuse the privilege.

 

[haussling]

hello could someone obtain the phone number to daily wells. i have family moving to SA and i would very much like to have a radio to listen to the public safety while in SA. thanks earl

 

[precoislen]

210-893-6701 (sales)
210-893-6500

3440 E Houston Street
San Antonio, Texas

 

[TXEMT]

has anybody talked with dailey wells and found out what the policy is about the public getting a radio? I would see about getting one but don't have the money for that right now for that kind of investment.

 

[precoislen]

I'm waiting for an call back on that, but from what I was told it didn't seem likely that was allowed. We will see.

 

[William]

Thee media got a letter from SAPD telling them what they could buy and at what price.

The media then went and bought the radios (with the letter showing approval) from Dailey-Wells. The radios were then handed over to SAPD who then programmed them. If this was done by in house techs or if the radios were handed back to dailey-wells I am not sure.

But basically Dailey-Wells is not going to do anything without direct and clear SAPD instructions.

William

 

[precoislen]

Sounds decent enough for me, or at least what I would expect to hear from somebody at Dailey-Wells.
Appreciate your help clarifying that for us.

Now just waiting for SAFD to go analog :?: so that we can have something to listen to in SATX.

 

[mr_hankey]

Now just waiting for SAFD to go analog :?: so that we can have something to listen to in SATX.

hm, i guess you're not interested in the 1000 LTR Passport sites peppered throughout the county?

those are analog and monitorable with a scanner...

: )

 

[precoislen]

hmmmm.... I have some of them programmed in, but to be honest with you I get more entertainment out of listening to the Lackland AFB guys/gals then anybody.
You know how it goes when you have those few short hours in the evening time to listen anyway, as job, family, activities come first and then if there is time..... my hobbies.

Anyway, it's all good.....

 

[mr_hankey]

i understand...

things haven't quite been the same since the ProVoice migration, but i find that by listening to the MEDIA off the LTR Passport systems and some other conventional frequencies, you can learn alot about emergent situations (last week's robbery and hijacking at Heimer and 281 being an example - all the News Helo's were in the air)

 

[precoislen]

I hadn't looked at it from that angle, following the media's LTR comms. I will have to pay more attention to that in the near future, as time allows..... having been recently re-located to SATX, spend most of the time finding permanent housing in the evenings.......spare time tweaking what is worth listening to...............

Having a ProVoice system here just makes it worse... I'm not used to not hearing what is going on out in the world around me...... kinda miss the nostalgia of my volunteer FD/RS days.......

 

[precoislen]

By the way, is ESK still turned off on this system? I haven't heard anything on the contrary to say otherwise. I wouldn't know one way or the other because I haven't been here listening to this long enough to know if it was turned on........I have been hearing the normal Analog related Talk-groups on the Gold channel...but they don't sound like they are tracking correctly....

And when it is turned off has anybody tried monitoring it with an digital capable scanner.... ie..Pro-96, etc... with any luck.....

 

[blantonl]

ESK is still turned off -- that's how you are able to monitor those analog talkgroups.

None of the digital scanners will monitor the provoice..

 

[precoislen]

Thank you Lindsay... Be intrested to see how the system behaves when it is turned back on.... Know of any reason why ESK is turned off and how long it is expected to stay that way ?

 

[blantonl]

Well, to the end user the system behaves the same, however for scanner listeners, ESK completely disables any tracking that a trunktracker would be able to do on a normal EDACS system. Thus, even the analog tgs would be unmonitorable.

No one has any idea why ESK is off... maybe some problems with the back-end infrastructure, maybe policy, maybe they actually want the public to be able to monitor, who knows...

 

[martin454]

i understand...

things haven't quite been the same since the ProVoice migration, but i find that by listening to the MEDIA off the LTR Passport systems and some other conventional frequencies, you can learn alot about emergent situations (last week's robbery and hijacking at Heimer and 281 being an example - all the News Helo's were in the air)

Where would you find these MEDIA LTR passport system frequencies and what conventional frequencies are you talikng about that might be worth listening to?