SDS100/SDS200: What does the SDS-100/200 do if you set a channel for NFM and it receives a P25 encrypted signal?

[VirtualBobster]

If you are just looking for radio activity on a P25 conventional channel, what does the scanner do if you set the modulation for NFM instead of P25 and it receives encrypted traffic? Does it still stop and log the transmission as being received, but obviously not decoded it?

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

NFM = modulation in the SDS100 realm and is a different setting altogether than Audio Type (Analog or Digital), so I'm not 100% sure what you're asking. If you set Audio Type to "Analog Only" the only thing you'll get on a P25 conventional channel is raw emissions noise similar to this. Nothing will be logged other than frequency, Start Date / Time, RSSI, etc. Audio type needs to be set to "Digital Only" (or "All" until it detects the signal is digital) to log any sort of P25 data, encrypted or not (TGID, UIDs, NAC, Digital Status, etc)

 

[kc2asb]

If you are just looking for radio activity on a P25 conventional channel, what does the scanner do if you set the modulation for NFM instead of P25 and it receives encrypted traffic? Does it still stop and log the transmission as being received, but obviously not decoded it?

P25 does not mean encrypted. P25 is digital and communications can be encrypted or in the clear. If you receive P25 in NFM mode, it will just sound like noise/hash. No scanner can decode encrypted communications.

 

[VirtualBobster]

If I code a channel to P25. It is my understanding that if it receives a P25 encrypted signal, the scanner skips over it and doesn't log the activity, such as in Proscan.

Using Uniden Sentinel, if you define a P25 channel as a "Conventional" System instead of "P25 Conventional", under "Modulation", you can choose Auto, AM, NFM, FM, FMB, WFM, and FMB. When it receives a P25 Signal (i.e., Encrypted"), and I specify NFM, for example, does it still sense the signal and log, in Proscan, that the activity occurred? I DO NOT care what the encrypted P25 traffic is, I want to know if the channel is being used.

 

[dmfalk]

If I code a channel to P25. It is my understanding that if it receives a P25 encrypted signal, the scanner skips over it and doesn't log the activity, such as in Proscan.

Using Uniden Sentinel, if you define a P25 channel as a "Conventional" System instead of "P25 Conventional", under "Modulation", you can choose Auto, AM, NFM, FM, FMB, WFM, and FMB. When it receives a P25 Signal (i.e., Encrypted"), and I specify NFM, for example, does it still sense the signal and log, in Proscan, that the activity occurred? I DO NOT care what the encrypted P25 traffic is, I want to know if the channel is being used.

P25 = digital ≠ encrypted. Encrypted and digital are two separate things. You can have encrypted digital and you can have unencrypted digital. P25 is just a digital standard, one of several in communications. Same thing for NXDN and DMR.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

When it receives a P25 Signal (i.e., Encrypted"), and I specify NFM, for example, does it still sense the signal and log,

Yes, but as I told you in Post #2, the signal being logged as P25 is incumbent upon audio type in Sentinel being set as Digital (or "All) and Digital Option being set to Digital Code Search or NAC code set accordingly. Though if you switched modulation to something outlandish like "AM" then it wouldn't be detected as P25

 

[VirtualBobster]

THANK YOU! That is what I needed to know. I understood that P25 could be encrypted and unencrypted, and that the Uniden, by law, is required to skip over encrypted channels. I just wanted to know if there is activity nearby on those channels, and it sounds like, if I specify NFM and analog audio type, that should do what I want. Now I have to figure out what Close Call does with it...

 

[KevinC]

Does it still stop and log the transmission as being received, but obviously not decoded it?

Some people made this so difficult. Set the audio type to analog and it will stop on the frequency. You'll just hear the raw P25 signal, but it will log that it received "something".

 

[VirtualBobster]

THANK YOU!

 

[dlwtrunked]

THANK YOU! That is what I needed to know. I understood that P25 could be encrypted and unencrypted, and that the Uniden, by law, is required to skip over encrypted channels. I just wanted to know if there is activity nearby on those channels, and it sounds like, if I specify NFM and analog audio type, that should do what I want. Now I have to figure out what Close Call does with it...

Uniden is not required by law to "skip" over encrypted channels--Uniden cannot decode them and the law protects only that.

 

[VirtualBobster]

To clarify, I was told by someone at Uniden that, since they must comply with all laws in all Geos where they do business, it was done to prevent inadvertently violating current or future local and state laws or possible future legal interpretations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and 18 U.S. Code § 2511.

 

[KevinC]

To clarify, I was told by someone at Uniden that, since they must comply with all laws in all Geos where they do business, it was done to prevent inadvertently violating current or future local and state laws or possible future legal interpretations of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and 18 U.S. Code § 2511.

We're not going down this rabbit hole again. Your original question has been answered so before this goes off the rails I'm closing it.