Thanks for the replies.
I heard one Ops2 channel encrypted and I am not sure my text description is correct for the Franconia Ops channel that was encrypted, may have been Ops 1 or Ops 2.
I was setting up another scanner for a friend and stumbled onto these recently and was curious how new this was. Might be because the Ops 2 channels are not heavily used and I have missed out on activity before?
As for encryption and the radios, I have no idea what the current/older radio capabilities are, but with the roll out of anything new, same capability or not, many times philosophies and "we might as well while were at it" come into play. So there may be a changing philosophy or new staff with different ideas. Who knows.
DCPD appears to be all encrypted, however, for over 25+ years in the hobby and living right next to DC I never really was able to get into monitoring DCPD. They have been "encrypted" IMHO forever. I could never really understand the dispatchers or officers very well. Its just like Metro Rail, can't half understand a word being said between background noise, bad radio usage and handling of microphones and so on.
Yep, I hope the encryption is held to a minimum as well. No need to do it except in specific situations. It could really kill the hobby. I get a lot of info during inclement weather and just listen to dispatches to determine anyone in the family should even be on the road. In the Winter time everything from black ice to quickly changing road conditions when the snow starts can be determined very easily just by the dispatches and the rapid change in the amount of calls going out. I even listen to the FCPS bus channels. What a crazy time this Winter with all the snow and cold weather. On one morning when the temps dipped almost into the single digits, there was an hour solid of calls to the central garage about no start buses. Makes you wonder about the maintenance and reliability of the fleet, but also gives an idea on how the day will unfold as well.
I used to live in Montgomery County many years ago and listened to the stake outs around where I lived, sometimes in my neighborhood. MoCo had a special van they used that had cameras, periscopes, microphones and recording equipment they used to use and it was interesting to listen to, but unless you knew exactly what they were up to, not a lot of chatter or details as they had specific targets they were watching.
