Abbeville Chief Wants To Scramble Signals

[adamm]

FYI
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Via Abbeville Meridional
By CHRIS ROSA

SCANNERS CREATE PROBLEMS FOR POLICE
Abbeville chief wants device to scramble signals

In the near future, those who like to listen to the Abbeville Police Department on their own scanner, may have trouble doing it.
Abbeville Police Chief Drew David informed the city council last week that the Abbeville police department is having problmes with residents listening on scanners and knowing every place the police department is going.
He said where the problem comes is when a police car is dispatched to a residence because of a complaint of loud music, for example. If the resident has a scanner, he or she knows the police are on the way and the music gets turned down before the police arrive.
Another example he gave the city council is if there is a fight and the police are dispatched. If someone in the area has a scanner, they know the police are on the way and inform everyone before.
Also, phone numbers are broadcast over the scanner, which worries David.
In order to fix the problem, David was asking the Council to approve the purchace of a device that would scramble the frequency the police department transmits on.
Thus, no(sic) would be able to listen to the police department. The cost of the device is $3,300, he told the city council.
"That's quite cheap for 23 units," Abbeville Councilman Carlton Campbell said. "Is there anything out there that will de-scramble it?"
He said an officer could hear what the dispatcher is saying but the person listening to the scanner can't.
The Council approved the purchase of the device for $3,300.
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Thoughts?

 

[crayon]

Since it does not look like they are running on a trunked system, and the cost was only $3.3k .. sounds like it might just be voice inversion scrambling.

 

[KB8UYC]

I dont know what you guys think, but I think these police departments are very parinoid. The fact is there are a lot of people listening to their local police department just to listen, and the PD's have been talking whatever way they want to and now they dont want anyone hearing them because of this so called "NATIONAL SECURITY"

Believe it or not, not a lot of criminals use a police scanner and that is just the reality of it. Police departments are just trying to make us think that.

So if this particular pd is not trunked, then being able to decode it should not really be that hard


Just my thoughts...

 

[rdale]

Based on the price it's probably not DES encryption, but you don't have to use a trunked system to get "real" (other than speech inversion) encryption which would not be listenable by any means.

 

[KB8UYC]

How did I knwo that we would be graced with Gods presence(I men Rdale)...........the know it all king and the only one that know everything to know about encryption


geeeshh

 

[kikito]

If I calculate right: $3,300 for 23 units = about $143 per unit. That's enough for maybe the Rolling Code Speech Inversion add-on for whatever radios they're using.

Either way, is always bad news to hear about this happening.

 

[cellblock776]

From the Article-------------
He said where the problem comes is when a police car is dispatched to a residence because of a complaint of loud music, for example. If the resident has a scanner, he or she knows the police are on the way and the music gets turned down before the police arrive.
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So we are to beleive that just like there are designated drivers there are designated scanner monitors at the party? While everyone else is dancing and the music is blaring there's some guy sitting in the corner with headphones plugged into a scanner waiting to hear the dispatch and then jump up and yell "RAID!!"?
Get real. The only one listening to scanners that night will be the person who called in the complaint to make sure that the dispatcher is indeed sending out an officer to take care of the problem.
Happy Scanning,
Steve
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scanbatonrouge

 

[WyoDuner]

You said it!!! They quoted a pretty lame example. Kind of funny when you picture the scenario in your head.

 

[Thayne]

When I was a kid we would light off M-80s' till we heard the cops were coming. We would listen between the explosions--that doesn't compute for loud parties--

 

[wsmoore]

It looks like the scanners are saving the police a trip out to a call that might tie them up. When a more serious call comes in they won't be a a party call.I don't see a problem here I see taxpayers money being saved by a scanner!!!!!!!!!!!! But it is only money !!!!!!!!!

 

[adamm]

I did some searching around on the internet and I came up with this site.
I think that this is what they might be using.
http://www.transcryptsecure.com/security.html
$3,300 for 23 units comes out to about $143.48 a radio, so it can't be anything too fancy that they are buying.

Also won't this will prevent some of the families of police officers from listening to the scanner while they are on duty. I have heard that some wives keep them on while their husbands are on patrol.

I agree with wsmoore that scanners probably prevent more police calls than anything. And cellblock776, the thought of a designated scanner monitor at a party cracks me up.
:lol:

 

[holly]

awesome

just like one of you said the only one listening is the one who called it in to see what the code would be when they got there,
i also like the thought of someone just sitting around all day listening to it and calling stuff in just for the fun of it cracks me up ,but i would also think it would be a waste of time too

 

[PJH]

And just wait until they find out that they will not want to use it 100% of the time. If anyone has used encyption before (the exception being IMBE & encypted) you will know that for the most part, voice quaility sucks.

Now, is 23 units just mobiles, or mobile, portables, repeaters etc etc?

 

[adamm]

Knowing the size of the APD. I would say that the 23 units accounts for all of the radios that they use. Including the repeater, moblie, and handsets.

 

[Landman]

Here's a link to a site that sells descramblers for audio frequency inversion scrambled signals. It wont do rolling code, however. Which one they use (fixed or rolling) remains to be seen.

http://www.ctpdescramblers.com/ctp/products.html

 

[jim202]

Here's a link to a site that sells descramblers for audio frequency inversion scrambled signals. It wont do rolling code, however. Which one they use (fixed or rolling) remains to be seen.

http://www.ctpdescramblers.com/ctp/products.html

Don't forget to add some money in for the labor of the radio shop. It is going to take at least a half hour to install any unit. More like a hour if you test them.

At a shop rate of between $55 and $75 an hour, that doesn't leave much for the circuit board.

Jim

 

[Landman]

Who needs a shop? A few of these models just plug right into the headphone jack of a scanner. You turn the knobs on the outside to adjust the pilot tone until you hear clear audio. I know people who have used these to track down GMRS pirates who were using a repeater and audio inversion scrambling. It was quite simple to tune the descrambler.

 

[PJH]

Why bother with the "descambler" for GMRS priates? Just lock into the input freq...A signal is a signal!

 

[Landman]

Yeah, I know what you're saying. He used the descrambler because it was a business that had many mobile units that were constantly on the move. He needed the descrambler to listen to their conversations to find out who they were. After gathering enough information he was able to hand them to the FCC on a silver platter. The investigative work was already done. The repeater suddenly stopped a short time later. This was several years ago before millions of these 22 channel radio came into use and the FCC actually did something about GMRS piracy.

 

[letarotor]

"OK Joe, you're the designated listener tonight. We're all going to be drinking, smoking dope, popping acid, playing Led Zephlin as loud as we can and shooting our pistols in the air. You go in the back bedroom, listen to the scanner and when the cops are on their way, yell '50'."

Picture that scenario actually occuring!!! :roll:

What is scarrier than the criminals actually listening to police frequencies is that bozos like this Chief actually believe what they are saying and don't have more important things to worry about!!!

Mark :shock: