Obviously posts are being read by the GRE development team and one of those most talked about subjects of encryption has spurred a new feature on the latest offering, the PSR-800. This feature could be helpful to some that really desire to block encryption noise, yet hear traffic and see the information on the radio display. A similar feature can be found on the Uniden BCD396XT and BCT996XT where encryption is detected and muted with no tone (or noise) option.
Reading the owner’s manual it mentions:
EncMode, Selects how the radio treats encrypted voice calls. “Noise” plays
the random undecoded encryption noise. “Silent” plays no audio
during the call. “Tone” plays a soft tone for the duration of the
call.
EncLevel, Selects the tone level for tones played during encrypted calls.
OK, so I'm listening to one of my favorite TGID's on a 9600 baud system and I her a few garbles and then a telephone busy signal, thinking to myself, what the heck is that? Not paying too close attention I'm thinking, that I am hearing something on the comm, must be a telephone connect?!?
So, later on I switched the mode to Noise, and yes I heard the normal encrypted noise again, then I switched to Silent and the same thing again, I hear some noise, then silence.
In reviewing the recorded audio (another great feature for scanners), I hear the encryption noise for nearly a second then a busy signal that I assumed to be a telephone in the comm. Occasionally, I hear in the clear voice, then nothing, yet I had the setting on Tone. Checking the signal, it appeared to be loud and clear, with no normal voice distortion, so I was still puzzled.
So later I check the EZ Scan programming help file. I discovered that I was not understanding what it was I was hearing at first, the Tone mentioned is actually a telephone busy type signal and not a soft tone that I was looking for.
This is from the Help file.
Encrypted Digital Audio Settings: Some agencies have decided to encrypt (also referred to as "scramble") their communications. When the scanner receives a channel that is using encryption, the settings in this area are used to determine how the scanner will handle the digital noise.
Audio Mode: This option controls how the sound from an encrypted channel is handled by your scanner. The options available under this setting are:
Digital Noise
When selected, the scanner will pass the encrypted audio to the speaker. Encrypted audio will sound like many beeps and blips throughout the entire transmission.
Silence
When selected, the scanner will mute the audio when an encrypted channel is encountered.
Audio Tone
When selected, the scanner will emit a tone to the speaker to indicate the channel is encrypted. Currently the only option is a busy signal similar to that found when calling a telephone that is busy.
Tone Type: This option selects the audio tone to be used when the Audio Mode is set to Audio Tone. Currently only the Telco Busy option.
Tone Volume: This option allows you to adjust the volume of the tone when used. Negative values will reduce the volume of the tone audio below the current audio level set on the speaker. Positive values will make the audio tone louder than the audio setting.[FONT="]
So apparently the text in the owner’s manual and is either an early version, or just incomplete information. This is a great feature for those of us who need it, however I think the feature could be better at the timing of the encryption blocking at the beginning of the encrypted noise. The text also eludes to a possible future change for different tone choices, or a plan to implement multiple tones, but was dropped. I would like to see a firmware and software change to allow the user to select from the different alert tones already available on the radio. My personal preference would be a “pip” or chirp followed by silence.[/FONT]
Reading the owner’s manual it mentions:
EncMode, Selects how the radio treats encrypted voice calls. “Noise” plays
the random undecoded encryption noise. “Silent” plays no audio
during the call. “Tone” plays a soft tone for the duration of the
call.
EncLevel, Selects the tone level for tones played during encrypted calls.
OK, so I'm listening to one of my favorite TGID's on a 9600 baud system and I her a few garbles and then a telephone busy signal, thinking to myself, what the heck is that? Not paying too close attention I'm thinking, that I am hearing something on the comm, must be a telephone connect?!?
So, later on I switched the mode to Noise, and yes I heard the normal encrypted noise again, then I switched to Silent and the same thing again, I hear some noise, then silence.
In reviewing the recorded audio (another great feature for scanners), I hear the encryption noise for nearly a second then a busy signal that I assumed to be a telephone in the comm. Occasionally, I hear in the clear voice, then nothing, yet I had the setting on Tone. Checking the signal, it appeared to be loud and clear, with no normal voice distortion, so I was still puzzled.
So later I check the EZ Scan programming help file. I discovered that I was not understanding what it was I was hearing at first, the Tone mentioned is actually a telephone busy type signal and not a soft tone that I was looking for.
This is from the Help file.
Encrypted Digital Audio Settings: Some agencies have decided to encrypt (also referred to as "scramble") their communications. When the scanner receives a channel that is using encryption, the settings in this area are used to determine how the scanner will handle the digital noise.
Audio Mode: This option controls how the sound from an encrypted channel is handled by your scanner. The options available under this setting are:
Digital Noise
When selected, the scanner will pass the encrypted audio to the speaker. Encrypted audio will sound like many beeps and blips throughout the entire transmission.
Silence
When selected, the scanner will mute the audio when an encrypted channel is encountered.
Audio Tone
When selected, the scanner will emit a tone to the speaker to indicate the channel is encrypted. Currently the only option is a busy signal similar to that found when calling a telephone that is busy.
Tone Type: This option selects the audio tone to be used when the Audio Mode is set to Audio Tone. Currently only the Telco Busy option.
Tone Volume: This option allows you to adjust the volume of the tone when used. Negative values will reduce the volume of the tone audio below the current audio level set on the speaker. Positive values will make the audio tone louder than the audio setting.[FONT="]
So apparently the text in the owner’s manual and is either an early version, or just incomplete information. This is a great feature for those of us who need it, however I think the feature could be better at the timing of the encryption blocking at the beginning of the encrypted noise. The text also eludes to a possible future change for different tone choices, or a plan to implement multiple tones, but was dropped. I would like to see a firmware and software change to allow the user to select from the different alert tones already available on the radio. My personal preference would be a “pip” or chirp followed by silence.[/FONT]
