Winnipeg city radio shop for police and fire illegally loaded software for decryption

Status
Not open for further replies.

902

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Messages
2,620
Location
Downsouthsomewhere
These charges seem really odd. Why if you were a radio shop engineer or you managed employee's why would you not pay for Motorola software or firmware or flashcode upgrades. If you work for a company and you are responsible for licensing then you just stay compliant.
In a perfect world, yes. In some environments, you get less financial support than you need to properly do a job. I'm not saying it's right, but some people find a work-around. Some agencies are woefully underfunded, and some administrations operate under fiscal austerity. Others barely have the tax base to support their operations. Yet, they all seem to buy off on large systems they can't maintain as a going concern because they failed to factor in the recurring expense. We won't really know the motivations. We'll only know the "he said/she said" of it all.
 

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
23,615
Location
Hiding in a coffee shop.
Yet, they all seem to buy off on large systems they can't maintain as a going concern because they failed to factor in the recurring expense. We won't really know the motivations. We'll only know the "he said/she said" of it all.

^ this.

CapEx vs. OpEx. We went through a period at work where getting equipment was no problem. Getting the money to properly support it was like asking management to gouge out their own eyeballs with rusty spoon.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
6,859
Their Metrocom stuff was always about 10 degrees off the beam when some of the regular off-the-shelf solutions would have sufficed. I found myself working on several of the transit systems near where I lived and had to make special jigs with their unique firmware that did "request to talk" and put trunking of conventional channels into the personality board rather than into a site controller. It was just odd, and no one really wanted to work on it because it was so "SP." Then again, their war against TETRA deployment in the US didn't help them in that market. I think they became their own worst enemy by attempting to control deployment of technologies rather than simply meet the needs of their customers.

Their primary competitor has a vast knowledge base and lots of green radio experience and also inherited a solid protocol from GE. I see them as a formidable threat.

As for cellphones, that was also a bad fit. In one bay, we had a fire truck getting a Syntor X, and in another was a limo. Chances are that the limo also had a 900 MHz MESMR interconnect phone with a full duplex Maxtrac, too. They were trying to compete at too many levels and rather should have focused on their core business.

In the project I was helping bid, Motorola still had an active Transit group pushing Metrocom for buses. Motorola lobbied to have the radio and transit deals melded together so that "GE" would find the project too difficult to bid. Then Motorola decided to get out of the Transit business and hand over the MMI portion to Westinghouse who Motorola was partnered with at the time. So the RFP was put out with exactly the requirements Motorola desired. Then at the 11th hour, when I had just taken the Westinghouse engineers to Plantation where they had just signed NDA's and were being trained on the SB9600 (for Spectra), I get a page from Schaumburg telling me not to have Westinghouse sign. Apparently, someone at M Corporate got paranoid that Westinghouse was developing a smart police car and this would give them an advantage. Long story short, Motorola decided they and Westinghouse would bid seperately (violating the RFP requirements) , both added additional $$ for risk. I was the guy at 1 AM assembling the bid package when Westinghouse dropped of their materials. I took a look and realized it was a losing proposition. A lot of folks future was altered by this unfathonable pinheadery.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
6,859
^ this.

CapEx vs. OpEx. We went through a period at work where getting equipment was no problem. Getting the money to properly support it was like asking management to gouge out their own eyeballs with rusty spoon.

We had a small County here in FL that bought a Motorola p25 system. Then a year or so later when it came time to pay for maintenance the powers to be had not budgeted for it or were otherwise oblivious. It made the news when the problem went to the county commission. Heads rolled.

I can't see a personal financial motive for Ed Richardson to have done this. More than likely he was trying to prop up the fleet on a budget that did not support getting the radios updated to the same flash configuration.

I am curious, does a flash upgrade have an audit trail back to a specific iButton to determine if a radio was flashed with an unauthorized iButton? Or does the iButton contain serial numbers of radios it has flashed or does it simply decrement?
 
Last edited:

902

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Messages
2,620
Location
Downsouthsomewhere
^ this.

CapEx vs. OpEx. We went through a period at work where getting equipment was no problem. Getting the money to properly support it was like asking management to gouge out their own eyeballs with rusty spoon.
That's like a lot of the federal grants during the "naught" years. I served on a vetting committee and here's the pattern:
Year 1) I want ______________.
Year 2) I want _____ FTE to operate year 1 procurement.
Year 3) I want _____ to house the year 1 procurement and year 2 FTEs
Year 4) I want _____ to replenish the near-expiration dates and consumable supplies.

If any one of these is denied, the thing ends up in a weed field behind some municipal building rusting out. That's why these processes should never be viewed like someone's handing out PEZ.

And, I could get capital, too, as long as I planned it out. The operating for the maintenance never, ever increased. If anything, it was decreased. At some point, responsible fiscal management requires a break point where an entity has to admit they can't afford to continue the program unless a commitment is made to adequately fund it.

Also, all of the equipment begins to depreciate the minute air hits it. The latest and greatest comes out exactly 3 seconds after the procurement is made, and support hinges on the various firmware and hardware upgrade cycles that didn't seem to make it into the agreement.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
6,859
There is an ongoing cost of ownership of everything. Even if it it is in a closet unused, it is using space and at some point time and money will be spent to deal with in. I was inside a DOT shelter and saw an ancient low band FHP transmitter sitting in the corner. It was unused for decades, still plugged in (but no phone line) and the power supply and tubes running hot. This thing was burning fuel and AC for decades. No doubt and equivalent in today's money would have to be spent removing and disposing of that beast.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 902

902

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Messages
2,620
Location
Downsouthsomewhere
There is an ongoing cost of ownership of everything.
That's what makes the FN and LTE model most appealing to the IT types. There's this really needy thing we call radio, and we are responsible for all of it. In their minds, by abdicating the operation of the system to a provider, they have now shifted the burden of buying and maintaining fixed-end network equipment and only have the user equipment to deal with. If they budget for an 18 mo. life-cycle, they can do a complete technology refresh and use the LTE for Platform as a Service and never have to worry about any of it until it's not there. Then spiffy young people in tan 5-11 pants and black buttoned shirts come trucking in with their SATCOW 72 hours later. One has to wonder how many of them there are, and how big that 700 MHz footprint at 100 feet will be. (My bet is not big enough.)
 

allend

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
1,378
Location
Long Beach, CA
Motorola should just follow the foot steps of Kenwood then all of these problems will go away. But with the APX radios and above you won't be able to use lab tools past firmware version 17 or 18 and its been locked down by firmware updates to the radios.

Plus when buying radios you will just pony up the big bucks from the beginning and get a mega flash package to the point where you won't need an iButton anymore for anything. There won't be a need. Plus firmware updates are free now. No need to nickle and dime a government agency from time to time for upgrades. Just take all of their money from the beginning and give them everything and take the money and run. This is why APX radios are roughly 10K and upwards for a new radio with all of the fixings. Motorola is doing it right now. Charge 10K per HT radio and move on to the next agency and take their tax payer money. Genius Right????
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
6,859
Motorola should just follow the foot steps of Kenwood then all of these problems will go away. But with the APX radios and above you won't be able to use lab tools past firmware version 17 or 18 and its been locked down by firmware updates to the radios.

Plus when buying radios you will just pony up the big bucks from the beginning and get a mega flash package to the point where you won't need an iButton anymore for anything. There won't be a need. Plus firmware updates are free now. No need to nickle and dime a government agency from time to time for upgrades. Just take all of their money from the beginning and give them everything and take the money and run. This is why APX radios are roughly 10K and upwards for a new radio with all of the fixings. Motorola is doing it right now. Charge 10K per HT radio and move on to the next agency and take their tax payer money. Genius Right????

