Garland Fire Department going ∅ Encrypted?

[Motoballa]

A friend in the Garland Fire Department informed me a couple of days ago that they will begin encrypting their radios on Tuesday, October 8th starting at 7:00 am.

I was forwarded part of the email which stated: "Once they state all operations radios have been encrypted we will poll the stations and conduct a system wide radio test ensuring that every portable and mobile radio is encrypted and on the appropriate zone/channel"

There was no information given on what talkgroup(s) would be encrypted, or if it would be full-time or partial. I am still waiting to hear. Assuming they're using OTAP it shouldn't take too long to know what talkgroup(s) are encrypted.

 

[tunnelmot]

Great/s

 

[IAmSixNine]

Why? They have been in the clear on the system since it went up. What changed?

 

[Motoballa]

Not sure.. It doesn't make sense to me. The only thing I could guess would maybe be the Garland Fire Scanner page on Facebook. It's only been covering Garland Fire since about mid August.

I setup my APX to stream over Zello to my personal contact so it can log the traffic since we don't have a Broadcastify feed for them. When I woke up this morning I went through the recorded audio and heard the usual 7 am station radio check, all stations checked in then they moved to the fire interop talkgroups, unfortunately I didn't have those in the scanlist so I was unable to hear what went on over there.

Following that I've heard periodic radio checks on the dispatch talkgroup from the radio shop techs just doing 5 counts. So they're definitely working on something. Haven't heard encryption yet or anything of that sort. I asked my friend if he has any idea which talkgroups are encrypted or for simplicity sake if he's able to go through and see if any of the talkgroups have the ∅ symbol. I'll post once I hear something from him.

 

[Motoballa]

Update... I just got home and sure enough.. The dispatch talkgroup is encrypted full time, I'm not sure if they've encrypted everything else or just dispatch but I would assume everything else.

Update: Just confirmed they're full time on all the talkgroups.

I guess they'll be added to the list

 

[RadioBoy69]

Not sure.. It doesn't make sense to me. The only thing I could guess would maybe be the Garland Fire Scanner page on Facebook. It's only been covering Garland Fire since about mid August.

I setup my APX to stream over Zello to my personal contact so it can log the traffic since we don't have a Broadcastify feed for them. When I woke up this morning I went through the recorded audio and heard the usual 7 am station radio check, all stations checked in then they moved to the fire interop talkgroups, unfortunately I didn't have those in the scanlist so I was unable to hear what went on over there.

Following that I've heard periodic radio checks on the dispatch talkgroup from the radio shop techs just doing 5 counts. So they're definitely working on something. Haven't heard encryption yet or anything of that sort. I asked my friend if he has any idea which talkgroups are encrypted or for simplicity sake if he's able to go through and see if any of the talkgroups have the ∅ symbol. I'll post once I hear something from him.

Your not sure? Drake, you are 90% to blame for this with your posting of everything that goes on, your constant records request from the city, and, not to mention an APX radio of yours that is illegally programmed in the City’s system! I wonder why they went dark?.

 

[VictorXray]

Exactly correct.

 

[Motoballa]

Your not sure? Drake, you are 90% to blame for this with your posting of everything that goes on, your constant records request from the city, and, not to mention an APX radio of yours that is illegally programmed in the City’s system! I wonder why they went dark?.

You're certainly not wrong. I can't actually remember the last time I did a records request, but at one point I did do quite a few for various things. Also, regarding the radio, I gave up the radio to the Rowlett Police Department to have it read by the radio shop which I presume are the folks at DFW Communications since that's who Rowlett (is/was) partnered with. After a week they gave it back and said they didn't find anything illegal on it. If I drove there and gave it to them right now there would be nothing on it that would be illegal. As far as I know it was programmed legally, CPS purchase was made through a legit account through Motorola and legitimately downloaded, then legally programmed by yours truly (me.) The only part that I've heard that could be considered illegal is generating a system key, which lucky for me I did not have to generate one.

 

[KevinC]

You guys can discuss the finger pointing offline.

 

[twjr80]

That's interesting as I heard FD dispatch and FD/EMS comms in the clear today.

 

[Motoballa]

That's interesting as I heard FD dispatch and FD/EMS comms in the clear today.

Hmm.. Maybe it's partial or for certain calls? I listened for an hour yesterday around 8pm, was still encrypted. I'll turn it on later this evening and see what I can hear. Thanks for reporting.

 

[twjr80]

Today, didn't hear anything on Garland's FD/EMS comms. They may be slowly going to full encryption.

 

[Motoballa]

Yeah, same. I had it on in the background while doing homework and not a peep, showed everything as secure.