Normally, members of the Vegas Area Radio Geek Alerting Network utilize limos dispatched by the 'adult entertainment establishment' promoters to get to & fro along the Las Vegas Strip area (listen to 452.750 & 452.4375 DMR CC9 amongst others -- WPMP801 Cap+ system to hear these limos, though we force them to maintain radio-silence when VARGAN is involved), but Friday night, select VARGAN members took to the more pedestrian method of riding the Las Vegas Monorail to go from our suites at the Westgate Las Vegas to wine, women, song & radio-festivities at the MGM Grand. A round-trip between those two fine locales increased the liklihood that the VARGAN operatives would encounter Las Vegas Monorail Corp. security and/or maintenance personnel, then perform trickery & deceit as-necessary to observe LVM employee communication devices.
Arriving at the MGM Grand Station around 070730Z MAR20, VARGAN Radio Identification Specialists observed a cluster of three LVM Security Officers attempting to fix an escalator. When asked "How do you like your new radio system?" All three looked up & chimed-in that they're very happy with it, and it's 100 times better than the old system!" Unfortunately, all that could be observed from the vantage-point were big Motorola RSMs (speaker-mics). Not to keep the eager women waiting, we departed the station to commit higher-priority shenanigans.
Fast-forwarding about an 90 minutes later, some VARGAN operatives, but not the Radio Identification Specialist contingent, meandered back to the MGM Grand Monorail Station to head back to the Westgate-LV. They bravely sacrificed taking the Northbound Monorail that had just arrived, & loitered until it departed, so they could then inconspicuously walk further down the platform area to where a sole LVM Security Officer was standing & have 5+ minutes to surveil him before the next Northward train arrived at the station. Using a pretext, a conversation was started with him ("Excuse me sir, what time's the next train to Helsinki?") and he was visually distracted while another VARGAN operative bravely risked arrest for lewd activity by staring intently and even photographing the unwitting LV Monorail officer's waist area, where his RADIO was mounted to his belt. Despite not having VARGAN Radio Identification Specialist indoctrination, this operative had completed the VARGAN RIS prerequisite home-study course and recognized the Las Vegas Monorail Corporation Security Officer's radio to be a... MOTOROLA SL300 (with RSM).
VARGAN was surprised to observe a mere SL300, instead of something like an XPR7550/7580/7590 capable of Capacity+, but when you consider that even during the busiest of times (IWCE & NAB), they really just
need two voice channels, and that their required RF coverage really doesn't mandate a large footprint extending far beyond LV Monorail property -- so either one well-placed DMR repeater with good ERP, and/or some Bi-Directional Amplifiers/Distributed Antenna Systems -- the cute little SL300s make some sense (especially if you also consider the LV Mornorail is losing $$ & the relatively cheap SL300s do have Transmit Interrupt Capability in DMR mode).
SL300s cover VHF, or 403-470MHz, FM & DMR, simplex & repeater, but do NOT do Capacity+, encryption, etc. While the prior analog 800MHz TRS they used had numerous talk-groups for them, it's likely that their new system just has one or two RF channels, providing a couple talk group channels (Security & Maintenance/Custodians). Based on their traffic loading & somewhat unique lexicon ("Control, please hold train 3 at Convention Center," "Fare-evader at Sahara" et al), it shouldn't take long to locate their RF channels.
NOTE: THIS IS AN UNCLASSIFIED, PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS & FINDING BY VARGAN, SUBJECT TO REVIEW AND CORRECTION UPON FURTHER DATA ACQUISITION AND STUDY.
