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G5 / encryption audio

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fire1429

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My G5 monitors non encrypted channels but it happens quite often that the radio thinks it’s picking up encrypted voice audio so it sounds horrible. Has any one had this issue??? The pager has the new software installed.
 

troymail

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Depends -- I've seen two different types of things:

  • for my home system (not simulcast), particularly inside my house, occasionally the reception is poor and the radio "squeals" on voice calls

  • while on a recent trip, I was receiving voice calls for a distant system and at times (weak reception I assume), the voice call sounded exactly like a talkgroup that was encrypted (but it was not)
FWIW - the latest (pre-Phase 2) firmware does have early code to try to detect encryption (you may see it detected and shown on the display as a "shield"). From what I understand, Unication intends to try to suppress encryption voice calls in a future release.

For the second item above ("recent trip"), the call sounded like encryption but was not and did not show the shield so that would still come through even if they do suppress true encrypted voice calls.
 
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fire1429

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I am monitoring the Lower Rio Grande Valley Regional Radio system .. yes when it happens the shield shows up on the screen of the pager.
 

JD21960

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Yes. It's irritating getting encryption noise on talk-groups you know aren't encrypted. This started happening 2 firmware updates ago. 1st firmware I had was great, except for (blue-tooth) noise/garbled tube sounds. Next two fixed THAT Btooth, but introduced loud shrill digital bursts at times and phantom encryption on talk-groups that normally aren't. Still head and shoulders above my toy scanners though.
 
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fire1429

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Yes a little annoying when you know the channel is not encrypted but I do love my g5 I’m lost with out it....
 

IAmSixNine

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If you know for sure its not an encrypted talk group, but your seeing encrypted traffic, it maybe traffic passing from the previous TG frequency on the same frequency but different TG.
Ive had that happen a couple times as well.
Lets say FD dispatch stops talking and the pager hangs on the frequency and the system assigns PD which is encrypted it will pass the audio because the pager is still on the frequency even though the TG you have listed to listen to is no longer transmitting.

Its been mentioned a couple of times in the forums. Happens on busy systems. Rare but it does happen.
 

KN4C

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Do you have an option for how the G5 handles encryption? Used to be raw data with no option to silence it.
 

troymail

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Do you have an option for how the G5 handles encryption? Used to be raw data with no option to silence it.

I believe Unication started down the past to address this in a f/w version over the last 6 or so months. However, at this point, the only option is to not program a full time encrypted talkgroup. Of course, that doesn't help for partially encrypted talkgroups (or the wildcard/TG-Monitor function).

Hopefully, the engineers are still working on a solution....my guess, like with many other things, given the true purpose of the Gx devices, the encryption issue isn't high on the priority list.
 

KN4C

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Thanks troymail. I have two partially encrypted agencies and it's next to impossible to monitor them with a G4/G5.
 

KR7CQ

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Yes, I have that issue, but much less often these days with the P2 device. It's very clearly been an issue in the past though. Non-encrypted TX's can come in sounding very clearly, encrypted. It's odd, it's annoying, but tolerable given the fact that these affordable devices do what nothing else can do for the same money. I do wish they would fix the issue though.
 

PVPD730

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Most users on our local system can toggle their encryption on/off at will. I have a G4 and G5 (both non Phase II), and it can be annoying at times. Hopefully Unication makes good on their promise to add some sort of mute feature to deal with the issue.
 

rvacs

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I know....this...garbled mangled voices.

Our Williamson County in Texas uses an encryption that is like that.
Sure wish they used standard AES then you would not hear that....
 

troymail

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Hopefully Unication makes good on their promise to add some sort of mute feature to deal with the issue.

Maybe I missed it but I don't recall Unication making that promise - but I do think they were trying to develop a solution - the first step being the displaying of the shield icon when an encrypted voice call is received...
 

boatbod

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There are ways to relatively easily mute encrypted traffic by watching the ESS AlgId field of the P25 in-call signaling. Anything other than 0x80 is encrypted and should be silenced.
 
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There are ways to relatively easily mute encrypted traffic by watching the ESS AlgId field of the P25 in-call signaling. Anything other than 0x80 is encrypted and should be silenced.

i don't under stand your post lol i also HATE the noise of Encrypted NOISE on my G5 their always ONE radio ID who has it on 24\7 and the others are in the clear...
 

scan18

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i don't under stand your post lol i also HATE the noise of Encrypted NOISE on my G5 their always ONE radio ID who has it on 24\7 and the others are in the clear...



The post was not for the average user, he’s basically just saying it is something the engineers should be able to do.
 

boatbod

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The post was not for the average user, he’s basically just saying it is something the engineers should be able to do.
Correct,I did not mean to imply there was anything a G4/G5 user could do to improve the situation other than not including encrypted tgids.
 
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