Encryption Jefferson County fire

[smwincva]

Earlier this afternoon there were 2 incidents in the county that were on each put on Tac 1 but most of the transmissions were encrypted. The first call a stove fire. Less than an hour later, a vehicle took out a pole & they were to fly the patient from the hospital. (The helicopter aborted its flight though.) I can confirm it was tac 1, because I was watching the display. And after the first call was winding down, units going in service & responding to the second call were in the clear.

Why would they encrypt routine radio traffic? I know Berkeley has the FM channel encrypted, but I never heard of nearly full encryption on FD tac channels before. Any idea why this was done?

Steve

[MOTOROLANUT]

Monkey see, Monkey do.....I hate to say this but more and more Police, Fire and EMS agencies on the WV IRP are going to encryption on private talkgroups including Tacs. Apparently they feel a need for secure communications whether it be scene security or just freedom to say what they want over the airways.


And it does not always revolve around HIPAA requirements.

HIPAA Didn’t Kill the Radio Star | Public Safety Communications

[mike_s104]

I wonder if this has anything to do with all the online streaming going on? Wonder who's going to kill the hobby?

My guess would be someone turned it on by accident on TAC1. Also don't trust the RRDB 100%. The Berkeley "FM" channel is all fire related.

[Thayne]

Originally Posted by mike_s104

I wonder if this has anything to do with all the online streaming going on? Wonder who's going to kill the hobby?

Of course it has a lot to do with it; the bulls & other Gov types hate to have a bunch of wankers with smartphones listening in that is made possible by some "Enterpreneurs", that want to make short term $$ by whizzing in their own Wheaties----

[mike_s104]

Originally Posted by Thayne

Of course it has a lot to do with it; the bulls & other Gov types hate to have a bunch of wankers with smartphones listening in that is made possible by some "Enterpreneurs", that want to make short term $$ by whizzing in their own Wheaties----

I think you got what I was getting at.

[quarterwave]

It's a great way to spend money...that's about the best answer anyone has come up with. Sure, it may have it's uses, for sensitive calls and conditions, but for the most part, it's radio salesmen scaring people into buying it, just like telling them when they narrowband that they have to go digital.

In my state the ODNR is full time encryption (might need to discuss sensitive squirrel and woodchuck information) but the Highway Patrol is not...nor are 99% of anyone else. Toys and Trends.

When I was working in radio we had a gravel and sand hauler who working a 100 mile radius basically, and they had AVS boards in their MOSTARS and Radius radios....Only people I knew of in our entire 15 county area that had "scrambling" (exception being a Sheriff with VHF who had DVP-XL, but rarely used it) so I asked the owner why....he said "to piss people off". (so much sensitive info when it comes to delivering gravel....)

Heck, our SO has a TAC repeater...and no one knows how and when to use it...let alone the monkey & football we would hear if they actually had encryption.