GATRRS - encryption not used everywhere?

[RenoHuskerDu]

I'm a volunteer fireman in my county, so local events interest me. I monitor Broadcastify (BCF) Llano, Burnet, and Blanco County Public Safety Live Audio Feed to hear what's going on in my county and the close ones. I'm trying to decide whether to buy a new scanner such as SDS200. So far I've heard one event on BCF and was able to get into the truck and head towards the station before Active 911 toned us out. A couple minutes gained could be a life saved.

This page Greater Austin/Travis Regional Radio System (GATRRS) Trunking System, Austin, Texas says my county uses GATRRS too, but I hear them often in BCF/37983. How that could be? One local LE is also a fireman with me and I recognize his voice in the LE talk group. Of course I don't know which TG it is because I don't see the scanner panel over BCF.

I had already heard that Williamson Co went into GATRRS and is encrypted, can't be heard anymore. So I never tried that. I don't have much interest in scanning city traffic anyway. Too much going on. Rural stuff interests me.

In another thread here, a user told me that he hears Blanco County SO, just to my south.. But I have never heard them at all in BCF, and the GATRRS site Blanco County, Texas (TX) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference notes that Blanco uses only GATRRS so can't be monitored. I wonder how he heard them.

Are all GATRRS TGs for LE and Fire encrypted?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Are all GATRRS TGs for LE and Fire encrypted?

Pro tip: Talkgroups designated as mode "DE" are fully encrypted. "De" = part time encryption. Placing your mouse cursor over the "MODE" column header gives you a summary of what each mode means. In a nutshell only mode "D" talkgroups are in the clear full time

 

[RenoHuskerDu]

OK, tip received. All TGs in Burnet and Blanco Cos show D. No encryption. Which answers my main question, thank you. I had seen that hover popup but didn't read to the bottom. Doh.

The Blanco Co sub-question is a bit different in that I have never heard Blanco SO in feed 37983, but the gentleman said he did. I replied to him in that thread asking for clarification (Certain feeds come and go, is this normal?)

 

[jeffww]

Just looking around on Blanco County, I see there is another Broadcastify which appears to be only TG 7072 Blanco CO SO Dispatch 1 where I do hear some traffic that I am not hearing on the stream you mentioned (37983). You may try listening to this one as well: Sheriff Dispatch 1/Blanco County Group Calls Live

 

[Project25_MASTR]

Very high level overview of why the system do what it do.

The Western Counties portion of GATRRS is not simulcast like many here on the forums are used to working with. Wilco and AT/CW for example are each their own simulcast systems. Take WILCO for example, it's consists of 10 "sub" sites which simulcast (not the broadcast definition but the LMR definition) and vote. Therefore, all traffic in a simulcast system is heard across the simulcast system. Western Counties on the other hand...is traditional wide area trunking. In wide area trunking, traffic isn't heard across all the sites. In order for traffic to be heard across multiple sites, a radio has to be affiliated at each site of interest on each talkgroup of interest.

This can create some challenges for scanning as your scanner may be scanning a site where the traffic you are interested in hearing doesn't have any local users affiliated at that talkgroup thus, not being able to hear anything on the talkgroup of interest. OBT and roaming is a fun topic...especially on 13E.

Source: Former contractor on the system

 

[rattlerbb01]

I hear Blanco SO and Fire-EMS from my home northeast of Boerne fairly well, even indoors bottom floor with a SDS100 stock antenna. I see Burnet and Travis Co groups come across the Blanco GATRRS site occasionally as well.