ESK is On In san antonio
- Thread starter SCPD
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Yup... just got home today, and noticed that it is indeed on... 
mr_hankey
Member
there seem to be a number of problems being addressed by the city at this point with the new EDACS ProVoice system:
1) mobile data terminal communications have been undergoing some changes/updates in the past 2 days that have effectively rendered them useless. md(i,t,c)'s.
2) etone activation on the new radios (fire and pd) has been occurring at seemingly random intervals, upsetting everyone from dispatchers to field units on a daily basis.
3) the introduction of ESK after a software upgrade to the system today has possibly contributed to some reception problems where some B-Shift officers have had to switch out radios.
for those dreamer-hobbyists out there who can't read between the lines - the City is intent on implementing ESK if you haven't figured it out by now, and nothing is going to stop them from doing this (including creating a climate of uncertainty among public service personnel who rely on emergency communications features from the new system on a day-to-day basis)
my advice to COSA: can the ESK bit and follow the New Orleans model (analog fire, provoice PD, selective encryption on sensitive TG's, no ESK whatsoever)
$20 says they'll just keep trying to hammer ESK into the system.
1) mobile data terminal communications have been undergoing some changes/updates in the past 2 days that have effectively rendered them useless. md(i,t,c)'s.
2) etone activation on the new radios (fire and pd) has been occurring at seemingly random intervals, upsetting everyone from dispatchers to field units on a daily basis.
3) the introduction of ESK after a software upgrade to the system today has possibly contributed to some reception problems where some B-Shift officers have had to switch out radios.
for those dreamer-hobbyists out there who can't read between the lines - the City is intent on implementing ESK if you haven't figured it out by now, and nothing is going to stop them from doing this (including creating a climate of uncertainty among public service personnel who rely on emergency communications features from the new system on a day-to-day basis)
my advice to COSA: can the ESK bit and follow the New Orleans model (analog fire, provoice PD, selective encryption on sensitive TG's, no ESK whatsoever)
$20 says they'll just keep trying to hammer ESK into the system.
..and they just turned it off at exactly 12:00 Noon today... :?
Maybe they have figured out that ESK only causes more problems than it fixes.
mr_hankey said:
Good advice, but they probably won't follow it, or even care what anyone in the monitoring community thinks.
Isn't it a drag sometimes to be in a hobby that is under constant threat of being killed in some form or another?
I wish the system people would just lighten up a little. Just encrypt the talk groups that can truly put people at risk if the people they are after are listening. That should be very few. And go after the freaks of nature that decide to TX on your system. They're pretty easy to find, if they TX enough, through direction finding. The FCC has equipment that can find them in minutes.
This is so rare though. Even in the all conventional days, where it was so simple to do, it was rare. In the something like 11+ years that Denver has had their EDACS system, one teenager was CAUGHT TXing on their system. Oh no, close up everything! Never let that happen again! I think they take it personally or something.
99% of the people on this site probably think that it's very wrong to do what he did and would never do that themselves. For one, they know it could kill the hobby. But there's no reason to freak out about it and completely secure a system and shut everyone out.
Before someone brings up the terrorism thing, let me say that there are a lot more ways to disable a radio system than keying up a radio on a talk group (and that wouldn’t be very effective). I can think of about 4, but I won't give anyone any ideas. And terrorists listening to calls about crimes that have already happened doesn't really help them. If it's an operation dealing with terrorists, then by all means, encrypt that talk group. Not many people are going to argue with that.
Sorry for the long rant. This ESK thing really bugs me. Especially after reading that they are working on a true DES encrypted version of ESK. M/A-Com does not like scannerists. They've proven that and they want to cater to the agencies that don't too. I wish they would all knock it off and realize that there are simple ways for Public Safety and hobbyists to co-exist.
mr_hankey
Member
i want to reiterate that in my opinion ESK has -nothing- to do with protecting Public Safety communications or privacy...
if so, then how the heck did Police and Fire get by before the days of ESK?
before crypto?
before cell phones?
features like ESK have everything to do with "getting what you paid for" in sales and support contracts.
if so, then how the heck did Police and Fire get by before the days of ESK?
before crypto?
before cell phones?
features like ESK have everything to do with "getting what you paid for" in sales and support contracts.
lschmidt
Member
The terrible events of 9-11 actually makes it even more important for citizens to be able to monitor radio communications of their local law enforcement,EMS and fire departments.
