Passport LTR system

[fyreman252]

Hey guys i am attempting to convince some people who think they know it all when it comes to the radios systems availible. These people are being led to believe that by switching to the LTR passport system they will eliminate scanner listening 100%. The system will be an analog, non-encrypted system. I have explained it to the best of my ability and understanding, but they truly believe that no one can hear this system.
The big catch to this system in our area is it is being designed with 1 tower and only 4 freq's to began with and then over the next few years add 2 more towers and 8 more freqs total.
Can you guy help me with this, these people are being suckered by the radio sales company to go to this system, and spend over 3 million dollars on this system. The whole reason they are wishing to go to this system is to eliminate the possibility of scannerland hearing the traffic, yet i'm 100% positive that scannerland can and will still hear everything due to the low number of freqs being used.

 

[n4yek]

Scanning a Passport system? Yes and No.
You can hear the traffic but you can't Trunk track the system.
Now if they are going to 700 mhz, that makes it more likely
that they won't be heard. Not many scanners are capable of monitoring
that band.
Let them spend the money, then you can show them that it wasn't
100 percent, just partially secure.
Danny
N4YEK

 

[INDY72]

Ummm with an PC and LTRDump/LTRTrack software running a tapped scanner and another lil device you can trunk track an Passport LTR system

 

[KD4YGG]

Re: LTR Passport System

fyreman252

Milf is correct - LTRTRUNK software can trunktrack an LTR Passport system.

Which system are you talking about?

The Montgomery County Public Safety and Government Services systems, although LTR Passport, have been trunktracked using LTRTRUNK - see the respective entries and you'll see talkgroups listed.

As for scanning, yes - it is a little more difficult, but here's some observations:
- Like regular LTR, most talkgroups are "homed" to a single frequency
- Monitor this "home" frequency, and you'll hear 95% of traffic
- Turn the DELAY off on all of the system freqs in your scanner
- You'll still hear the annoying "blips" every 2 seconds, but its better than nothing
- Monitor the repeater inputs - no "blips"

If it's analog and unencrypted - it can be monitored.

 

[INDY72]

If your CLOSE to the system, you can monitor the inputs... and hear the mobiles reply.... but if your too far out, you can as siad, monitor with NO delay on any of the repeater outputs. 99% of LTR, whether its Passport, or Regular, is unencrypted. There is NO current format of LTR that is digital.

 

[bg_nashville]

If you still want to listen to them in the future, I wouldn't try too hard to convince them of anything. They might decide that they need to go the ProVoice digital route.

 

[INDY72]

Actually they would most likely go ASTRO-25 with full encryption. which would SUCK!

 

[fyreman252]

I don't think they will do that...

Believe me, i'm pretty sure they will not go digital anytime in the near, or distant future. This is a county that will not purchase new copy machines because the ones they have still work, even if you have to do a dance to get one page copied, they spent a half a million dollars to buy a building to turn it into a library, then changed thier mind, and sold it for a loss of $250,000, which was imediately (the next day) sold to a large corporation for $2.5 mill. This county is CHEAP, they will not spend the money to go digital, or to even encrypt it. The only reason they are going to this system is because the radio sales company began the sales pitch 2 years ago by convincing them to purchase handheld and mobile radios that were at the time the only radio capable of passport, and know i believe there is only 1 other radio capable, Long story short here... this is a good-ole boy area that is not knowledgeable in this area, and the company that is benefitting from the switch has convinced these people some things that are not true....

Now. a guestion that i have been asked and don't know the answer, maybe someone here will.
I have a pretty good understanding of the system, and the way trunked systems work, if another person is using the radio on say Channel 1 and i'm listening to channel 1, and need to talk to the dispatchers, do i still have to change channels, or can i key my radio and it will automatically change to an open channel. Any ideas...

 

[INDY72]

You will be placed on the first available open voice chan for your tg.