Fish and Game Commission going encrypted?

[Scanner-geek]

Am I correct to assume that all Florida State departments such as the Fish and Game commission will eventually all be going the way of the FHP--to the land of the unscannable?

Will the municipals all eventually get on the state system w/ encryption? If so, I will never be able to live in Florida. The dream will be dead.

Has South Florida FHP gone encrypted yet?

So, so sad.

Scanner-Geek

p.s. I remember when FHP went digital and people were really bummed and then the digital scanner came out. Am I in denial when I think someone will come up with a scanner that can monitor the Provoice system? Probably. Most of the smart hobbyists say it can't be done. What a shame.

 

[W4KRR]

Am I correct to assume that all Florida State departments such as the Fish and Game commission will eventually all be going the way of the FHP--to the land of the unscannable?

Will the municipals all eventually get on the state system w/ encryption? If so, I will never be able to live in Florida. The dream will be dead.

Has South Florida FHP gone encrypted yet?

So, so sad.

Scanner-Geek

p.s. I remember when FHP went digital and people were really bummed and then the digital scanner came out. Am I in denial when I think someone will come up with a scanner that can monitor the Provoice system? Probably. Most of the smart hobbyists say it can't be done. What a shame.

Yes, all users will be full time encrypted, including Fish & Game (actually called Fish & Wildlife). Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties haven't gone over yet (as of 5-30) but it's probably only a matter of days.

It has nothing to do with whether anyone could build a ProVoice scanner, it could ppobably be done now. The problem is that ProVoice is proprietary, and an even bigger obstacle is that the Florida State system is full time encrypted, and it would be illegal for a scanner manufacturer to make a scanner that could decrypt it, even if they could, and they can't.

 

[Scanner-geek]

Yeah, thanks. That's what I was afraid of. Do you think municipals like county sheriff, fire, etc, will all eventually move to this system? I know there has been talk in northern Florida.

I also am not sure I understand the difference from a legal perspective in designing a scanner that decodes digital signals from one that decodes encrypted signals. I know it is against the law to monitor encrypted signals, but why? How is this different from monitoring a trunked system? Seems like a loss of our right to monitor the airwaves.

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but it is such a drag.

 

[W4KRR]

Yeah, thanks. That's what I was afraid of. Do you think municipals like county sheriff, fire, etc, will all eventually move to this system? I know there has been talk in northern Florida.

I also am not sure I understand the difference from a legal perspective in designing a scanner that decodes digital signals from one that decodes encrypted signals. I know it is against the law to monitor encrypted signals, but why? How is this different from monitoring a trunked system? Seems like a loss of our right to monitor the airwaves.

I know I'm beating a dead horse, but it is such a drag.

Digital doesn't necessarily mean encrypted. Motorola digital uses P-25 which is considered an open format. You can monitor with a digital scanner assuming it isn't encrypted. ProVoice isn't an open standard. Tyco (or whoever owns this technology) would have to grant rights to scanner manufacturers for them to be able to make a scanner that would track it, and even then, that would be only for systems that weren't encrypted. The State of Florida will not be monitorable in any case.

Systems that are encrypted use an encryption key which has billions and billions of possible key combinations. System administrators aren't about to let these keys out to the public. They want to prevent monitoring and also keep unauthorized radios off the system.

And yes, some counties and cities have signed up to go onto the state system, including Glades County, Gulf County, and the Port St. Joe police department. There are others too; there's a list somewhere but I can't recall where I saw it.

 

[N4DES]

This is who they have signed up so far:

As of May 2006, there are nine approved SLERS third-party subscribers:

Baker County Sheriff's Office
Franklin County Sheriff's Office
Glades County Sheriff's Office
Gulf County's Sheriff's Office, Emergency Medical Service and Port St. Joe Police Department
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (interoperability)
Social Security Administration's Office of Investigations in Florida
Sumter County Sheriff's Office (interoperability)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Wakulla County Sheriff's Office

http://eits.myflorida.com/slers/#third_party

 

[Scanner-geek]

Yeah, I understand. Just wishful thinking I guess.

Do you think there is any chance the system will have problems (such as interoperability) and they'll come back to the non-encrypted world? Doubt it. Seems to be working ok.

Can you hear my tears falling?

 

[W4KRR]

If you're in the Broward County area, here are the new ProVoice system frequencies, and you can monitor them**
853.925
853.950
853.975
854.000
854.075
854.100
854.125

**you can monitor them, but you'll just hear digital noise!!

And they have five so-called "anti-scanner" tones after each transmission.