The end of scanning Walmart?

[Giddyuptd]

This can help the company monitor what their employees do during before and after work. Also why pay more wages the company gives you more stuff instead.

There is a a lot who would most likely just use it for work. Though being one of the largest retailers and employers for many low or upper low income some would benefit using this saving onan cell bill which would get them far these days depending where you live. For some thats a extra 50 to 100 dollars saved in their personal pocket.

 

[radioman2008]

Really? For history? Somehow I can't see archiving "Cleanup on aisle 5" but maybe that's just me.

I archive recordings of many conventional frequencies, and Trunked systems. majority of people may not care about "cleanup on isle 5" but years from now, long after such monitorable activity is gone, someone may find it interesting to hear what they sounded like.

theres so much ham/commercial/police/FD etc.. i wish i had recorded in the 80s and 90s.

If i record a frequency such as Walmart long enough, there's always going to be some funny comment or something said that they think no one can hear.
sometime s those comments or discussions are Gold. I don't always know about such comments until I process the audio months or years later.
about 6 years ago, i went thru a drive thru, recording them while telling them my order, i was being silly and requesting odd things that they couldn't do like putting a apple pie inside of a big mac. its fun make such requests, but their internal headset comments about me are really funny, thinking no one could hear them.

same for HME COM400 Drive thru analog systems, the 457.5125 457.5375 ETC... I keep an active database of all known analog drive thrus in central and west central Florida, I try to travel to them each year to record each one for a example and update my Database with the ones that have gone out of service in the last year.
when I was a teenager 30 years ago in my early days of radio I used to jam and interfere with drive thru systems and as an old guy today I regret that, I've actually regretted it for many years. so my positive contribution is to record the remaining analog locations for history.

Taking a trip to Tennessee in a few weeks, ill have all my recording scanners with me, recording everything they can hear while driving thru each state. they make separate directories for every frequency and PL/DPL/NAC/CC/RAN OR TG if Trunked.
I really enjoy the analog country police and FD departments out in the boonies. hearing their twang voice. eventually those analog police and fire departments will be digital (possibly encrypted) and having a recording of the analog might be quite valuable to some people, I Know I will appreciate all of it, and look forward to sharing as much as i can with anyone interested in radio history.

there's a guy named Evan Doorbell on youtube, he was a Phone hacker in the 1960s to the 80s. not really unusual in itself, but what was unusual? He recorded so much of his Phreaking and now in his 60s hes making audio recordings on youtube with a narrated discussion about what hes doing to operate the network and what the old networks were doing. so fascinating. my recordings may be like that for the radio scanning community many years from now.

 

[radioman2008]

Taco Bell has been upgrading from HME systems to something newView attachment 104740

Got this and some headsets in my dumpster adventures
Fcc ID BYMBASE6000

I dont see those too often any more, they are less common than the UHF COM400 version. the 6000 is either analog or digital 2.4Ghz ive seen references to both versions
wish i had a 2.4Ghz scanner, i could have got some Arbys drive thru audio, but they have since upgraded to the HME ION 2.4Ghz Digital system, the model everyone is going to, not monitorable.

 

[chrismol1]

I'll bet that would be a HUGE investment to program tones for the all the radios used by a slew of stores, I'm guessing the higher ups would have a major issue with spending that kind of $$$ lol...

The dumbest part of the murs channel lineups on the walmart models is that channels 1 & 2 are CSQ, no tones 154.57 & 154.600, the most common freqs haha. So what does everybody do with a radio out of the box? Turn it on to find channel 1 and leave it there. channels 3-7 have tones, and the radios tones can be changed on the fly if anybody wanted to

 

[K5MPH]

The walmart in my area some are using UV-5R.......

 

[Fireincarnate1]

The walmart in my area some are using UV-5R.......

Are they using channel mode or frequency mode? I don't think baofeng's are certified to use MURS or GMRS, unless they are using a commercial license.

 

[chrismol1]

Are they using channel mode or frequency mode? I don't think baofeng's are certified to use MURS or GMRS, unless they are using a commercial license.

The individual employees buy them. We always had somebody buy a baofeng off ebay or wherever. They were not company supplied. What happens is you get overwhelemed by the bull**** and these poor smucks spend their own money on equipment so they don't have to deal with more problems than they already do. Often Electronics would buy one or someone in a service area where one was not supplied so they could get a manager for assistance. Our market manager said NO MORE OVERHEAD PAGES , because we'd paged so much it made the company look bad, but they didn't supply any equipment to make the job easier nor for the customers. Walmart is all about appearances while saving themselves money

 

[RoninJoliet]

Here in shorewood Illinois there talking in what looks like a cell phone

 

[empireco]

I archive recordings of many conventional frequencies, and Trunked systems. majority of people may not care about "cleanup on isle 5" but years from now, long after such monitorable activity is gone, someone may find it interesting to hear what they sounded like.

theres so much ham/commercial/police/FD etc.. i wish i had recorded in the 80s and 90s.

