Nashville Fire Encryption

[SlantedJohnny101]

Hello all,

I have not been keeping up to date with the encryption for metro recently, but I did look today and I see the recent update showing all new talk groups for Metro FD with "DE". Can anyone confirm when they are fully switching? I didn't think the plan was for them to go full encrypted also, just PD.

 

[WX4JCW]

Looks like they may be doing it, and looks like the plan may have changed after the bombing

 

[MattBNA]

Regardless of what the plan may be, the Metro Fire 'Bravo' channels (other than the usual B3 and B5 encryption) are still not encrypted as of 2/18 - which certainly makes the change to the database on 2/11 that now shows them as being encrypted inaccurate as of today.

Why was this change made to the database without an encryption change actually taking place to the radio system? <shrug>

Matt

--

 

[yardbird]

Complete BS.

Fire and Ems comms shouldn't be encrypted.

I can understand certain law enforcement channels should

But dispatch give me a break

Keep on the honest man is going to get screwed.

 

[surfacemount]

Regardless of what the plan may be, the Metro Fire 'Bravo' channels (other than the usual B3 and B5 encryption) are still not encrypted as of 2/18 - which certainly makes the change to the database on 2/11 that now shows them as being encrypted inaccurate as of today.

Why was this change made to the database without an encryption change actually taking place to the radio system? <shrug>

Matt

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I don't know them or their situation at all, but I know bureaucracy.

Perhaps they don't have OTAR implemented yet, and someone realized they were going to have to have a tech crawl over each piece of apparatus and every station system and every portable every time a key dropped or needed to be changed?

Maybe cooler heads prevailed? Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it yet due to covid contact rules or something?

 

[TNDispatcher]

ALL OF MTRTRS PUBLIC SAFETY WILL EVENTUALLY GO FULL E. THIS IS FROM A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE.

 

[WX4JCW]

ALL OF MTRTRS PUBLIC SAFETY WILL EVENTUALLY GO FULL E. THIS IS FROM A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE.

caps

 

[buddrousa]

Speak up I can not hear you.

 

[CORN]

Sad. I liked listening to the FD better than the police. I wish they’d send cease and desist letters to end the feeds before locking us all out

 

[MattBNA]

Perhaps they don't have OTAR implemented yet, and someone realized they were going to have to have a tech crawl over each piece of apparatus and every station system and every portable every time a key dropped or needed to be changed?

Maybe cooler heads prevailed? Maybe they just haven't gotten around to it yet due to covid contact rules or something?

The radio work has long since taken place and all talk groups other than 'Bravo' (with the exception of B3 and B5) are already encrypted. That's been done since around the same time that everything at Metro PD went encrypted. It's simply a matter of 'flipping the switch' (so to speak) for the Bravo channels at this point...but it hasn't actually happened as of yet.

--

 

[MattBNA]

ALL OF MTRTRS PUBLIC SAFETY WILL EVENTUALLY GO FULL E. THIS IS FROM A VERY RELIABLE SOURCE.

Yes, that's been known for a looong time now - but it still hasn't happened to the MNFD Bravo channels as of yet, so going ahead and showing them that way in the database since last weekend (which will ultimately roll down to a lot of end user scanners during database updates) doesn't exactly make sense.


Matt

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@ericcarlson

 

[ccfd7031]

What algo are they using on the system?

 

[motoapco25]

ADP system wide HW AES i think on SWAT CSU Ect.

 

[medic9351301]

well the feed is still up on broadcastify:
b1 b2 what ever that is i am not from that area

 

[jpryor]

Seeing the DB still has both the old and the new B zone. Perhaps a note is needed that FD currently in the clear and all will be encrypted once the switch is completed. Looking like similar to PD switch, where old and new channels were listed for a bit until the old were removed. Last I saw Metro Fire was still carrying XTS5000 portables, unlike Police which had been APX for some time. The Metro Police transition to full dispatch encryption took about 9-10 months once radio reprogramming began. Definitively did not have an over the air programming capability at that time. The last all the Fire radios were touched and updated, took many weeks/months as well. Depending on if current fire radios will be reprogrammed or new APX radios handed out, may determine how quick of a switch.

 

[TNDispatcher]

I know all medic units have gone APX and all Chiefs have APX as well

 

[WX4JCW]

Still Clear as of today haven't detected any new activity on the new talk groups

 

[TNDispatcher]

still clear

 

[jpryor]

Clear channels will remain until all radios are converted to encrypted channels. This is following the same kind of conversion like when B3/B5 were encrypted. Patches were up between clear and encrypted channels until everything was eventually updated. As of this morning, based on checking UniTrunker affiliation data against clear versus encrypted channels, about 30% of the Metro Nashville Fire radios have been updated.

IE a Fire Dispatch going out over both B1 in the clear and on the new encrypted B1 channel:

 

[KN4EHX]

I think there is a real danger in going all E across the board. Regardless of media or the public, information pertaining to public safety needs to be quickly accessible. Having to rely on the respected agencies to put out a message on social media of an ongoing situation isn’t exactly the best approach to alerting the public of a hazardous event. While I do believe there needs to be a method of securing radio traffic; 90% or more can safely transmitted in the clear. Social security numbers or sensitive information needs be to E, but the rest should be freely available to the people. On the other hand knowing 3 lanes are blocked on I-40 due to a wreck is information that needs to be available. Seems E will eventually become the norm all around. Sorry for the rant.

Interoperability!

Do they have a plan for how they will disseminate information to the public? Social media is great in theory, but not everyone is computer literate in addition the information needs to filter down even more. I suppose if they are 30% of the way updated they will have some time to ponder those questions, but answers might come after the fact.