The word "ignores" is incorrect for Whistler scanners. It actually "masks" if you chose to "mute" over encryption or use the busy signal "tone". But the scanner will stop scanning on encryption when it's encountered. This is not always desirable.
Uniden does actually "ignore" P25 Phase 1 encryption, as well as Provoice encryption. You may get a quick blurb at the very beginning, but it will scan off to other monitorable channels instead of getting hung up (on these modes). However, my limited testing on P25 phase 2 and DMR did NOT ignore or mute encryption at all, and it should have been addressed in the firmware. Someone at Uniden didn't think to incorporate the same features for all modes. Boo! Hiss!
I see the value of having it ignore and continue scanning, as well as stop with busy signal tone and record all the data like UID, TG, NAC, CC, etc. Ideally, I would like this "stay or skip" feature to be selectable...but neither company gives you that choice (It would be cool to have a dedicated button with a circle and slash through it for this quick selection function. Short press temporarily skips encryption on the active channel, and long press toggles a global skip selection. While you're at it, put the circle whith slash icon on the display. Copyright issue? Easy! Reverse the direction of the slash.
). So I use Whistler scanners for searching (or scan-searching, where I have large lists of multiple band channels I keep checking for greater search control and identification name tags), and Uniden scanners for listening to cover both desirable conditions. Most of what I listen to is encrypted or really mixed/selectable. Many times they go clear. I want to hear what is clear, but don't want my scanner getting hung up on channels that are heavily encrypted. I would never hear anything else if it didn't pass over encryption. But Uniden needs to finish the job of skipping encryption on Phase 2 and DMR...and maybe some day NXDN, which looks like they may not have even started that job at all.
I have been extremely hesitant to suggest to Whistler the "skip encryption" idea. I'm afraid they would NOT understand the need for full control selection and mess up a good thing going for their scanners...data collection on either encrypted or clear traffic. I need that data! Uniden gives you no data on encrypted channels or encrypted search hits (Boo! Hiss!), but at least you can scan over encryption on P25 Phase 1. If Whistler ever did start "skipping" encryption, without full user selection control, I'd have to roll back to whatever version firmware that didn't have that feature to keep my data mining operation going. That would suck, as I wouldn't get any of the advantages on future updates. SO, if they did think about adding that feature, I would hope they fully understood the need for user control...for BOTH searching and scanning. As long as they did that, it would be a great improvement. But as it stands now, I can't use a Whistler scanner for "listening" to my favorite agencies. It wouldn't hear much clear traffic getting hung up on all the encrypted traffic.
Phil