Take the money and RUN!
 

slicerwizard

Member
Joined
Sep 19, 2002
Messages
7,643
Location
Toronto, Ontario
Or does the iButton contain serial numbers of radios it has flashed or does it simply decrement?
That would require non-volatile storage for 64k serial numbers, so what, 1 MB? Seems highly unlikely. And what would the point be in adding that cost to iButtons? "You used your 500 refreshes to upgrade these 500 radios" and...?
 

902

Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2003
Messages
2,620
Location
Downsouthsomewhere
That would require non-volatile storage for 64k serial numbers, so what, 1 MB? Seems highly unlikely. And what would the point be in adding that cost to iButtons? "You used your 500 refreshes to upgrade these 500 radios" and...?
The way you guys are talking, I'm so glad my involvement with that stuff stopped around the XTS/XTL-5000 time period.
 

RFI-EMI-GUY

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Messages
6,859
That would require non-volatile storage for 64k serial numbers, so what, 1 MB? Seems highly unlikely. And what would the point be in adding that cost to iButtons? "You used your 500 refreshes to upgrade these 500 radios" and...?

Unless the plaintiffs can connect 200 expended flash refreshes to 200 specific radios, they are not going to be able to prove damages. I don't see a case here. It is a he said she said with respect to the witness and defendant. Maybe Canadian law is different but this pig does not fly.
 

redbeard

OH, PA, WV Regional Admin
Database Admin
Joined
Feb 5, 2003
Messages
1,237
Location
BEE00.348-3.1
Unless the plaintiffs can connect 200 expended flash refreshes to 200 specific radios, they are not going to be able to prove damages. I don't see a case here. It is a he said she said with respect to the witness and defendant. Maybe Canadian law is different but this pig does not fly.
The radio will tell you the serial number of the last ibutton it was touched with, so they'd have to read all the radios with CPS and sort through it. Of course if the ibutton serial was also modified that would hinder things. They will probably base it on the number the ibutton started on, which was probably 65,535.
 

Mars_P25

Paid RR Supporter
Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
147
So much misinformation in this thread and through the media. It all started with the horribly-written CBC story. The reporter had no clue what she was talking about and tried to string together two completely unrelated events.

First, Ed Richardson and I were friends for 25+ years. Hes' not a criminal. He's not a thief. He's not a software pirate. He's an engineer. He's a ham. He's a normal human. He's kind of a jerk for trash-talking me in professional circles behind my back over the years, but that's not a crime. It was just his insecurities getting the better of him.

In 2010-2011 or thereabouts, I was provided a handful of iButtons that were going to be thrown into the garbage. They were originally programmed as "refresh keys" and sold to a certain entity by Motorola. Motorola shouldn't have been selling firmware updates in the first place, as that action (selling "updates" to fix problems that didn't exist beforehand, which they later created to stimulate the sales) is indicative of racketeering. I have filed a formal criminal complaint with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois alleging RICO Act violations. Read more about that, here.

Back to the issue. Ed and I are long-time ham nerds. We both own Motorola P25 radios. In his case, it was XTS2500s for VHF and UHF. We are hobbyists -- nothing more. I told him he could use these iButtons to update his ham gear, and I would do the same. There was no personal financial gain or commercial third-party advantage here. Zero crime. One must also realize the iButton DOES NOT contain any software. It is an electronic counter. It serves no other purpose. Modifying the counter (especially on an expired/zero device) is not a crime. The process involved a simple math trick, to subtract 1 from 0, which reset the counter to FFFF (65,535). That's why that number is what it is. It's not some random thing. Further, no where on these devices did it say "PROPERTY OF MOTOROLA" or "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, RETURN OR FACE DESTRUCTION". I'll let the Motorola gurus chime in about how common these things are. There's even one for sale, right now, on eBay.

