Gloucester Twp. Police

[policefreak]

Does anyone know if Gloucester Twp Police in Camden County uses a partly digital system? I was in the area monitoring their police frequency the other day when I kept noticing a brief burst of squelch noise followed by a beep. The squelch sound lasted about 1/2 a second and the beep that immediately followed lasted maybe 1/10 of a second. I thought perhaps it was interference from a building, but I noticed it while on the streets in the area. I wondered why the dispatcher couldn't hear it. Then I noticed a couple times that after the noise, the dispatcher acknowledged a unit. But I didn't hear the unit, only the squelch noise, leading me to believe the noise is some kind of digital audio that my scanner, a 396, cant monitor. Is that true?

 

[902]

Does anyone know if Gloucester Twp Police in Camden County uses a partly digital system? I was in the area monitoring their police frequency the other day when I kept noticing a brief burst of squelch noise followed by a beep. The squelch sound lasted about 1/2 a second and the beep that immediately followed lasted maybe 1/10 of a second. I thought perhaps it was interference from a building, but I noticed it while on the streets in the area. I wondered why the dispatcher couldn't hear it. Then I noticed a couple times that after the noise, the dispatcher acknowledged a unit. But I didn't hear the unit, only the squelch noise, leading me to believe the noise is some kind of digital audio that my scanner, a 396, cant monitor. Is that true?

Hmmm, a really high pitch beep at the end? If so, that sounds like pre-P25 digital encryption (DVP, DES, DES-XL, or something similar). I've run across many places where dispatch has a "DIU" (digital interface unit) with a key variable loaded into it, but the dispatcher does not toggle between coded and clear. The cars talk to him in coded and he replies in clear. That sounds like what you're hearing.

Nothing you can do, and they're not broken.

 

[W2SJW]

I've got exactly what you are hearing covered:

http://www.w2sjw.com/radio_sounds.html

And go to the top of 'Section 2'. I wondered about that myself, and got the info from a reliable source - It's DVP-XL

 

[policefreak]

Hmm. Very interesting. So this is only used in a major incident?

 

[Skypilot007]

Gloucester twp has been using that for years. I'd say 80% of their comms are in the clear, dispatch and mobile units. When they switch usually both sides are on it. The police in Medford used to use something very similar on their convential repeater. They used to call it "Voice Guard".

 

[johnyvico]

gtwp

i live in gloucester twp and and is friendly with some on the pd , it use a normal transmison , but when they dont want us hearing they put on the scramble its like an ecription but for convential radios. they have told me then hate it that it messes up the radios if they use it to much and that from it they are always geting repairs. just something we have to live with when we listen ,

 

[policefreak]

thanks to everyone who weighed in on this topic. At least now I know its not something wrong with my radio {:>D !! Although it is kind of frustrating to listen to.