Recently visited friends/family in Chesterfield. Majority of all the PD talkgroups are encrypted. I noticed some "announcement" talkgroups listed are listed in the DB in the clear. What kind of traffic is carried on these talkgroups?
Chesterfield County
- Thread starter 62Truck
- Start date
An Announcement tg is used by supervisors / safety officers to talk on / override conversations over multiple talk groups associated with it. Perhaps in this case it is in the clear to make sure everyone gets the message.
trainman111
Member
That's not the case with the Metro Richmond system. The "announcement" TG's are not programmed in any of our portable or mobile radios. That is the talkgroup the dispatcher uses to broadcast any high priority calls/requests for help which are patched to (typically) all of the other department talkgroups.
As you illustrate, an Announcement tg could also be used by a dispatcher, although they have access to a console. A field supervisor generally doesn’t have a console and needs a way to talk on multiple tgs in a simple way.
GB1439
Member
Probably similar to the sole unencrypted DC police channel, “citywide” which is used to hail the chopper and CSI units and to broadcast lookouts for major crimes. Unsure why they left it and why most other agencies, Chesterfield included, leave their comparable channels in the clear - my thoughts are either so outside agencies can monitor it or maybe so the media can get major crime info (agencies typically face backlash, not only from scanner enthusing, but also from the news media when they go dark).
Locally, ATGs are used for 2 purposes... The first being for emergency radio traffic, like high priority calls being toned out on Police, shots fired/MAYDAY, and MAYDAYs/Evacuations for Fire. They're also sometimes used to raise a unit if they're not answering on other channels.
ATGs function as a priority 1 channel in all subscriber radios regardless of what talkgroup the radio is parked on, so long as it's programmed with the ATG, it will receive all ATG traffic, even if the selected talkgroup is active.
Generally, in this region, ATGs are only available for transmit on dispatch consoles, and units cannot listen specifically to the ATG. It's usually not programmed as a normal talkgroup in subscriber equipment, as there's a designated field in the programming software for an ATG.
They're intentionally left in the clear so radios who's keys may not be up to date (for whatever reason) can hear the ATG traffic without issue.
ATGs function as a priority 1 channel in all subscriber radios regardless of what talkgroup the radio is parked on, so long as it's programmed with the ATG, it will receive all ATG traffic, even if the selected talkgroup is active.
Generally, in this region, ATGs are only available for transmit on dispatch consoles, and units cannot listen specifically to the ATG. It's usually not programmed as a normal talkgroup in subscriber equipment, as there's a designated field in the programming software for an ATG.
They're intentionally left in the clear so radios who's keys may not be up to date (for whatever reason) can hear the ATG traffic without issue.
