New to Harris radios and ProVoice

[AlabamaWeather]

Hey guys I'm pretty new to the Harris radios as I usually use Motorola however there is a provoice system in my area that I want to monitor using a Harris radio. I searched this forum for non-affiliation scanning and the threads I saw seemed several years old.
Someone that is more familiar with Harris programming can you assist me in advising if I will be able to monitor the system listed below?
Also does this system require a system key like moto requires?

Oklahoma City Trunking System, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Scanner Frequencies

Thanks!

 

[CanesFan95]

No, you won't need a system key for an EDACS system. Not sure about the latest software, but I know at least older software easily allows you to disable transmit including auto-affiliate (login). Support for EDACS is going away soon though.

 

[Forts]

I see to recall reading somewhere, back in the day, that this system used ESK (EDACS Security Key) which basically is used to keep 'real' radios from listening to the system (scanners aren't affected by this). You might want to search thru the Oklahoma forum and see what you can turn up. Aside from that EDACS doesn't use a system key like P25, so any ProVoice enabled radio would do the trick.

 

[kb4cvn]

On the POWER UP OPTIONS screen, make sure that AUTO LOGIN is not enabled.

On the GROUPS SET screen, make sure that TRANSMIT is not checked for every talkgroup. I also recommend that CALLS is also unchecked.


Looked at the webpage on RR for the OKC system.
A = analog
D = digital, which in this case means ProVoice.

M = what the heck does this mean? Never seen it used before...

 

[Forts]

'M' is mixed analog/digital. Don't think I've ever seen that on an EDACS system.

 

[CanesFan95]

If you hover your mouse pointer over the column title, it displays a tool tip with a legend for the 'A', 'D', 'M' abbreviations.

 

[nd5y]

'M' is mixed analog/digital. Don't think I've ever seen that on an EDACS system.

I have. Some talkgroups can have one transmission in analog and the next PV digital.

 

[Forts]

Good to know!

 

[GM]

'M' is mixed analog/digital. Don't think I've ever seen that on an EDACS system.

Middlesex County, NJ-USA EDACS system had a few of the base station consoles in the Sheriff's Dept that was transmit-analog, and the mobiles and portables in the field were ProVoice digital when that system was on the air...

 

[kb4cvn]

Middlesex County, NJ-USA EDACS system had a few of the base station consoles in the Sheriff's Dept that was transmit-analog, and the mobiles and portables in the field were ProVoice digital when that system was on the air...

When I was creating fleetmaps, and master personality files for customers, I strongly discouraged the use of mixed format on a single talkgroup.

On an EDACS system, you have 2048 available talkgroups, regardless of A/F/S structure.

If a talkgroup is analog. Keep it that way.
Unencrypted digital. Keep it that way.
Encrypted digital. Keep it that way.

Don't mix formats. That is why you see systems were one side of a conversation is secure (or unencrypted digital) and the other-side is clear. This is how people accidentally screw-up and discuss something sensitive in the clear and not in secure. (I personally saw Reagan's motorcade have to be rerouted because someone was given the route back to the airport in secure, and repeated it back to his Supervisor in the clear!)

This is called AUTOSELECT mode, and is a throwback to conventional, were the users/agency only had one conventional frequency or repeater for all of their comm traffic. With AUTOSELECT, if someone calls you (trunked or conventional) in secure mode, and you reply within a predetermined time period, you reply in secure mode. Past that time period, you reply in clear mode. The timing value is your SCAN HANG TIME. The big issue comes in were users have their radios programmed for zero (Ø) hang time.

Back in the edacs and conventional era, clear equaled analog voice. Digital has a 'digital' sound to it. Users could tell the difference. With the advent of P-25 systems, everything is digital, and therefore has the 'digital sound' to it. You cannot tell !!!

This is why I would always program radios for FORCED ON encryption mode. (Moto called this 'strapped' encryption.) No chance to screw-up.


My humble 2¢ worth....