Marin Emergency Radio Authority (MERA) Encrypted?

JM707

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 11, 2018
Messages
32
Is (or was) the Marin Emergency Radio Authority (MERA) encrypted? I few days ago I loaded MERA into my SDS200 and was able to listen to police, fire, hospital, etc. P25 transmissions loud and clear all the way up here in northern Sonoma County. I'm using an Icom AH-7000 antenna about 600' above sea level. Today 8/10/2022 I’m hearing nothing. Does anyone know what happened? I just bought the SDS200 and MERA was the first P25 system I could monitor (Sonoma County is still mostly analog). Kind of a bummer it went dead on me so soon.
 

officer_415

Member
Database Admin
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Messages
1,254
Location
SF Bay Area
Is (or was) the Marin Emergency Radio Authority (MERA) encrypted? I few days ago I loaded MERA into my SDS200 and was able to listen to police, fire, hospital, etc. P25 transmissions loud and clear all the way up here in northern Sonoma County. I'm using an Icom AH-7000 antenna about 600' above sea level. Today 8/10/2022 I’m hearing nothing. Does anyone know what happened? I just bought the SDS200 and MERA was the first P25 system I could monitor (Sonoma County is still mostly analog). Kind of a bummer it went dead on me so soon.

Nothing has changed, everything is in the clear except special investigations and SWAT. Which site are you monitoring?
 

JM707

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 11, 2018
Messages
32
Nothing has changed, everything is in the clear except special investigations and SWAT. Which site are you monitoring?
Turns out I’m an idiot. I turned the scanner on but didn’t rotate the volume enough. That’s why I couldn’t hear anything when it stopped on a channel. I assumed they turned on encryption. My bad. It’s coming in loud and clear today.
 

kg6nlw

Railroad & Ham Radio Extrodinare
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 1, 2007
Messages
1,060
Location
Sonoma Co., California
Also FWIW, MERA is not P25, it is Motorola Type II, a precursor to P25 of sorts. ;)

Regards,

-Frank C.
 

W6UNF

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 7, 2013
Messages
5
Anyone have any info on San Rafael fire. I can hear the main dispatch but there are others that drop out after a word or 2 and its just static. I thought they might have encrypted it.
 

W6UNF

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 7, 2013
Messages
5
Thanks. It seems to be working. The signal would break the squelch and maybe hear a word, then static while it held the scanner.
Weird.
 
Top