If i record a frequency such as Walmart long enough, there's always going to be some funny comment or something said that they think no one can hear.
sometime s those comments or discussions are Gold. I don't always know about such comments until I process the audio months or years later.
about 6 years ago, i went thru a drive thru, recording them while telling them my order, i was being silly and requesting odd things that they couldn't do like putting a apple pie inside of a big mac. its fun make such requests, but their internal headset comments about me are really funny, thinking no one could hear them.

same for HME COM400 Drive thru analog systems, the 457.5125 457.5375 ETC... I keep an active database of all known analog drive thrus in central and west central Florida, I try to travel to them each year to record each one for a example and update my Database with the ones that have gone out of service in the last year.
when I was a teenager 30 years ago in my early days of radio I used to jam and interfere with drive thru systems and as an old guy today I regret that, I've actually regretted it for many years. so my positive contribution is to record the remaining analog locations for history.

Taking a trip to Tennessee in a few weeks, ill have all my recording scanners with me, recording everything they can hear while driving thru each state. they make separate directories for every frequency and PL/DPL/NAC/CC/RAN OR TG if Trunked.
I really enjoy the analog country police and FD departments out in the boonies. hearing their twang voice. eventually those analog police and fire departments will be digital (possibly encrypted) and having a recording of the analog might be quite valuable to some people, I Know I will appreciate all of it, and look forward to sharing as much as i can with anyone interested in radio history.

there's a guy named Evan Doorbell on youtube, he was a Phone hacker in the 1960s to the 80s. not really unusual in itself, but what was unusual? He recorded so much of his Phreaking and now in his 60s hes making audio recordings on youtube with a narrated discussion about what hes doing to operate the network and what the old networks were doing. so fascinating. my recordings may be like that for the radio scanning community many years from now.

You don't know how bad I wish I had some recordings of my monitoring sessions from the late 80's early 90's especially from voice pagers!
I would pay money to hear some of them again and I've scoured the internet looking for a source but can't find one.
I've heard some incredible things over voice pagers and really wish I had recorded the sessions, they were an everyday run of the mill thing then so didn't even think to record, I had no idea that they would be GONE so fast.

 

[Fireincarnate1]

The individual employees buy them. We always had somebody buy a baofeng off ebay or wherever. They were not company supplied. What happens is you get overwhelemed by the bull**** and these poor smucks spend their own money on equipment so they don't have to deal with more problems than they already do. Often Electronics would buy one or someone in a service area where one was not supplied so they could get a manager for assistance. Our market manager said NO MORE OVERHEAD PAGES , because we'd paged so much it made the company look bad, but they didn't supply any equipment to make the job easier nor for the customers. Walmart is all about appearances while saving themselves money

I would like see them use a baofeng when the whole store uses DLR radios.

 

[Fireincarnate1]

The local Costco near me uses DLR radios. I can hear them on my DTR radios when I'm in range. The DLRs are a good way for Walmart* and other retail giants to go. I use DTR radios as my professional quality digital replacement for FRS for local on-site simplex type use with family and friends. They are amazing radios. My wife and I use our DTRs all the time when we are out shopping or doing whatever, including when shopping at Walmart*.

The DLRs and DTRs will talk to each other right out of the box at the factory default settings. No programming with the CPS is required to get them talking to each other. I have found people seem to use them right out of the box at the factory default settings like FRS bubble packs. Chances are that the DLR radios at your Walmart* has are operating right out of the box at the factory default settings. If this is the case, then you can easily listen to them with another DLR or DTR radio. The only inexpensive and practical method to monitor these radios is to have one yourself, AND it has to be set to the same frequency hopset and talkgroup ID. If your Walmart* has secured their radios by programming the 4 digit Profile ID Number (PIN) or set up private talkgroups in them with the CPS then you are SOL.

I purposely keep the default public talkgroup channels in my DTR programming to work with defaulted DLRs and DTRs and to monitor for activity in my travels. I also have several private talkgroups set up which are what I use most of the time so they are not monitorable by other DTRs/DLRs outside my group. They are also not monitorable on any consumer grade receiver (i.e., scanner) so don't even bother trying.

So does the Motorola DLRs/DTRs have to ability to encrypt or not?

 

[n1das]

So does the Motorola DLRs/DTRs have to ability to encrypt or not?

NO encryption.

The only inexpensive and practical way to monitor them is to have one yourself, AND it has to be programmed to the same frequency hopset and talkgroup ID. If the 4 digit Profile ID Number (PIN) feature is being used for Profile ID mode channels, the PIN also has to match. They are not monitorable on any consumer grade receiver (i.e., scanner) so don't even bother trying. An SDR type receiver or near-field receiver would have to monitor the entire 902-928MHz band at once to capture the data as the frequency hops around then you would still need to decode the VSELP digital. Fortunately people tend to use them right out of the box at the factory default settings like FRS bubble packs so there is stuff hear on them at the factory defaults. If radios have been custom programmed or private 1 to 1 calling is used then forget trying to monitor them (because you can't).

