ADA County ID, Worth Upgrading Scanners?

[OutlawKing]

Hello, I'm fairly new to the area and I noticed all the agencies LE, FD, EMS in Ada county switched to 700Mhz ICAWIN. I have an older scanner that won't pick up anything here. Is it worth upgrading to a Uniden SDS100? Or is everything encrypted here now?

I like to listen to what's going on in my town. Is there anything worth listening to that would make one upgrade scanners for Ada county?

 

[devicelab]

Hello, I'm fairly new to the area and I noticed all the agencies LE, FD, EMS in Ada county switched to 700Mhz ICAWIN. I have an older scanner that won't pick up anything here. Is it worth upgrading to a Uniden SDS100? Or is everything encrypted here now?

I like to listen to what's going on in my town. Is there anything worth listening to that would make one upgrade scanners for Ada county?

Fairly new to the area? How would you then know if they just switched to ICAWIN..?

ICAWIN has been around since like 2008 and most agencies migrated right away. Most of the LE traffic is encrypted so that's up to you to decide if it's worth listening to fire, etc. LE dispatch is still in the clear I think but it's kind of pointless if they just switch to an encrypted TAC channel.

 

[KB7IWO]

It seems like there will be even less to listen to in Ada county shortly.

Ada County law enforcement to implement radio encryption

Starting Nov. 19, Ada County is going to implement encryption on all law enforcement radio channels, meaning access to all transmissions will be limited to authorized entities.

www.kivitv.com

 

[kb7gjy]

It seems like there will be even less to listen to in Ada county shortly.

Ada County law enforcement to implement radio encryption

Starting Nov. 19, Ada County is going to implement encryption on all law enforcement radio channels, meaning access to all transmissions will be limited to authorized entities.

www.kivitv.com

Ah yes, ye old, encrypt everything. Sounds like the people need to address this with the sheriff.
I do find the timing interesting that he just got reelected and then announces this.

Fire, EMS too. Yeah, it's about privacy and safety. A better solution, is have other talk groups for "high risk" calls and a data channel to run names that is encrypted but the main dispatch channels shouldn't.

As for fire and ems, there is no reason to. IMO

 

[devicelab]

It seems like there will be even less to listen to in Ada county shortly.

Ada County law enforcement to implement radio encryption

Starting Nov. 19, Ada County is going to implement encryption on all law enforcement radio channels, meaning access to all transmissions will be limited to authorized entities.

www.kivitv.com

This article is way off point. ICAWIN in Boise has been encrypted since 2008. It sounds like the real story is that they're getting 'new radios' with better encryption capabilities AND that they'll be encrypting the dispatch channel. Too bad the author didn't understand this point.

 

[KB7IWO]

new radios with getter encryption capabilities ???

 

[MountainMoose]

So

Ah yes, ye old, encrypt everything. Sounds like the people need to address this with the sheriff.
I do find the timing interesting that he just got reelected and then announces this.

Fire, EMS too. Yeah, it's about privacy and safety. A better solution, is have other talk groups for "high risk" calls and a data channel to run names that is encrypted but the main dispatch channels shouldn't.

As for fire and ems, there is no reason to. IMO

basically nothing is changing EXCEPT that ADA SO is going to encrypt dispatch, because everything else is already encrypted with the exception of Boise PD 16 dispatch. And where did it say anything about fire and EMS being encrypted? This article is like all the others reporting on this, they obviously haven't a clue to how things are now. Not to mention that all the claims they always use about the "privacy" and "officer safety" is lame. They have had encrypted "tac" channels forever and utilize these channels and TGs for more sensitive stuff. The reasoning behind the encryption is weak. To me any departments that use encryption for anything other than tac or sensitive or high level incidents is just covering up the day to day operations.

 

[MountainMoose]

Boy the scanner sure is QUIET now..

 

[MountainMoose]

So Do we know yet for 100% what wound up getting encrypted?
The scanner is VERY quiet tonight. I'm hearing ISP( Dist 3 Mall) and ADA Co EMS dispatch and that's about it.
Did Boise PD 16 go as well?
Ada Co FD? Boise FD?

 

[rectanglehead808]

Ada is switching to a new station alerting system also that is internet based. You may not hear fire dispatches any more via radio traffic. Canyon is also in the process of upgrading to the Bryx system.

 

[Frank00213]

So what are we going to do about this? I understand the need to secure communication but really the dispatch channels, and fire? When are we going to stand up and confront this before everything is gone? I think we really should get a petition together talk to the news people because they're being locked out also and if they run a story on it we can get enough signatures to reverse this. They already had secure channels for basically everything we just want to know is our neighborhood safe is our community safe.

 

[Frank00213]

Also a bryx system sounds like it's cloud-based internet as you spoke of before if the internet goes down power goes out how are they going to get calls to respond to emergencies that sounds like a safety issue in itself. what is a bryx radio system - Google Search

 

[MountainMoose]

Also a bryx system sounds like it's cloud-based internet as you spoke of before if the internet goes down power goes out how are they going to get calls to respond to emergencies that sounds like a safety issue in itself. what is a bryx radio system - Google Search

But then again most of these people don't think ahead that want to implement these systems it's not the fire guys it's whoever is in charge of the Radio Systems generally the county

 

[rectanglehead808]

Also a bryx system sounds like it's cloud-based internet as you spoke of before if the internet goes down power goes out how are they going to get calls to respond to emergencies that sounds like a safety issue in itself. what is a bryx radio system - Google Search

It has dual verizon and at&t first net sim cards as a backup. In addition to receiving a tone from a radio if all that goes down.

 

[Frank00213]

All the seems just a lot more than what is necessary to dispatch calls Way more expensive also a lot more taxpayer money being used to basically do the same thing as have a radio and a repeater. With cell phones obviously or any type of device that's on the cellular network it's a monthly fee yearly fee or whatever it is it seems a lot more cost effective and safer to have a standalone system instead of all these extra things.