Mute encrypted talk?

[kruser]

Is there a way to make the GRE's (PSR 500,600 and 800) skip over or mute encryption when it detects it like the Uniden XT series can do?

Our local P25 sytem here has a select group of users that are now using encryption. This makes for some very unpleasant monitoring as the talkgroups they use are my favorites and 99% of the users are not encrypted. But when one of the encrypted guys come on (which is fairly often), the sound drives me batty and I end up turning the whole radio off or just lockout the entire talkgroup.
The Uniden 996XT works fine as it skips over anything encrypted but now that the leaves are falling off the trees, I like to use one of the GRE's as they have a better sound quality to my ears.

 

[troymail]

I'm pretty sure at least the 500 "skips" encrypted talkgroups on some systems -- I believe based on the control channel data. However, I also believe it doesn't do this for all ENC activity -- not sure why it does for some and not others.

I'd prefer the option of muting to be informed so I know the talkgroup is there but I can't listen. I'd also prefer the ability to totally ignore ENC talkgroups (user option per TR/system and/or globally) to avoid wasting time stopping on all of the ENC channels stopping the user from hearing everything else.

 

[SCPD]

The PSR-800 can.

 

[gewecke]

I'm pretty sure at least the 500 "skips" encrypted talkgroups on some systems -- I believe based on the control channel data. However, I also believe it doesn't do this for all ENC activity -- not sure why it does for some and not others.

I'd prefer the option of muting to be informed so I know the talkgroup is there but I can't listen. I'd also prefer the ability to totally ignore ENC talkgroups (user option per TR/system and/or globally) to avoid wasting time stopping on all of the ENC channels stopping the user from hearing everything else.

Simple. prog the tg that's ENC or encrypted then tg/lo.
However it can always come up if your wildcard is not locked out.


73,
n9zas

 

[krokus]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.973 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

The OP doesn't want the TG locked out full time. He just doesn't want to hear the encrypted traffic, which sounds like is 10% to 30% of the traffic of that TG.

 

[gewecke]

If he doesn't want to lock out the tg which includes encrypted traffic then I guess #$%&^^%&)*&^& is what he gets to hear.


73,
n9zas

 

[Ed_Seedhouse]

The software that comes with the 800 allows your unit to mute encrypted transmissions. I don't know about the other GRE radios.

 

[kruser]

Thanks everyone. I was hoping GRE had an option I was missing that made it work like the Uniden's. I've not tried the 800 yet but I'll give that a try tomorrow.

And locking out the entire talkgroup is not an option as was pointed out. I've only found a handfull of radio id's that are using encryption but that handful seem to be very active users. The encryption sound is very annoying and pretty much takes the enjoyment of monitoring the system away.

I'll just use the 500 and 600 for systems that have no encryption. Maybe GRE can fix this with firmware as I think the problem is going to affect more and more users as encryption becomes more popular.

I'm guessing all the users on this system must have encryption capability as the others could hear the encrypted guys just fine. I hope this does not mean they will be going to full time encryption.
The system I'm talking about is the City of St. Louis, MO P25 system. There was a post about a year ago on a Yahoo (I think) group that claimed they had inside info that the entire system was to go encrypted in the near future. Maybe that near future is here.

I'll hope the city has decided to only use encyption for those that need it but otherwise leave it off. If this happens, I can only hope that GRE can change something in firmware to allow the 500 and 600 to skip past encrypted talk. Another poster mentioned this and I agree it would be best to simply skip over the talkgroup so as not to tie the radio up doing nothing if it simply mutes the audio and holds on the encrypted comms. That would be better than nothing though.

On the Uniden's, you can hold on a mixed talkgroup and see the radio ID of the encypted comms plus it shows ENC in the display. The Uniden will not show anything if it is scanning or searching - it just skips right on by which is the ideal method in my eyes.
I have not tried this system on Unidens Home Patrol yet so I do not know how it will work but the 396XT and 996XT will skip.

