Unencrypted surveilance

[scanmanmi]

I was listening to surveilance and tracking today on 1087 off the Isabella tower and it was not encrypted although it is listed as DE. Do they have a choice?

 

[RayAir]

I was listening to surveilance and tracking today on 1087 off the Isabella tower and it was not encrypted although it is listed as DE. Do they have a choice?

Do they have a choice? Maybe, it all depends on how the radios were programmed.

If it's a secure TG the encryption should be strapped to eliminate common user error of forgetting to turn it on,etc.

If you hear activity on a supposed secure TG that is mixed with most units encrypted and a couple talking in the clear this indicates the radios are programmed for selectable encryption and some of the end users forgot to turn it on or just don't know how to operate their radio.

Since they do read this forum, maybe they'll correct this issue and strap the enc. Problem solved.

 

[bigcam406]

If it were me, i would keep information pertaining to what i hear to myself.

 

[drdispatch]

Most of the radios have a switch on them to turn encryption on & off. As RayAir mentioned, the radios can also be programmed so that encryption is always on for certain talk groups ("strapped"). The MSP units assigned to our county have our encryption key loaded in their radios, but they were programmed to transmit in the clear, even on our encrypted TG's. We can still hear them & they us because of having that key. The other departments in the county have their radios programmed so that if the user is on a TG where encryption is required, it is automatically turned on; if they are on a clear TG (G, H, I, & J EVENT TG's for example) it is automatically turned off. I was rather surprised when I got my BCD436HP (which automatically mutes encryption) and started hearing troopers on our county dispatch TG. I had kept those TG's locked out in my previous scanner (PRO-96) because of the annoying noise.

 

[kasparek]

Just listen and don’t ask any questions.

 

[Golay]

Honestly should know better

If it were me, i would keep information pertaining to what i hear to myself.

I agree. I cringe when someone openly post on here that some encrypted talkgroup is inadvertently in the clear. They don't realize it until they read it here.

 

[Forts]

It won't be in the clear for long now! It's fine to ask a general question such as this, but specifying the talkgroup.... no.

 

[gtor72]

ya, that talk group has a lot less traffic in the last couple weeks, a generalized question should have been asked with out detail like that.
ruins it for scanner listeners..

 

[RRR]

Ha ha.... Well, it will be next time, sheesh....