Talkgroups Posted
The talkgroups that will be worth listening to via scanner have been posted.
As per HIPPA, listening via scanner is a incidental/accidental disclosure, as is the case if you're in Dunkin' Doughnuts standing beside Roscoe listening to his portable. It's not against HIPPA. You don't see 340, 205, Lifeflight Dispatch (UHF) encrypted. You also don't see every person with a portable with an ear piece in, while in public.
I agree that the hospital talkgroups should be encrypted, and even more police traffic, but encrypting fire tactical channels are a little dumb.
"What if" Captain John Doe assigned to engine 69, while involved in searching for Jane Doe and her baby inside a house fire, is involved in a floor collapse. He survives the fall, but his radio somehow went into Key Fail? Are the radios programmed to revert to a monitored, unencrypted talkgroup? Or, will he be out of communication? Something Local 140 should look at before they disperse these things out for fire department use.
Have any of the radios sustained a Key Fail yet? I'm very familiar with ADP in the ASTRO 25 series, and recently have had the experience to correct a radio with a key fail. No comms, whatsoever. Can the radios be shifted by dispatch to an unencrypted channel?
I'm all for encrypting police tactical OPS. Shoot, send that voice through the RC40, DES-OFB, then AES, but fire is a touchy issue. Those guys should be trained for what to do in that possible key fail moment.
I hope that anyone that has access to receiving UID should keep their thoughts or finds to themselves. Obviously the radio shop is monitoring this forum, and the more they gather you are finding out, the more will become unavailable to scanner listeners. I know its a free country and your freedom of speech, but some things are best left to your own personal use. That or PM your buddies about the cool stuff you have figured out about the system.
P25 signal quality: I'm not sure if all the towers have been outfitted, but I'm pretty sure that all the towers were getting a new antenna array for the new system. I think that they are green, or dark in color. I worked a side job basically under one the other day, and received the system well, but the quality degraded quite a bit as I gained more distance. To the folks that have problems receiving, try moving the scanner a few inches, or to another area of the room. Move to an area that is in or near a window. Move away from a canopy of trees. Get an outside antenna. I've received the system from long distances while mobile, and using a scanner.