 

[ScannerSK]

Has anyone ever attempted entering an encrypted "radio" ID as a "private" TGRP and then locked out that "private" TGRP to see what occurs? For the times when the scanner receives the initial grant message on the control channel and identifies the encrypted radio ID would it be considered locked out by the scanner?

I am guessing this will not help and the scanner will just revert to displaying the radio ID instead of the alpha tag associated with the locked out "private" TGRP? Any ideas? If anything it gives me something to try out later this morning.

Shawn

 

[krokus]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.973 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Has anyone ever attempted entering an encrypted "radio" ID as a "private" TGRP and then locked out that "private" TGRP to see what occurs? For the times when the scanner receives the initial grant message on the control channel and identifies the encrypted radio ID would it be considered locked out by the scanner?

I am guessing this will not help and the scanner will just revert to displaying the radio ID instead of the alpha tag associated with the locked out "private" TGRP? Any ideas? If anything it gives me something to try out later this morning.

Shawn

Wouldn't that also exclude plain transmissions from any of those radios?

 

[ScannerSK]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.973 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Wouldn't that also exclude plain transmissions from any of those radios?

True, I guess that would be one disadvantage (assuming such a method even works). Using temporary lockouts would re-enable the radio IDs once the scanner is turned back on.

 

[kruser]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.973 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)



Wouldn't that also exclude plain transmissions from any of those radios?

I was thinking the same.
In my case anyway, if it works, it would be a solution, I think.
The radio ID's that I've seen encryption have not talked "in the clear" yet.
At least not while I was listening. I wonder if some of the ones I found are supervisors or something. I also noticed that at least two of the Radio ID's are only two digits away from the dispatchers ID. So these encrypted users may be guys sitting at a desk. This system likely has thousands of RID's.

Of course as has been discussed here at RR in the recent past, Radio ID's do change as was discovered after some frustrated users spent hours compiling a database matching RID's to other info only to find that the ID belonged to someone else the next day. That is why I never really messed with the RID's before but having the ability to display them is neat in this case as it is proving, to me anyway, that only a handful of users are encrypted.

If I get some time later today, I'll try ScannerSK's idea.

 

[Ed_Seedhouse]

In the "advanced" tab of the EX-Scan software that comes with the 800 there is a drop down menu under "Encrypted Digital Audio Settings" and the first menu button under it is labeled "Audio Mode". Click on this and the options are "Digital Noise, "Silence", and "Audio Tone". Presumably selecting "Silence" and then uploading the settings to the 800 will give you what you want. You could also have it play a tone at a low level indicating the channel is using encryption. This suggests that the radio in "silent" mode might still pause on the channel, making no sound, until the transmission ceases to be encrypted, but I do not know if this is so. You might ask GRE about it via email or consult the manual or help files.. The help file says "Silence-When selected, the scanner will mute the audio when an encrypted channel is encountered" If you select "Audio Tone" you will hear an imitation telephone busy signal while the encryption is on.

 

[ScannerSK]

I was thinking the same.
In my case anyway, if it works, it would be a solution, I think.
The radio ID's that I've seen encryption have not talked "in the clear" yet....

If I get some time later today, I'll try ScannerSK's idea.

I just gave the idea of using a private TGRP a try and unfortunately it does not work. When the private TGRP (radio ID) is "locked out" the radio is still heard and the alpha tag associated with the private TGRP is still displayed. Well, it was worth a try...

Shawn

 

[kruser]

I just gave the idea of using a private TGRP a try and unfortunately it does not work. When the private TGRP (radio ID) is "locked out" the radio is still heard and the alpha tag associated with the private TGRP is still displayed. Well, it was worth a try...

Shawn

The idea sounded good. Oh well. Thanks for trying it out.

 

[robschonk]

Just go to the Advanced tab on the GRE software, and under the Encrypted Digital Audio
Setting, change the tab to Silence:

 

[ScannerSK]

Just go to the Advanced tab on the GRE software, and under the Encrypted Digital Audio
Setting, change the tab to Silence:

We were hopeful of a method to do the same on the PSR-500/600 however no such luck. This is one advantage the PSR-800 has over the PSR-500/600.