Are stores with motorola DLR radios using the default public channels?

[IC-R20]

I have a pair of DTR 650s and 1 550 in storage I was tempted on digging up after someone mentioned on here before that the stores could possibly be using them with default configuration out of the box and onto 1 of the built in 10 public channel 'codes'.

It'd be interesting to visit the Safeway/Kroger to see if I can pick something up but I'm curious if any DTR users here ever actually tried this before? I used to occasionally scan the public codes with mine connected to the rooftop discone with an adapter in 2014 but only rarely would briefly hear someone on the freeway passing through using them.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Stockroom checks, additional cashier requests, pretty mundane stuff IMHO. You're not missing much

 

[IC-R20]

Stockroom checks, additional cashier requests, pretty mundane stuff IMHO. You're not missing much

Thanks for the confirmation, into the cardboard woodpile I go!

 

[GM]

There is a local nursing home in my area that uses the DTR550 models, and they absolutely love them! When I asked what they love about it, they told me that the audio clarity is crisp, range is good for on-site communications, and privacy since scanners can't decode the audio (since it's VSELP digital). They were using their own programmed channels, and not the default ones "out of the box."

I have also heard a local car dealership using them 10 years ago, and they used the default channels out of the box. I used to monitor them when I was working in the area, but have since changed locations and no longer in that area to monitor them (if they are even still using them).

 

[IC-R20]

There is a local nursing home in my area that uses the DTR550 models, and they absolutely love them! When I asked what they love about it, they told me that the audio clarity is crisp, range is good for on-site communications, and privacy since scanners can't decode the audio (since it's VSELP digital). They were using their own programmed channels, and not the default ones "out of the box."

I have also heard a local car dealership using them 10 years ago, and they used the default channels out of the box. I used to monitor them when I was working in the area, but have since changed locations and no longer in that area to monitor them (if they are even still using them).

Yeah that's fake, no normal non-radio person thinks or talks like that. To the average user it's just a talky box with a button and they don't care about thinking about anything else.

It's also a moot point in the era of affordable wide bandwidth SDR and the fact that the 'private' codes aren't really random but based on a 4 digit code any half-competent programmer could pull if they wanted to by either monitoring program that can rapidly skim through all the codes or just tapping into their own radio to get the data. Once you got it down that kind of a code sweep would be childsplay for a SDR handheld.

It's why I originally shelved mine after they started becoming more prevalent a few years ago in favor of the eBay codeplug hacked motorola HTs with AES encryption. It'd be nice if someone would start doing that with motorolas using a more modern codec like DMR instead of P25e but it is what it is.

That aside though I did have success with the DTR650 this evening and a small 9dB yagi so it's nice to fill that void again in my niche of retail store scannerism, especially since these stores never used radios before. I'll have to give the other outdoors store a visit later next week and see if they use one of the public defaults too.

 

[devicelab]

Another method is to just get up high on a hilltop. I've picked up numerous users this way -- determining who they are is the specific challenge. A local Michaels store uses them here.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Stockroom checks, additional cashier requests, pretty mundane stuff IMHO. You're not missing much

This.

The largest number of calls for service on a retail store radio service? Both the endless cleanups on aisle # and the public restrooms have been rendered unusable by an accident or an intentional act of depravity.

I can see IDing them for the database or the sheer challenge of it, but like the local golf courses, monitoring them generally isn't worth the time spent of them, unless there is a criminal or emergency incident.

 

[IC-R20]

This.

The largest number of calls for service on a retail store radio service? Both the endless cleanups on aisle # and the public restrooms have been rendered unusable by an accident or an intentional act of depravity.

I can see IDing them for the database or the sheer challenge of it, but like the local golf courses, monitoring them generally isn't worth the time spent of them, unless there is a criminal or emergency incident.

ah yes nothing like the much finer hobby of spening $1k to get a license and radio only to say 599 TU 74s all day and talking about your prostate or listening to the same trespassing call on police all day. Please enlighten us in the superior ways of the autistic manchild and never doing anything original oh holy NPC overlord.

 

[PACNWDude]

Here in the Pacific Northwest, UHF saturation caused many companies to use DTR series Motorola radios. I keep one of mine handy on default settings to monitor tugboats, cranes, and other users....there is almost always someone nearby (1 watt radios so 1-1.5 mile range ish) to listen to.

For my own use case, family use and also assisting some local school campus radio users, they are on dedicated and non-default hopsets. The school's specificly wanted this in one case as their UHF license expired (DTR is license free ISM band), and they wanted something radio wise that would not be hear with a "$100 Radio Shack scanner".

 

[devicelab]

...they wanted something radio wise that would not be hear with a "$100 Radio Shack scanner".

And all you need is a $60 used DLR radio!

 

[W6VVM]

And all you need is a $60 used DLR radio!

(and the four-digit code)

 

[devicelab]

(and the four-digit code)

I know but I was making a point...

 

[613scanner]

I have not looked into DLR radios deeply I just know they hop around within a band based on a 4 digit code. Is the algorithm known for how the 4 digit code determines the hop sequence? if so you could recover the 4 digit "key" by simply watching the hop sequence (with a sdr with a wide bandwidth) and comparing it to the pre-calculated sequences .

However locally to me I think the only place I have seen DLR model radios being used is at big box stores and my interest is mostly just doing it because I can.

 

[PACNWDude]

Just like any technology, it is often the human factor that is at fault. Change that four digit code every now and then, and if someone really wants to try, let them, you will be changing the code in time. Still, keeps the lazy looking if they care to spend the effort. The school problems they had in the past with UHF radios no longer remains, so problem solved.

As far as I could tell, the spectrum does not show enough to determine the code, you would have to program a radio and see if you can transmit to another in use and nearby, radio. Would take time (and effort/hardware to try), and someone lurking that close to campus would be detected.