Barber County just went digital?

OK... So all of Barber county sheriff traffic just went digital on Sat at approx 1 AM. No info on ULS or on here.
They are still using 460.100 but i dont know a thing about digital so i dont know if the sounds im hearing are voice encryption ( its Not voice inversion tho) or just digital P25. Cant get ANY info from ANYONE including the county commissioners or the sheriffs dept. What to do now????

If they went digital and you only have an analog scanner I don't think you would be hear anything at all.

This is an example of encryption.
YouTube - Listening to Encrypted Police Frequency on a Radio Shack PRO 197 Digital Trunk Tracking Scanner

jasonkw said:

If they went digital and you only have an analog scanner I don't think you would be hear anything at all.

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Exactly, If they went digital you would be hearing nothing at all. Johnson County Fire and EMS just switched to digital this morning. The old analog frequencies are silent now. Your analog scanner has no ability to even try to decode the digital signal.

Somewhat similar to the Digital TV switch last year. Hook that old analog tv up to a tv antenna and you will not receive anything without a Digital converter box. If only there were an affordable converter box for scanners.

While its correct that you won't be hearing any voice, you will still hear a signal and see the signal strength on your display when they are talking in digital.

If they went to P25 your going to hear the nice static and motorboating of the digital signal, provided of course you don't have your scanner set for PL decode, since it would never hear the PL and would never unsquelch. Try listening to their frequency for a while with carrier squelch and watch the display for a signal strength indication when receiving, not to mention you will hear the data.

Hmmm. hope they didnt switch to Mototrbo...

To the OP: If your scanner can hear the 800 MHZ band, try tuning it to 866.5500MHZ following the instructions in the post above. This is the control channel of the Sharon KSICS P25 digital tower in NE Barber Co. Assuming you can get a signal, you should hear a motorboarding sound similiar to what is described above.

darn it

kb0nly said:

While its correct that you won't be hearing any voice, you will still hear a signal and see the signal strength on your display when they are talking in digital.

If they went to P25 your going to hear the nice static and motorboating of the digital signal, provided of course you don't have your scanner set for PL decode, since it would never hear the PL and would never unsquelch. Try listening to their frequency for a while with carrier squelch and watch the display for a signal strength indication when receiving, not to mention you will hear the data.

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Well an update... They DID goto MOTOTRBO.... I checked a couple of web sites to listen to a couple of .wav files of the sound and its MOTOTRBO. Now what? I did find out that they however are Not encrypting So the question is, how the heck can i monitor the signal? Can somebody point me the right way ? Is there a software solution to monitoring the MOTOTRBO feed? Can I just buy a MOTOTRBO radio and listen?

HELP!

Thanks!

Here is info about mototrbo:
MOTOTRBO - The RadioReference Wiki

I went through Medicine Lodge today and I heard what the OP heard. I compared to the sample linked on the MOTOTRBO wiki. I agree that is MOTOTRBO. I was using a PRO106

According to the wiki, there is open source software that can decode it.

hey guys i have a friend that program scanner and any inside would be helpful on this issue?

There is no scanner that can decode MOTOTRBO by itself. Check the wiki link above for more info.

Barber County

Seems they had to many problems with the digital transition and reverted back in August.

Well now, the transition must have all the bugs out, as ML, Kiowa and County Law seems to have accomplished going back to digital sometime just in the last week or so....Everything went deadly quiet.

Any suggestions as to equipment requirements to pick this up?

Flatridge said:

Seems they had to many problems with the digital transition and reverted back in August.

Well now, the transition must have all the bugs out, as ML, Kiowa and County Law seems to have accomplished going back to digital sometime just in the last week or so....Everything went deadly quiet.

Any suggestions as to equipment requirements to pick this up?

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Im working on it...

anything new?

Flatridge said:

anything new?

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I have the DSD program running... however, im still having decoding issues...but im plugging away at this and i WILL get the MOTO signal decoded sooner or later...with barber countys traffic being slow at best, its hard to tweak when you have to be at the keyboard all day waiting for traffic on the freq. I NEED a more powerfull computer for the decoding software to work im afraid tho... anyone care to donate one?

