ADP Encryption Failures

[dcradio09]

We have been testing and troubleshooting getting ADP encrytion to work with Unication G4 pagers since last 2023. The process has started and been abandoned a few times and we did another test session with V2.04 fimrware as they did make alogrithm improvements in V2.04. We are stil getting results that we have to question as to the safety of our first responders. We are located in a 2 site, 4 tower system and indoor coverage is where the problems mainly exist. When monitoring the RSSI anyime we get close or go below the -110dbm area the pager cannot seem to keep up with encryption and missing bits it needs in the data. I am not really faulting Unication for this as best I can discover is that -110dbm is considered a junky signal. My question is what kind of signal strength do most people see and has anyone else struggled with encrytpion in a weak signal system?
My pagers have the option turned on to show the signal strengh in dbm as the signal bar is a poor indicator of actual strengh.

 

[RRR]

Why does fire dispatch have to be encrypted? Seems if you stopped that, a lot of your troubles will go away. Safety is first and foremost important, and throwing up more for end users radios / monitor units to decode isn't helping things at all, obviously.

 

[buddrousa]

You need to improve your signal in your coverage area before tinkering with encryption.
What type system are you running VHF Repeater UHF Repeater or 700/800 Trunking?

 

[RRR]

4 tower, 2 site? 🤔

 

[dcradio09]

You need to improve your signal in your coverage area before tinkering with encryption.
What type system are you running VHF Repeater UHF Repeater or 700/800 Trunking?

700/800 Trunking. The -95dbm threshold that Unication requires I think is out of our reach.

 

[buddrousa]

Then you need to add sites

 

[cavmedic]

Encryption hasn't gotten any better with brand new G4 pluses either. ADP is 80% decode and AES is about 40% sitting at the tower sites at -70 indicated on the display. ( 20 site simulcast) No change with removing the antenna either in the event of overload. Best option is to either do 2 tone over p25 in the clear , p25 call alert and everyone gets a radio, multicast analog 2 tone in the clear, pocsag paging .... basically scrap encryption on the paging talkgroup....

 

[buddrousa]

Your other option is to not have a do it yourself fire setup and let a 2way radioshop that knows what they are doing fix this.

 

[natedawg1604]

Your other option is to not have a do it yourself fire setup and let a 2way radioshop that knows what they are doing fix this.

I get the impression from the original post that regular radios are working in places where the Unication isn't working. DCradio, can you clarify this, and what type of comparison testing you've done with regular radios?

 

[dcradio09]

I get the impression from the original post that regular radios are working in places where the Unication isn't working. DCradio, can you clarify this, and what type of comparison testing you've done with regular radios?

Correct in that regular radios work without issue. We have a weak signal and have to work with what we are given. Motorola APX radios can decode the same encrypted traffic but pagers struggle when it starts missing bits when comparing side my side dbm readings. We have been testing this for 3 years now and have almost weely contact with Unication support. V2.04 Firmware had some alogrithm improvements where we felt we could see a noticeable improvement but as we have moved into a larger testing set those reusults have not kept up.

 

[cavmedic]

Correct in that regular radios work without issue. We have a weak signal and have to work with what we are given. Motorola APX radios can decode the same encrypted traffic but pagers struggle when it starts missing bits when comparing side my side dbm readings. We have been testing this for 3 years now and have almost weely contact with Unication support. V2.04 Firmware had some alogrithm improvements where we felt we could see a noticeable improvement but as we have moved into a larger testing set those reusults have not kept up.

Your weak link is the pagers. Until unication fixes that, you are just going to be pi$$ing into the wind.