P25 Phase 2

[RED61]

I live in British Columbia, Canada. Our emergency services have/will be switching over to the P25 Phase 2 system. Is there any (portable) radio out there that can successfully receive the various fire departments from Whistler to Chilliwack that uses the P25 Phase 2 radio system?

Thanks

 

[UPMan]

As long as the channels are not encrypted, any current-production digital scanner from Uniden will work:

• BCD436HP
• BCD536HP
• BCD325P2
• BCD996P2
• HomePatrol-2

 

[RED61]

How can I find out if the frequencies I want to listen to are or will be encrypted?
Thanks

 

[troymail]

How can I find out if the frequencies I want to listen to are or will be encrypted?
Thanks

Use the search functions on your scanner to find control channel(s) frequencies and/or wait for others to find them and post/submit them to the RRDB / library.

You might be able to do some Google searches to learn about encryption possibilities but probably not. Beyond that, you won't know until it happens.

Just a warning - Uniden attempts (as much as possible) to "hide" encrypted talkgroups from scanner users... that is, under many conditions, even if you have the system/control channel(s) programmed, you won't even know that encryption is in use unless you look very closely and know what to look for.

If the system turns out to be fully Phase 2 (actually using Phase 2 mode/TDMA for it's talkgroups), I believe you will be able to detect encryption in use with the Uniden - but it will only sound like gibberish.

 

[goodmore]

Encryption on my TRX sounds like the busy signal on a phone. My County police went encrypted but the main dispatch channels still have traffic. I had to kill the wildcards because they were nothing but encrypted and we're driving me crazy. Look on the database. A capital E next to a the talk group means Encryption.

 

[troymail]

I had to kill the wildcards because they were nothing but encrypted and we're driving me crazy. Look on the database. A capital E next to a the talk group means Encryption.

A better option to continue using wildcard -

Each time you hear the busy signal, press MENU and store the TGID. The next time you hear that newly stored TGID, press SKIP. This way, you can gradually lock out all of the encrypted TGs but still monitor for new, unidentified non-encrypted talkgroups.

NOTE: on some systems, encryption is "partial" - one side might be in the clear and/or the encryption is only used "on demand" to provide a secure channel to protect sensitive information.

 

[Jay911]

Everything I've heard about the new radio system for the GVRD and Capital regions indicates that it will be 100% end-to-end encrypted, but that's all been hearsay from hobbyists as opposed to official confirmation from the system operators.

There's no way to tell until the system goes live (in your area) if it will be encrypted or not.

For what it's worth, I am presuming you are referring to this system:

E-Comm NGRP / CREST HRO Multizone

Having mutual aid/interop talkgroups encrypted (as some are already listed so in that link) is stupid and dangerous, but some agencies choose to be secretive over being safe.

 

[kayn1n32008]

As far as I know, the WARS NGRP. Is only built out to Abbotsford. I do not know if there are plans to expand it further east either. East of there everybody is conventional VHF/UHF.

You will probably not be able to hear RCMP. They are encrypting their conventional 139.xxx VHF network. You would have to check the local repeaters to see if they have transitioned to P25/AES256 encryption. If so you are SOL. BCAS is VHF/analogue. Fire will probably be VHF, but with out listening you won’t know if they are digital or analogue. Could be a mixed bag. DMR has been a popular choice for fire departments that want to transition to a digital mode in Canada that do not join wide area trunk systems like WARS NGRP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[KE4ZNR]

Moved the posts about how Uniden Scanners handle encryption into their own thread:

https://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tavern/363619-uniden-scanners-how-they-handle-encryption.html

Please continue that discussion there and let's get back to the original thread topic.

Thanks!

Marshall KE4ZNR