The news article suggested Ed "pirated software" worth more than $2,000,000.00. Seriously? That's an outright lie. Whomever came to that conclusion is clearly mentally challenged. Anyone who has performed a firmware refresh also knows it can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes to complete, depending on the type of radio or hardware (oldschool MTS/MCS/ASTRO SRIB vs. USB on newer stuff) being flashed. So if we average say 10 minutes per device (setup+flash+manual interventions) that's 655,350 minutes of time that would be required to expend the iButton and rack up "$2,000,000.00" in piracy. For a stupid people, here's some more math:

655,350 /60 (minutes) = 10,922.5 (hours) / 8 (working hours/day) = 1,365 days. That's how long someone would have to sit there, wearing a diaper, flashing radios, to rack up that kind of profit. You couldn't pay me $2,000,000 to flash 65,535 radios. I'd go (more) insane.

The alleged behavior (keep in mind he hasn't even been charged at this point) involved taking those PERSONAL iButtons to work and asking others to use them, to perform firmware updates to agency radios. Not feature additions. FIRMWARE UPDATES.

Even if the alleged conduct is true, there are still some major issues which need to be addressed here:

- Why did the whistle-blower (rat) take six years to come forward? Surely it was personal.
- Why did the complaint come forward around the time the Harris system went live? (Motorola lost out on the bid)
- Why did the whistle-blower have no problem committing an alleged crime until six years after-the-fact?

Then there are these questions, which are even more relevant:

- How was this alleged activity of benefit to Mr. Richardson? It wasn't.

- Did Mr. Richardson incur any financial gain as a result of these alleged actions? NO.

- Why did Mr. Richardson participate in any alleged crime? Was it to save the taxpayers money, or because he was concerned about the safety and well-being of the emergency services workers whose lives were being put at-risk by Motorola? Motorola was puts profit before safety. Don't believe me? Motorola stopped charging for firmware updates. The APX, TRBO and all other tiers do not require money for firmware. Only a paid software subscription.

- Who did Mr. Richardson victimize? NO ONE.

- Did Mr. Richardson's actions endanger anyone?

- Is Mr. Richardson a danger to society? NO.

- Is Mr. Richardson likely to re-offend (if convicted of any alleged crime)? Highly unlikely.

- Does Mr. Richardson have a history of the alleged behavior or any other criminal activity? NO.

- Has Mr. Richardson lost his reputation, career, mental health, and experienced distress as a result of this matter? Stupid question.

The action of dropping the "cartel" and "homeland security" garbage into the story was only to sensationalize it. It also puts Mr. Richardson and myself at-risk to exploitation or potential retaliation, if anyone in criminal circles were to assume these allegations are true. The conduct of DHS and the WPS is HIGHLY RECKLESS and DANGEROUS.

For anyone not familiar with what happened to me three years ago, I am the person referenced in the story. There have been no charges. I did not supply encryption to any drug cartels. The DHS is butt-hurt they wasted huge money investigating me for crimes I did not commit. They alleged criminal copyright infringement. I provided email exchanges from MSI dating back to 2015, indicating otherwise (consent). They weren't prepared for that. Further, they screwed up the following:

- They claimed I was in the US in June 2016. Impossible. I returned from Dayton, OH. in May 2016 and never went back.
- They documented the wrong serial number of the laptop they seized. (evidence continuity issues)
- In written correspondence I received from them, they addressed me as someone else. Idiots.
- They sent me a letter, advising they'd be keeping my "iPhone 6s". I wasn't traveling with one. I had a iPhone 6 Plus.

Peter Wilt, the agent mentioned in some of the stories, works for Homeland Security. He's an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In Sept. 2016, he traveled to Winnipeg, Canada, to meet with the Winnipeg Police Service. His goal was to dig up dirt on me and advise the WPS "of the dangerous person" living in their community. The WPS is relatively small, and was very impressed with Wilt's shiny DHS badge. The basically got on their knees for him. He told the WPS I had sent an "innocuous email' (the exact phrase quoted in the story) to Mr. Richardson, pertaining to amateur radio. This is true. Richardson and I constantly talked about ham stuff. Wilt was implying Richardson was somehow "compromised" because he was in contact with me. DHS had obtained search warrants for my Gmail, Microsoft and other accounts, to try and establish I was a "cartel encryption salesman".

