HP-1E & Encrypted Talkgroups

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Forts

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Picked up an HP-1E over the weekend and I'm pretty pleased with it thus far. However I have come across one very annoying trait and I'm wondering if others see it as well. I'm monitoring a multi-site mixed mode Motorola system that has a series of encrypted police talkgroups. When I'm scanning and any of these groups comes active the HP-1 briefly stops on the talkgroup and lets out a little sqwak of digital noise before realizing it's encrypted and carrying on it's way. While this wouldn't really be an issues if it only did it once in a while, it does it ALL the time. If I was listening with headphones I would be ready to toss it across the room. And yes, I realize I can just avoid that talkgroup, but occasionally there is some clear traffic on these channels.

Is this an issue for anyone else?
 

markab

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Yup, same problem

Picked up an HP-1E over the weekend and I'm pretty pleased with it thus far. However I have come across one very annoying trait and I'm wondering if others see it as well. I'm monitoring a multi-site mixed mode Motorola system that has a series of encrypted police talkgroups. When I'm scanning and any of these groups comes active the HP-1 briefly stops on the talkgroup and lets out a little sqwak of digital noise before realizing it's encrypted and carrying on it's way. While this wouldn't really be an issues if it only did it once in a while, it does it ALL the time. If I was listening with headphones I would be ready to toss it across the room. And yes, I realize I can just avoid that talkgroup, but occasionally there is some clear traffic on these channels.

Is this an issue for anyone else?

Hi Forts,
I've had my HP-1E now for about 6 weeks and I encounter the same problem when monitoring a multi-site mixed mode Motorola system. But it doesn't do it will all encrypted channels. It seems to do it only with several Guelph Police channels. I'm sorry to hear your having this problem but Im glad I'm not the only one. I wonder if Paul is aware of this? I was going to post my own message about this but I've been quite busy. Hopefully this can be addressed with a patch.

Regards,
Mark

PS: I forgot to mention that even if I mark the channel as Avoid it will still temporarily stop (1/4 sec.) and squawk on the encrypted channels. Very strange.
 
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markab

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Brain fart! Disregard my "PS". I am able to successfully Avoid encrypted channels. Perhaps I was using temporary Avoid before. I've also noticed that sometimes the encrypted channel will just flash on the screen with no leaked audio. Other times I get between 1/8 - 1/4 second audio burst.

Mark
 

ofd8001

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Sometimes it depends upon the type of encryption used. If it is the high-level AES, the scanner won't stop on it. However if it is the lower level, Motorola proprietary ADP, then it does stop and make a weird noise. If the channel is always encrypted, then to avoid the annoyance, just lock it out.
 

Forts

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That's the problem, it's not always encrypted so I don't want to lock it out. It's only the HP-1 that exhibits this behaviour, my Pro-106, 107 & 396XT all behave as they should. I do notice the 396XT pausing on these same talkgroups sometimes with 'ENC' shown on the display and it continues scanning. No annoying audio sneaking thru, which is much more pleasing to the ears.
 

Jay911

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That's how all Uniden scanners have behaved in my experience. On Motorola systems, the "status bit" clearly indicates when a particular talkgroup is carrying encrypted traffic. Even if you mask it, the scanner still knows, so IMO it should pass on by anything with the encrypted bit enabled. For some reason, that's never been implemented.
 

AZScanner

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Be glad the scanner skips them at all. I've got an old BC796D that will dutifully decode all the encrypted bits and bytes it comes across, resulting in a noise that can only be described as the sound an intimate encounter between R2D2 and an old school Commodore 64 would make. Lots of fun when you've got the volume cranked to about 50% or more. :roll:

I mean really, I know the BC796 is a dinosaur but how hard would a firmware update be that skipped encryption? I'm just saying... carry on.

/jealous. :)
-AZ
 
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