Mall of America - New System License

[stmills]

Mall of America has received a new System License for a Mototrbo System with 4 Repeater frequencies running 110watts erp and 800 mobiles/portables.
461.4375
463.8750
461.6250
461.9250
This appears to be a replacement to the current Kenwood LTR system.
I am most surprised they have stayed on LTR as long as they have. I suspect this system will incorporate encryption too but have no confirmation of that.
Mall of America Radio Systems
1992-2001 Motorola 800mHz Motorola STX Portables
2001-2015 Kenwood UHF LTR Kenwood TK380, TK3140, TK3180.
2015- Motorola UHF Mototrbo

 

[SCPD]

Mall of America has received a new System License for a Mototrbo System with 4 Repeater frequencies running 110watts erp and 800 mobiles/portables.
461.4375
463.8750
461.6250
461.9250
This appears to be a replacement to the current Kenwood LTR system.
I am most surprised they have stayed on LTR as long as they have. I suspect this system will incorporate encryption too but have no confirmation of that.
Mall of America Radio Systems
1992-2001 Motorola 800mHz Motorola STX Portables
2001-2015 Kenwood UHF LTR Kenwood TK380, TK3140, TK3180.
2015- Motorola UHF Mototrbo

No surprise, I predicted this a while ago. All the security ops will be encrypted and maybe even using RAS since the MOA was a known ISIS target and they need to keep communications secure. I would have thought that they would use Nexedge over Motorola since they are all Kenwood in the analog world. I am afraid that the days of monitoring MOA are coming to an end. Hell analog LTR is a dying product as Mobile Radio Engineering is starting to migrate all their analog users to their Nexedge system, it's a slow process and will take some time. I am still kind of surprised they don't have a patched talkgroup to ARMER since the Bloomington PD officers that work the Mall detail on some occasions carry 2 radios on them.

 

[stmills]

I agree they will probably enable RAS, I have always been surprised they did not add PASSPORT to better secure the LTR system.
Bloomington and the Mall attempted to setup a joint 800 mHz system prior to the mall switching to UHF LTR and there license was denied by the FCC.
It is very common for Law Enforcement to carry two radios when they are working an assignment at a location that has its own radio system- Xcel Energy Center, Minneapolis Convention Center, Target Center, Target Field. They are activly monitoring two separate systems that both may need them at the same time. In an active incident the officer will be coordinating a response from officers on the Police radio, while getting updates and info of the site radio.
The Mototrbo system will allow for easy crosspatching between MOA and ARMER for TAC channels which I hope they are able to get set up for some of the large incidents that have taken place at the Mall. The Smart Phone apps will be a nice option for the malls Undercover staff.

 

[techsender]

Mall of America has received a new System License for a Mototrbo System with 4 Repeater frequencies running 110watts erp and 800 mobiles/portables.
461.4375
463.8750
461.6250
461.9250
This appears to be a replacement to the current Kenwood LTR system.
I am most surprised they have stayed on LTR as long as they have. I suspect this system will incorporate encryption too but have no confirmation of that.
Mall of America Radio Systems
1992-2001 Motorola 800mHz Motorola STX Portables
2001-2015 Kenwood UHF LTR Kenwood TK380, TK3140, TK3180.
2015- Motorola UHF Mototrbo

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[JASII]

Mall Of America - New System License

I am actually somewhat surprised that they change so often. This will be the third completely different system since they opened. The question in my mind is what is prompting the change? Is the current system so completely worn out and does it simply not handle all of the traffic there? I haven't listened lately, but I have monitored them in the past and the system seemed to be perform properly.

I, too, am slightly surprised that there isn't an ARMER presence. Considering that schools in Hennepin County are on ARMER. I get that it is for public sector, but there are some other non-public entities on it, too.

As far as being a target goes, I won't dispute that. However, I would consider arming mall security officers at some point to step up the safety level.