Wikipedia FHSS article:

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The local Walmart* stores in my area are still using MURS 154.57 and 154.6 MHz last I checked. My wife and I use our DTRs when we shop at Walmart*.

 

[n1das]

Wikipedia FHSS article:

Frequency-hopping spread spectrum - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The local Walmart* stores in my area are still using MURS 154.57 and 154.6 MHz last I checked. My wife and I use our DTRs when we shop at Walmart*.

Motorola DTR/DLR 902-928 MHz signal viewed on spectrum analyzer:

Good luck trying to monitor the DTRs/DLRs without a DTR/DLR radio set to the correct hopset and TGID and PIN.

LOL, the end of scanning Walmart* is coming......

 

[n1das]

With Walmart* moving to Samsung smartphone type devices, I wonder how well they would work overall given the variability in quality of cell coverage inside the store. Of the two Walmart* stores my wife and I shop at, one store has spotty to nonexistent cell coverage inside and the other store has saturated cell coverage with all carriers. The Walmart* store with saturated cell coverage has a major cell site located literally across the street from the store. Every cell carrier is on this site. Cell phone coverage inside the store is excellent. My wife and I have AT&T for cell service and we have used AT&T Enhanced PTT (EPTT) on our smartphones and they worked well. Using our DTRs for chit chat is still much easier. I would expect Walmart*'s Samsung smartphone devices to work well at this store. At the store with spotty to nonexistent cell coverage, Walmart* may need to install some in-building repeaters from the cell network provider to improve cell coverage for the Samsung devices to work well.

 

[Fireincarnate1]

Motorola DTR/DLR 902-928 MHz signal viewed on spectrum analyzer:

Good luck trying to monitor the DTRs/DLRs without a DTR/DLR radio set to the correct hopset and TGID and PIN.

So what I'm getting at is instead of transmitting on one frequency, the traffic constantly changes frequency in a certain pattern to make more difficult to receive. Well, it's not worth the time and money to buy a DLR/DTR since there's no guaranty it would work. I'll just go someplace else that uses analog.

 

[Fireincarnate1]

With Walmart* moving to Samsung smartphone type devices, I wonder how well they would work overall given the variability in quality of cell coverage inside the store. Of the two Walmart* stores my wife and I shop at, one store has spotty to nonexistent cell coverage inside and the other store has saturated cell coverage with all carriers. The Walmart* store with saturated cell coverage has a major cell site located literally across the street from the store. Every cell carrier is on this site. Cell phone coverage inside the store is excellent. My wife and I have AT&T for cell service and we have used AT&T Enhanced PTT (EPTT) on our smartphones and they worked well. Using our DTRs for chit chat is still much easier. I would expect Walmart*'s Samsung smartphone devices to work well at this store. At the store with spotty to nonexistent cell coverage, Walmart* may need to install some in-building repeaters from the cell network provider to improve cell coverage for the Samsung devices to work well.

I don't think Walmart would use cell networks on their phones because of it's unreliability. Instead, most likely they will use their in store wifi since you can expect it to cover almost the whole store.

 

[n1das]

I don't think Walmart would use cell networks on their phones because of it's unreliability. Instead, most likely they will use their in store wifi since you can expect it to cover almost the whole store.

I forgot about WiFi in the store. Too much DTR/DLR on the brain. LOL.

 

[chrismol1]

Walmart has a private non-broadcast 5 GHz wifi system for the store equipment. Company wide, I remember the old Zebra devices could be used in any store, your user id, password, then store number to log in

 

[radioman2008]

You don't know how bad I wish I had some recordings of my monitoring sessions from the late 80's early 90's especially from voice pagers!
I would pay money to hear some of them again and I've scoured the internet looking for a source but can't find one.
I've heard some incredible things over voice pagers and really wish I had recorded the sessions, they were an everyday run of the mill thing then so didn't even think to record, I had no idea that they would be GONE so fast.

Same here, tampa bay voice pagers were common in the early 90s. when i got my ham licence and a radio, i found some voice pager numbers and would call them, press 3 digit DTMF code and one of the systems would pass the dtmf tones, other hams had DTMF decode and would hear my voice message after the 3 tones. FREE voice pager using ham radios. i really wish i could have recorded them. another common sound was the GE we bring good things to life scanner defeat tones, they are gone, used to hear them ALL the time scanning Clearwater police conventionally

 

[StoliRaz]

I've never scanned Walmart so I don't care. But on a side note, if I worked 9-5 there and they issued me a phone you can bet it would be turned on at 9am sharp and off at 5pm sharp, and likely left in my locker at work. I'll use my own phone, thanks. It's not that I do anything bad or illegal, I'm just all set leaving that door open to be canned for anything they say violates company policy. Especially in this ridiculous day and age. Not to mention them calling me when I'm off. I don't play that game.