Troup County GA

[TroupWeather]

I hope I'm not posting this on the wrong place, but I am needing information on picking up Ty Troup County Sheriff's Department. I've tried everything! Any suggestions? When Trunking 42608, I only hear Motorola noise. Thank you in advance!

 

[TroupWeather]

Oh, almost all. I'm using a Radio Shack PRO 163 Triple Trunking Scanner. I've updated Firmware & downloaded from the Software (configuration) with no luck. I thought it was because the site said (D) beside Sheriff talk group but I can pick up Harris County just fine
. Just not Troup Sheriff

 

[shadcall]

You will not be able to listen to anything marked with a D in the mode column. The D stands for digital and the Pro 163 is an analog only scanner. That is why you can pick up Harris County fire but you will not be able to listen to Harris County Sheriff's Dept. You will need a Pro 106 (handheld) or Pro 197 (desktop) to hear the digital signals. Also talkgroup 42608 is digital which is why you cannot hear them.

 

[TroupWeather]

Reply

That's the weird thing. I can hear the Harris County Sheriff with no problems & it's marked D as well. It also displays their tgid & I have no interrupting in the broadcasts. Confusing

 

[TroupWeather]

5136 141 D HCSO Disp Sheriff Dispatch <Hear with no problem.
I can pickup the above but not the below. I am however thinking it's just a typo that HSCO is Digital. Can't figure out any other explination..

Cannot Hear anything except Motorola Control Noise on these...
DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
42576 a65 D TCSO Events Sheriff Events Law Talk
42608 a67 D TCSO Disp Sheriff Dispatch Law Dispatch
42640 a69 D TCSO CID Sheriff CID Law Dispatch
42736 a6f D TCSO Narc Sheriff Narcotics Law Tac
42832 a75 D TCSO TAC Sheriff TAC Law Tac
43024 a81 D TCSO Chains Jail Work Camp Trucks

 

[shadcall]

Since you can pick up Harris County Sheriff, that would suggest that although the database says it is digital, it is probably analog. Some places operate some talkgroups on analog and others on digital. That might be what is happening there.

 

[TroupWeather]

Analog APC25

Since you can pick up Harris County Sheriff, that would suggest that although the database says it is digital, it is probably analog. Some places operate some talkgroups on analog and others on digital. That might be what is happening there.

It says it Analog APC-25 , but now it makes sense what you said - It has to be what is happening. Thanks a lot!

Muscogee Regional Communications System

 

[Julian1]

Troup County Sheriff - P25 Digital / Harris Co Analog

If you have a scanner capable of receiving APCO P-25 digital voice you can hear all of the digital talk groups.

Harris County Sheriff is analog.

The Muscogee system is a "mixed mode" system. Both analog and digital voice are accommodated.

No encrypted on our system.

Merry Christmas!
Julian

 

[TroupWeather]

12-26-13

Thanks for the reply Julian. Yeah, I have a Radioshack Pro 163. All I can hear using Control C 856.68750, etc in mo (trunking) when I key in 42608 (tcso disp) is motorola noise. However I did find something interesting, scanning the whole spectrum in my range on this scanner, in the 791.987500 freq, I heard some fire/ems dispatching. LoL! I got no problems with LPD, LFD, 911, amr, etc etc.. only T.C.S.O. - Merry Christmas, I do appreciate everything guys

 

[RobertsRadio]

Troup County to change radio systems?

If you currently monitor Troup County Sheriff's Office, Troup County Fire and EMS you may want to rethink spending any money for a P25 Phase 2 scanner because I understand these agencies are making preparations to switch to a UHF TETRA System in the near future instead of P25 Phase 2.

 

[wise871]

If you currently monitor Troup County Sheriff's Office, Troup County Fire and EMS you may want to rethink spending any money for a P25 Phase 2 scanner because I understand these agencies are making preparations to switch to a UHF TETRA System in the near future instead of P25 Phase 2.

Thats going to suck. I listen to them every time I drive up to Atlanta. Isn't TETRA more used overseas. Who planted that bug into there brains.

 

[TroupWeather]

Thanks!

If you currently monitor Troup County Sheriff's Office, Troup County Fire and EMS you may want to rethink spending any money for a P25 Phase 2 scanner because I understand these agencies are making preparations to switch to a UHF TETRA System in the near future instead of P25 Phase 2.

Glad you told me that RobertsRadio. I was either going to buy one or build one lol! We'll say the build one part was false. =P I have no idea what UHG TETRA is, but by the sounds of it, it's not good lol

 

[RobertsRadio]

Troup County to change radio systems ? (correction)

Oops, I made a mistake. It is Harris County Sheriff's Office, Harris County Fire and EMS that are considering the switch to UHF TETRA. If Harris County decides to switch to TETRA it will be the same TETRA System that Troup County EMC will be on. I understand Harris County is considering TETRA because it is much less expensive to purchase and maintain than P25 Phase 2 System that Columbus-Muscogee County is upgrading to. The UHF TETRA System that Troup County EMC is switching to will be a regional type system cover four counties (Troup, Harris, Meriwether and Talbot, I think, but could be wrong). At this point, I do not know what the Troup County Sheriff's Office, Troup County Fire, EMS and other public safety type agencies are planning to do. Don't be surprised if you see some of the other public safety agencies in and around Harris County switch to TETRA as well, especially if Harris County does switch and is impressed by the performance and capabilities (4 to 1 split on voice and data per frequency in the system). I apologize for getting the two counties confused in my original post.

 

[TroupWeather]

Thanks a lot!