 

[stmills]

They 800 to UHF was in part due to Nextel expanding and buying up 800 MHz radio licenses. The 800 system was always licensed to Motorola not MOA so I am not sure if it was a leased system or how that was set up.
If the repeaters are the originals from when they went to LTR- they are likely due for replacement, but the new license with Trbo only- no analog- leads me to think that the transition to a new format is a major part to this not just equipment replacement.

 

[n9upc]

The old 800 Mhz system that MOA used to use was owned by Motorola and was a lease system that anybody could really use if they wanted to rent time on the system. I used to work for a radio company that took care of that system. It was located on the rooftop of one of the old hotels that have been torn down that was located to the NE of the mall.

Part of the issue for moving to the UHF system was that they wanted more coverage in the building as well as not having that many people on the system. Towards the end they were getting a busy on the system due to system congestion. Also they were limited in the amount of talkgroups that they could have because they were leasing the system. With the UHF LTR they owned they could increase or decrease talkgroups and users on an as needed basis. Also they ended up adding mall renters on to the system so they created revenue.

Moving to a more common system with a level of encryption is really a no brainer. While I am not sure of the radio shop doing the work I could see the mall being sold on the fact that it can do encryption, double channel capacity, as well as integrate some of the features that a Turbo based system can do.

Since I do not travel down by MOA that much anymore I have not monitored the system in awhile. However, it was fun to listen to due to some of the conversations. I do remember at one time that MOA was going to try to petition to get on the ARMER System but I thought that before the ball was even rolling that they were told that they would get denied because they are not public safety. (Please NOTE that I heard that as word of mouth so I am not saying it happened or if it was true.)

 

[stmills]

Made a trip to MOA today and the new radio of issue is the Motorola XPR7550 full keypad and display radio, and everyone I saw was using a speaker mic also. I did not have my DSDPlus scanner along so no attempts at monitoring today.

 

[dgruber]

I programmed some MOA frequency's in my CS750 and all traffic coming across was encrypted.

 

[JASII]

Mall Of America - New System License

Dgruber,

The school district, ISD196, also went to MOTO TRBO. Are you able to program that in and see if it is encrypted or not?

 

[dgruber]

I go to a school in district196 and I listen every day. It's not encrypted and it's a capacity plus system.

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[JASII]

Mall Of America - New System License

Do you also have the Time Slots, Color Codes, and talk-groups names that they use?

 

[ka9rxk]

I recently took my daughter and grandkids to the MOA for vacation. While my daughter was taking pictures of the girls meeting their favorite Nickelodeon characters, I snapped this picture of the worker's XPR7550.

She thought that I was nuts. It's a Motorola thing. You wouldn't understand.

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[dgruber]

Jasii i do not have MOA Programmed into my radio anymore so I don't know any of that info.

 

[sfd119]

Jasii i do not have MOA Programmed into my radio anymore so I don't know any of that info.

But you would have had it to program it in? How do not have the info now??

 

[JASII]

Mall Of America - New System License

Jasii i do not have MOA Programmed into my radio anymore so I don't know any of that info.

I meant for ISD 196.

 

[dgruber]

Sure the district uses 2 frequency's 464.175 and 464.975. Both are Color Code 14. They use both time slot's on both frequency's. the talk groups switch from time slot to time slot and frequency to frequency. Talk group 12 is special ed bus channel (400-500 Buses). Talk Group 100 is District wide. Talk Group 10 is Regular ed channel (200-350 Buses.) Lastly Talk Group 11 is the Shop channel but i am not a 100% on that.

 

[SCPD]

I programmed some MOA frequency's in my CS750 and all traffic coming across was encrypted.

No surprise on the encryption, everyone was expecting it. Just wondering if it's basic or enhanced privacy.

 

[box23]

No surprise on the encryption, everyone was expecting it. Just wondering if it's basic or enhanced privacy.

If they are smart, AES256. Basic is not at all secure. Enhanced is somewhat better, but degrades the audio.

 

[RayAir]

It was my understanding that if you tried to listen to Enhanced Privacy (40-bit) transmission with a radio without an EP key in it, the radio won't unmute.

So when you listened to this system on your CS750, was it in monitor mode?