Traveling thru Texas

[vacrx]

I'll be driving to Texas from Virginia, I'm trying to figure out which frequencies I'll need for the State Police/Highway Patrol. I'll be coming in from Texarkana, staying in Ft. Worth for a few days before making my way down to Waco. Are the frequencies listed under the DPS category for the state police? Should I enter all the common frequencies and then the ones from regions 1 and 6? Thanks.

 

[rattlerbb01]

You won't pass through any area that has any of the non-standard repeater frequencies, such as west Texas. So program the following frequencies, and you shouldn't miss a thing as far as highway patrol goes, since none of that area is digital yet:

Base A1: 155.460 (162.2)
Base B1: 155.445 (162.2)
Mobile A1: 154.680 (162.2)
Mobile B1: 154.695 (162.2)
Repeaters: 159.210 (tones vary transmitter to transmitter)

Also, the Decatur repeater, just west of FW is 156.2175 DIGITAL.
The Tollways are on two different repeaters in the Dallas area, and they are:
155.445 (107.2)
157.350 (162.2)

And most police in Texas using VHF high band still use "car-to-car" 154.950, and DPS will transmit "attempt to locate" on 155.370, which police still call "intercity"

The other DPS frequencies, 155.505/155.5125 and 159.090/159.0975 are for investigative units, and will be encrypted quite often.

 

[mfn002]

The other DPS frequencies, 155.505/155.5125 and 159.090/159.0975 are for investigative units, and will be encrypted quite often.

Not around here! You can hear the narc units tailing suspects around town on 155.505. I don't listen to it much (they don't do it very often), but it is kinda neat when you hear it. College Station has its own narc units that operate unencrypted on the CS TRS, and do the same thing.

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

Traveling Thru Texas

What part of Virginia are you from? I'm from Norfolk...

 

[vacrx]

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it, I"ll program those in. RESCUE4NFD, I live in Winchester, very top part of Virginia. I did spend a week close to where you're from this past summer, in Va Beach.

 

[Linn]

You may want to program the Sheriff's Office frequencies for the counties you will be in. In counties where the SO's are VHF DPS tends to be active on their channels.

Linn
www.texascop.blogspot.com

 

[skipgoulet]

If you come thru the Midland/Odessa area, Midland's "common frequency" is 155.61 and is non-digital. Their main channel around 158 mhz is digital. Odessa (Ector Co.) is non-digital on 155.70 and 158.73. Quite a bit of traffic to be heard here in West Texas.

In Ector Co, the volunteer firemen can be heard on 154.145. Their dispatch freq. is 154.40.
Midland Co. volunteers operate on 154.37.

 

[mfn002]

An important thing to note is that lately a lot of DPS stations have been converted to P25. In the past few months, both DPS Houston and DPS Conroe have switched to digital. I don't know how many others are planning to switch this year, but DPS Conroe just switched over on the 12th. DPS Houston switched over last December. It appears that the process has gained quite a lot of momentum, and more may be switching over in the next few months (again, I don't really know who).

If you are travelling through Waco, you should be able to pick up DPS Waco (KKC523) on 155.460 (PL162.2), as well as DPS Austin (KKD303), also on 155.460. If you're lucky, you can even pick up DPS Bryan (KKV232) on 155.460. Note the callsigns. These are important when listening to DPS, for example (base side only)

Bryan, 6519...
6519, 10-4, KKV232.

DPS uses a duplex system, so unless you're really close, you won't pick up the unit traffic (on 154.680). All you'll hear will be what was stated above in the example.
There is an excpetion, though. Some stations have a repeater on 159.210 (PL varies with station), where you can hear all of the traffic. I believe that DPS Waco has their base freq (155.460) repeaterized, so you can hear both ends of the conversation.