Interoperabilty-YES
Full Time Secret Police-NO
Strive to preserve the hobby of Public Safety communications monitoring.
Not everyone who listens to a scanner is a criminal or terrorist. It is up to
us,the law abiding scanner listeners to make sure our voices are heard.
Interoperabilty-YES
Full Time Secret Police-NO
Strive to preserve the hobby of Public Safety communications monitoring.
Not everyone who listens to a scanner is a criminal or terrorist. It is up to
us,the law abiding scanner listeners to make sure our voices are heard.
I agree 100% with logitec, lschmidt, and mr_hankey.
There is something brewing here in Montgomery County as well.
I overheard on the Radio Service talkgroup a conversation about the 'new radios' and how many should be ordered. And that one should be taken down to 'Mr. So-and-so' (forget the name) so he can see one. I looked up the radio on the web and it doesn't look good! (For the hobby scannist, that is...looks FREAKIN AWESOME for the user...man I'd love to have one!) It's the EFJohson 5100 series radio.
Encrypted Communications for wideband legacy systems and narrowband operation. DES and DES-XL™ enable secure voice communications in wideband channels; P25 DES-OFB and AES encryption provide secure communication in narrowband channels.
http://www.efjohnson.com/5100.asp
A few weeks ago I also overheard a short conversation between two radio techs about enabling ProVoice on certain radios but a new programming cable needed to be fabbed. Not sure whether they were talking about their personal radios, or all of the system radios. He did say that he'd 'become a very popular guy soon with this'.
Currently the system I monitor is
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=58
and they are capable of ProVoice, but no ESK. Not sure if they actually use ProVoice for the obvious fact that a scanner just ignores it and I never will know the difference. For the most part everything, including PD, seems to be in the clear but they use their MDT's and NEXTELS to send sensitive info back and forth which is to be expected.
All this sure makes the hobby boring! I used to live in Raleigh NC, before the trunking system days and it seemed I knew who, what, where, when and why everything was happening back then. If they had something sensitive they'd use the Public Service (landline) or cellphone.
Price reductions of new technologies, ie encryption, ESK, and anything else that will thwart monitoring systems, being pushed into new radio packages and contracts will continue to affect our hobby unfortunately.
There is something brewing here in Montgomery County as well.
I overheard on the Radio Service talkgroup a conversation about the 'new radios' and how many should be ordered. And that one should be taken down to 'Mr. So-and-so' (forget the name) so he can see one. I looked up the radio on the web and it doesn't look good! (For the hobby scannist, that is...looks FREAKIN AWESOME for the user...man I'd love to have one!) It's the EFJohson 5100 series radio.
Encrypted Communications for wideband legacy systems and narrowband operation. DES and DES-XL™ enable secure voice communications in wideband channels; P25 DES-OFB and AES encryption provide secure communication in narrowband channels.
http://www.efjohnson.com/5100.asp
A few weeks ago I also overheard a short conversation between two radio techs about enabling ProVoice on certain radios but a new programming cable needed to be fabbed. Not sure whether they were talking about their personal radios, or all of the system radios. He did say that he'd 'become a very popular guy soon with this'.
Currently the system I monitor is
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=TRSDB&sid=58
and they are capable of ProVoice, but no ESK. Not sure if they actually use ProVoice for the obvious fact that a scanner just ignores it and I never will know the difference. For the most part everything, including PD, seems to be in the clear but they use their MDT's and NEXTELS to send sensitive info back and forth which is to be expected.
All this sure makes the hobby boring! I used to live in Raleigh NC, before the trunking system days and it seemed I knew who, what, where, when and why everything was happening back then. If they had something sensitive they'd use the Public Service (landline) or cellphone.
Price reductions of new technologies, ie encryption, ESK, and anything else that will thwart monitoring systems, being pushed into new radio packages and contracts will continue to affect our hobby unfortunately.
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