Oops, I made a mistake. It is Harris County Sheriff's Office, Harris County Fire and EMS that are considering the switch to UHF TETRA. If Harris County decides to switch to TETRA it will be the same TETRA System that Troup County EMC will be on. I understand Harris County is considering TETRA because it is much less expensive to purchase and maintain than P25 Phase 2 System that Columbus-Muscogee County is upgrading to. The UHF TETRA System that Troup County EMC is switching to will be a regional type system cover four counties (Troup, Harris, Meriwether and Talbot, I think, but could be wrong). At this point, I do not know what the Troup County Sheriff's Office, Troup County Fire, EMS and other public safety type agencies are planning to do. Don't be surprised if you see some of the other public safety agencies in and around Harris County switch to TETRA as well, especially if Harris County does switch and is impressed by the performance and capabilities (4 to 1 split on voice and data per frequency in the system). I apologize for getting the two counties confused in my original post.

Yeah, they are in the same trunking group in Harris, & I do know I can hear them on my Pro-163 with no problems. They did have it marked 'digital' a month or 2 ago, but I submitted change to analog. How incredibly dumb/illegal is it to add a discriminator ? If Digital scanners can pick it up, is it illegal to make your Analog scanner pick it up with decoding software? This I wonder.. Hmm

 

[TroupWeather]

I only read about this "discriminator" thing, so if it's not legal, I'll pass. lol

 

[brian]

There is nothing illegal about a discriminator tap. I'm not sure what gave you that idea.

It is a modification to your radio, so you'll certainly void any warranty it may have. And if you're not comfortable with soldering inside the radio, you have the potential to damage the radio.

It's true that a discriminator tap can allow you to decode certain signals that are probably illegal by the letter of the law (like paging transmissions), but you have to make a pretty significant effort at it to be successful and it's not likely you'll be discovered unless you post decoded messages online. Even then, any legal action against you is unlikely.

A new digital decoding package was just released this week - DSDPlus - and is getting great reviews on the forum. It's easier now than ever to decode DMR, NXDN, P25 and Provoice with a computer and radio with discriminator tap.

As an alternative, consider purchasing a $15 USB TV tuner dongle for this purpose, which eliminates the requirement for adding a discriminator tap to your radio.

PS - Way to go Harris County for being concerned about interoperability. UHF TETRA? Seriously? With Columbus and WARRS nearby?

 

[SCPD]

PS - Way to go Harris County for being concerned about interoperability. UHF TETRA? Seriously? With Columbus and WARRS nearby?

I don't understand why so many people think the only means of achieving interoperability is for every public safety agency in every county, every state and across our nation to be using the same type of technology (i.e., P25) and operating in the same frequency band (i.e., 800 MHz). Interoperability today is not rocket science with all of the various methods and technologies we have available to make the radios operating in the various frequency bands and varying technologies communicate with each other. Here in Georgia we have the Georgia Interoperability Network (a Statewide Motobridge System that resides in every County owned and operated 9-1-1 Center in our State, plus in other key locations), a large number of Raytheon/JPS ACU-1000 interoperability switches mounted in Mobile Communications Vehicles (MCVs) and even some mounted in fixed locations like 9-1-1 Centers and EOCs, command vehicles equipped with the ICRI (Incident Commanders Radio Interface) by C-AT, the IOpt CommTac-2 by Trident Micro Systems and cross band repeaters, so I think we have interoperability covered very well in our State.

People need to realize that each city and county must take care of providing the best and most affordable two-way radio communications solution within their jurisdiction first and everything else must be taken care of afterwards. Facts:

1. Every city and or county cannot afford P25 (both upfront costs and annual reoccurring maintenance costs).
2. Every city and or county does not need P25 to achieve interoperability;
3. Every city and or county doesn't need to pay for all of the features and functions of an expensive P25 trunked radio system when all they use their radios for is to conduct standard push-to-talk capabilities to coordinate and deliver public safety services;
4. Every city and or county does not need to pay for a system that gives them 10 to 15 times or more the coverage than they need on an average day (Example: a city that covers 10 square miles does not need to pay for 500 square miles of coverage). Many city, college and university police departments are coerced into splitting the annual maintenance costs of a countywide system, and some even a regional system, which puts these smaller agencies in the position of paying for way more than they need or will ever use.

Agencies need to step back and take a hard look at how often interoperability is needed or used on weekly, monthly and annual basis then look at all of the options that can provide interoperability and compare costs. Example: a city fire department on average needs to communicate with the county fire department via two-way radio about once a month, so what it the best and most economical way to achieve this? Is it more economical for the city fire department to remain on their VHF analog conventional system and purchase an 800 MHz P25 mobile radio on the county's radio system and a cross band repeater interface kit for every fire engine in their fleet to allow the Lieutenant or Captain on the engine to enable interoperability between city fire personnel and county fire personnel at the same incident scene or would it be more economical for the city fire department to purchase an 800 MHz P25 mobile radio and four 800 MHz P25 portable radios per fire apparatus, plus pay for the maintenance on the entire fleet of 800 MHz P25 radios and pay the county an annual fee per radio to be on the county's 800 MHz System? This same comparison could be used even in cases where an agency is looking at a VHF or UHF digital system such as MotoTRBO, NEXEDGE, TETRA, etc., so you can see there are many more things for an agency to consider other than just picking which radio looks the best.

I have been employed in the public safety communications profession for more than 33 years working in large, medium and small agencies in both full time and part-time positions and I have learned budgets and technologies are always a major challenge regardless of the size of the agency I worked for. I have learned there is usually more than one way to achieve a goal, but the problem is most agencies have tunnel vision and simply refuse to look at other options or feel they don't have the time to do any type of comparison. Many agencies are pressured into making a decision by both a vendor and one or more adjacent jurisdictions without being able to consider other options. This is unfortunate, but is the truth.