Is it really possible to distinguish Mototurbo from P25 just listening with an analog radio? Listening to the Fed. Reserve in KC using Mototurbo, I haven't found this to be the case. Each transmission is a longish hiss (the voice conversation) ended with the "brrrrrrraaaaaap" that is being described as "motorboating". Try Barber using a P25 scanner. I'd be surprised if any KS county went Mototurbo. It's not compatible with ANYthing else and would be hopeless for interoperability. I'd certainly hope that no federal funds would be made available for Mototurbo in a P25 state.

Bob, WoNXN

I have heard the sounds when I have been in Barber County. It does like mototrbo to me, at least when I compare it to samples found in the wiki.

My PRO106 is not detecting it as P25.

rankin39 said:

Is it really possible to distinguish Mototurbo from P25 just listening with an analog radio? Listening to the Fed. Reserve in KC using Mototurbo, I haven't found this to be the case. Each transmission is a longish hiss (the voice conversation) ended with the "brrrrrrraaaaaap" that is being described as "motorboating". Try Barber using a P25 scanner. I'd be surprised if any KS county went Mototurbo. It's not compatible with ANYthing else and would be hopeless for interoperability. I'd certainly hope that no federal funds would be made available for Mototurbo in a P25 state.

Bob, WoNXN

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Hi Bob,

YEP! We are THE only county in ALL of Kansas that is Not P25. How the hell the county commissioners let the sheriff do what he is doing , well, ..... is BEYOND me. There ARE federal funds available to the county to goto the P25 system and there is a P25 tower dam near in the dead center of Barber county ( Sharon, Ks.) that has KHP, KDOT etc, etc, already on it. Anyway (sigh) It is a MOTOTRBO signal because i AM decoding it successfully with the DSD software but im only getting about 40% voice decoded. My computer isnt fast enuff to decode it properly. Tommy (our sheriff) HATES that people are listening to the sheriffs coms... and he is doing whatever it takes to make it Most difficult for people to listen in. BUT.... I WILL fix that and add the decoded sig to my live feed here as soon as i get a cotton pickin puter FAST nuff to do it with. SOMEBODY send me a faster box PLEASE!

Doc
KB5MDH

drbecker said:

Tommy (our sheriff) HATES that people are listening to the sheriffs coms... and he is doing whatever it takes to make it Most difficult for people to listen in. BUT.... I WILL fix that and add the decoded sig to my live feed here as soon as i get a cotton pickin puter FAST nuff to do it with. SOMEBODY send me a faster box PLEASE!

Doc
KB5MDH

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Thank you for contributing to an encrypted world. If what you say is truthful, you are holding a nail in one hand, and a hammer in the other. Maybe do yourself, your community and the radio community in general a favor and not piss off the sheriff just because you can.

Pissing off the sheriff

JoeyC said:

Thank you for contributing to an encrypted world. If what you say is truthful, you are holding a nail in one hand, and a hammer in the other. Maybe do yourself, your community and the radio community in general a favor and not piss off the sheriff just because you can.

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Your welcome!

As I have said many times before in this and other forums, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" Law enforcement (or any other government activity) that must be conducted under the cloak of secrecy is not what our country was founded on or can continue with. I say this after 30+ years of government and law enforcement experience. The need hide the day to day operations of such a busy and politically sensative area as Barber County Kansas must be a very pressing matter. After all, the average 12 thefts, 4 assaults, 2 stolen cars, and 10 burglaries per year do present a serious threat to the national security. When an agency like this deliberately tries to hide what they are doing from the public, then I feel it is my duty as a citizen to discover what they are doing that they don't want people to know about, and why are they doing it at all if it must be so secret. I try to make as much noise about it as I possibly can so as to draw attention to the fact that some government official feels the need to hide the day to day activities of his agency or department under a cloak of encryption. If this pisses the Sheriff off, then I am sorry, but the voters will be letting him know if they agree with him or not shortly.

That being said, does law enforcement (and government in general) need to hide they're activities with encryption? Yes, but only where absolutely needed, and not as the norm. Do we as citizens have the right to know what our government officials are doing? An absolute YES. Do we have the NEED to know? Not always and not under every situation. Encryption is needed in law enforcement. Full time encryption should be saved for the times it is really needed and important. Barber County Kansas encrypting all of their activities under encryption is not one of the times.