AA County Police going digital

[Grondoline]

It is planned for May 7, 2009. And it WILL be encrypted. Happy scanning.

 

[ka3jjz]

The county going digital has been threatened for a long time, but has yet to happen. What is your source? I doubt they will do full time encryption. Where did you hear this? 73 Mike

 

[pasadenamd]

It is planned for May 7, 2009. And it WILL be encrypted. Happy scanning.

What is your source? Thanks.

 

[Grondoline]

See attached

 

[ka3jjz]

Nothing in that memo says anything about encryption. It's a common mistake to think the two are necessarily the same - they aren't. There are MANY trunktrackers that can handle digital now, although they're a bit expensive. They are listed in this wiki category. That doesn't mean they won't have the ability - we already know they've used it before...

It will be interesting, however, to see if they continue to use the same talkgroups in digital as they do in analog, or are they going to undergo a wholesale change? Time to warm up UniTrunker....73 Mike

 

[pasadenamd]

Now I have to obtain a digital scanner. Great.

 

[troymail]

Now I have to obtain a digital scanner. Great.

That's not so bad -- I've purchased 3 "digital capable" scanners since hearing AA County was going digital -- first one was the BC-296, then the BC-396, and then the PSR-500...

You're luck to be coming to the game later and only need to buy one!

You ->
Me ->

 

[pasadenamd]

That's not so bad -- I've purchased 3 "digital capable" scanners since hearing AA County was going digital -- first one was the BC-296, then the BC-396, and then the PSR-500...

You're luck to be coming to the game later and only need to buy one!

You ->
Me ->

Have you heard anywhere, if May 7th will actually be the day?

 

[pasadenamd]

That's not so bad -- I've purchased 3 "digital capable" scanners since hearing AA County was going digital -- first one was the BC-296, then the BC-396, and then the PSR-500...

You're luck to be coming to the game later and only need to buy one!

You ->
Me ->

The money is the problem though. 400-600 is hard for me to spend on a scanner.

 

[pasadenamd]

See attached

How did you obtain this, are you a police officer?

 

[pasadenamd]

When did Anne Arundel County first say they were switching to digital?

 

[Grondoline]

Update on the switchover to digital:

Everything is still on track for the May 7 date. All this pertains to police communications only, the fire side has not decided on a timetable yet. Some, not all talkgroups will be encrypted right from the start. The powers that be want everything encrypted eventually, but it won't happen all at once. I'll leak additional information as it becomes available.

 

[pasadenamd]

Update on the switchover to digital:

Everything is still on track for the May 7 date. All this pertains to police communications only, the fire side has not decided on a timetable yet. Some, not all talkgroups will be encrypted right from the start. The powers that be want everything encrypted eventually, but it won't happen all at once. I'll leak additional information as it becomes available.

Where are you getting this from?

 

[pasadenamd]

I am not that worried about encryption because i got this email from Anne Arundel County in December and they never talked about encryption.
Dear Citizen:

Thank you for your inquiry about the Anne Arundel County Fire Department radio system. The county has been working with Motorola towards an eventual switch from an analog radio signal to a digital radio signal. No time table has been established for this conversion. When a time table is established by the county and Motorola it will be well publicized in the local news media.

 

[troymail]

I guarantee there will be some encryption - there already is - in fact there is a TG active (32208) right now as I type that is encrypted and that TG has been operational and encrypted for quite a while... when they switch to digital there will be more but I don't expect the districts (N, E, S, W, etc.) to be encrypted -- at least not on May 7th.


BTW - as the letter enclosed above suggests, I'm hearing quite a number of officers briefly switching to the digital talkgroups trying it out....

 

[pasadenamd]

I guarantee there will be some encryption - there already is - in fact there is a TG active (32208) right now as I type that is encrypted and that TG has been operational and encrypted for quite a while... when they switch to digital there will be more but I don't expect the districts (N, E, S, W, etc.) to be encrypted -- at least not on May 7th.


BTW - as the letter enclosed above suggests, I'm hearing quite a number of officers briefly switching to the digital talkgroups trying it out....

Which talkgroup are they switching too? They won't be encypted maybe.
Hearing about encyption makes be very worried. I probably will hold off on buying a new scanner for a while to make sure it all doesn't go encrypted.

 

[pasadenamd]

From the Anne Arundel County Fire Department Chief

Sir,

At the present time the Anne Arundel County Fire Department has no immediate plans to upgrade to a full digital transmissions. The new radio system that was just put in is capable of transmitting in analog or digital. However, we chose to remain transmitting in the analog mode due to some of the transmission problems that have been experienced by other jurisdictions across the Country.

Hope this helps!

Thanks,

Chief Cox








I have to say, it is very suprising that they won't switch to digital. I didn't know digital was that bad.

 

[ka3jjz]

Last year, when I was at a Maryland Mobileers (ham club) meeting, someone had told me that the cops might go digital and the fire stay analog. It's a bit dated, I know, and it's nowhere near official, but half of it seems to be true.

Something to keep in mind. If true, then AA won't be a true P25 system - you would program it as a Moto type 2 with digital tgs.

73 Mike

 

[pasadenamd]

Last year, when I was at a Maryland Mobileers (ham club) meeting, someone had told me that the cops might go digital and the fire stay analog. It's a bit dated, I know, and it's nowhere near official, but half of it seems to be true.

Something to keep in mind. If true, then AA won't be a true P25 system - you would program it as a Moto type 2 with digital tgs.

73 Mike

If this does happen, will the Police (digital) be able to talk to the Fire (analog) even though they are not operating on both digital?

 

[Grondoline]

Nothing is actually changing. Zones 11 and 12 have and will be digital and Zone 71 has and will be analog. The only thing that will happen on May 7 is that the dispatch consoles will switch to Zone 11 and the mobile unts will set their toggle switch to the "A" position. They could have done this 4 or 5 years ago, they just waited until now.