Federal/ATF/Secret Servcice

[KN4EHX]

Also, heard from a close source to USSS, that they have some L band radios. There is a cache in the road runner. Also saw in a pic recently an agent carrying a portable with an L band antenna.
Any ideas?

High speed data and video streams from drones and satellites. Harris Falcon III, but I think there is another one in use as well. Comes with a cool kid eye piece that mounts on a helmet and flips up and down. It is very chonky not something you’d want to carry unless you have to. Adding the flash light, night vision, Comtac, and IR what not to identify as friend or foe on the helmet makes for very sore neck if you aren’t used to it.

 

[KN4EHX]

posted twice, sorry!

 

[KN4EHX]

In northeast, most are using Zello on phone app. Its a good idea since not everyone can be given an agency radio, so they use a Zello group.
Back to the L-Band, what would a L-Band mobile antenna look like?

L-Band antenner. Aka Sir Snags A Lot.
I’m not a Secret Service Squirrel, they could be using it for something different so I really can’t speak for them. This is used for live streams from drones, satellites, and other data that might be useful. Also gives coordinates and something for sand to attach to as seen on the channel knob. It is big, fat, and heavy. Significantly larger than an APX 8000.

 

[Firefox10]

Hi, back again about Fed radios/antennas. Saw a close up of Doles funeral today. Motorcade had hearse, family in suburbans/tahoes, followed by VP's escort, limos, support in tahoes and POTUS 30 car motorcade. I counted 19 suburbans/tahoes in VP and POTUS group which now have the new secret service Tri-band antennas I mentioned on my previous posts. Looks like its becoming a standard in the fed antenna world. In Boston on Monday and saw 3 Homeland Security (2 marked SUVs, 2 unmarked Tahoe ) all with them also.
Spoke to a Motorola Shop yesterday and he said almost everything in Motorola world that is HSI, USSS, US Marshalls, FBI, etc. that comes near their shop gets new antenna. Its all band (VHF, both UHFs, 800/900 voice/data and could do L band).
Gonna get one!

 

[KN4EHX]

Hi, back again about Fed radios/antennas. Saw a close up of Doles funeral today. Motorcade had hearse, family in suburbans/tahoes, followed by VP's escort, limos, support in tahoes and POTUS 30 car motorcade. I counted 19 suburbans/tahoes in VP and POTUS group which now have the new secret service Tri-band antennas I mentioned on my previous posts. Looks like its becoming a standard in the fed antenna world. In Boston on Monday and saw 3 Homeland Security (2 marked SUVs, 2 unmarked Tahoe ) all with them also.
Spoke to a Motorola Shop yesterday and he said almost everything in Motorola world that is HSI, USSS, US Marshalls, FBI, etc. that comes near their shop gets new antenna. Its all band (VHF, both UHFs, 800/900 voice/data and could do L band).
Gonna get one!

Do you have a link or model number?

 

[Firefox10]

Motorola AN00131A01 is what I heard, also high ratings on 700's. Since many agencies are getting dual/triband radios (V,U1,U2,800 with 700) because of the grant money requires 700 capability for interops and some primary channels now in 700 range.

 

[danesgs]

Hi, back again about Fed radios/antennas. Saw a close up of Doles funeral today. Motorcade had hearse, family in suburbans/tahoes, followed by VP's escort, limos, support in tahoes and POTUS 30 car motorcade. I counted 19 suburbans/tahoes in VP and POTUS group which now have the new secret service Tri-band antennas I mentioned on my previous posts. Looks like its becoming a standard in the fed antenna world. In Boston on Monday and saw 3 Homeland Security (2 marked SUVs, 2 unmarked Tahoe ) all with them also.
Spoke to a Motorola Shop yesterday and he said almost everything in Motorola world that is HSI, USSS, US Marshalls, FBI, etc. that comes near their shop gets new antenna. Its all band (VHF, both UHFs, 800/900 voice/data and could do L band).
Gonna get one!

Are you talking HT or Mobile or both? Can you give us Motorola's model number or what exactly is the antenna? I can sort of see a all band configured 800 and up antenna for those bands but the loading coil would have to be very critical. Mobile antennas for 800 to L-band would almost have to be a weird mix of an all band antenna.

 

[danesgs]

Sorry, I guess you gave the model number....

 

[W7FDX]

So basically it sounds like he has an APX8500 with an 03 Control head and an undercover antenna, very common practice for 3 letter agencies. But this "LTE" thing you're talking about is intriguing me, Are you sure its not an 03 head and he showed you different zones?
View attachment 109392

Those control heads seem to be popular with alot of the Australian police services I've been seeing on the news and whatnot.

 

[danesgs]

I have a basic question about Zello. How secure is it? If Fed agencies are using it I am sure it passed some purity test but as with all networks, if you know the ins and outs of the network it could be a problem down the road. Time was the cell networks based their sales on security even when they were still open to scanner listening (circa 1994). encryption is great but can be broken at the base entry points by smart 20 somethings. AES 256 and all that. For short comms it does not matter but with AI coming into the picture one more headache.

 

[APX8000]

I can tell you that using Zello is highly discouraged in the Fed world. One of the biggest push backs is it creates discovery....all those conversations are recorded and then re-sent. This creates Brady/Giglio issues. But the same is true about text messages, group chats or e-mail.

As far as security, Zello channel communications are encrypted in transit, and direct messages are encrypted end-to-end. 1024 bit RSA for identity, 256 bit AES for content, and TLS for traffic management (per their website).

 

[KN4EHX]

Those control heads seem to be popular with alot of the Australian police services I've been seeing on the news and whatnot.

Popular with this guy too. They are nice in an unmarked unit or anything that has limited space. The ability to toss it under the arm rest is nice if you want to appear as if you don’t have a radio. It’s very much just like using the portable APX in feel so it translates over nicely. I use the magnetic mic mount with mine so whenever I’m going down the road I can just toss it in the general direction and it finds its home. Cramped for space in my case so it definitely fits my needs otherwise I’d have the O9.

 

[MississippiPI]

I know when Trump came to Mississippi i was copying traffic on the MSWIN talkgroups, they were given special ones. The secret service apparently had their on as I wasn't picking up for a couple of conversations

 

[Firefox10]

Spoke with a Homeland Security officer this morning who has the new antenna. He said its great. Replaced his 4 antennas (VHF, UHF1, 700 and 800 data). He had a 8500 and a laptop. Looks strange, but for a marked unit it's ok. An unmarked it would look like an eyesore. They are big and bulky. Biggest benefit he said was it goes thru the carwash it held up fine, the others were always getting bent.