In early 2017, the WPS filed an "Information to Obtain" (ITO) to a Canadian judge, in order to seek a search warrant for Richardson's email. In the ITO, they made the comments about Wilt coming to Winnipeg and telling them about this "homeland security threat" who had been in contact with their radio engineer. They wanted access to his email to confirm these details. Around the same time, another City of Winnipeg employee (we'll just call him Dennis for now) went to the police and made allegations against Mr. Richardson, regarding the iButton stuff.

And that's how it happened. A man's life-long career of managing the emergency services radios was ruined. DHS got their name dropped. The DHS and the WPS took a cheap shot at me by implying I'm associated with cartels, and the clueless media sensationalized the story to try and make it sound like a massive bust. The DHS/cartel crap they quoted was THREE YEARS OLD and was hearsay. At the time DHS made those comments to the WPS (which made it into a search warrant application the media quoted) I hadn't even been spoken to by DHS yet.

Naturally, after 25 years, there's more to the story than what I've relayed. But it's not relevant to the criminal allegations made against Richardson, which are completely without merit. It's no different than anything else that goes on at batboard, communications.support or Austech. No one is a criminal. No selling of depot. No backdoor flashport feature upgrades.

Every reporter who has written about this matter so far is completely aloof and parroting what they've been told. Too lazy to understand the laws, the complexity or what's wrong with the big picture. They fail to realize what's written on the internet stays there for the rest of time. Way to go, [expletives].

The reporter who attempted to contact me before writing the slam-story on Ed, actually implied: "WHY WOULD YOU BE INVOLVED WITH ENCRYPTION!?!??" As if it's illegal or something strange. What a dummy. I wrote this article on the public use of encryption a few days ago, just to educate the stupid people out there:

The public use of ENCRYPTION

Enjoy the read.
 

rightsaidfred

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
27
So much misinformation in this thread and through the media. It all started with the horribly-written CBC story. The reporter had no clue what she was talking about and tried to string together two completely unrelated events.

First, Ed Richardson and I were friends for 25+ years. Hes' not a criminal. He's not a thief. He's not a software pirate. He's an engineer. He's a ham. He's a normal human. He's kind of a jerk for trash-talking me in professional circles behind my back over the years, but that's not a crime. It was just his insecurities getting the better of him.

In 2010-2011 or thereabouts, I was provided a handful of iButtons that were going to be thrown into the garbage. They were originally programmed as "refresh keys" and sold to a certain entity by Motorola. Motorola shouldn't have been selling firmware updates in the first place, as that action (selling "updates" to fix problems that didn't exist beforehand, which they later created to stimulate the sales) is indicative of racketeering. I have filed a formal criminal complaint with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois alleging RICO Act violations. Read more about that, here.

Back to the issue. Ed and I are long-time ham nerds. We both own Motorola P25 radios. In his case, it was XTS2500s for VHF and UHF. We are hobbyists -- nothing more. I told him he could use these iButtons to update his ham gear, and I would do the same. There was no personal financial gain or commercial third-party advantage here. Zero crime. One must also realize the iButton DOES NOT contain any software. It is an electronic counter. It serves no other purpose. Modifying the counter (especially on an expired/zero device) is not a crime. The process involved a simple math trick, to subtract 1 from 0, which reset the counter to FFFF (65,535). That's why that number is what it is. It's not some random thing. Further, no where on these devices did it say "PROPERTY OF MOTOROLA" or "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, RETURN OR FACE DESTRUCTION". I'll let the Motorola gurus chime in about how common these things are. There's even one for sale, right now, on eBay.

The news article suggested Ed "pirated software" worth more than $2,000,000.00. Seriously? That's an outright lie. Whomever came to that conclusion is clearly mentally challenged. Anyone who has performed a firmware refresh also knows it can take anywhere from 5-20 minutes to complete, depending on the type of radio or hardware (oldschool MTS/MCS/ASTRO SRIB vs. USB on newer stuff) being flashed. So if we average say 10 minutes per device (setup+flash+manual interventions) that's 655,350 minutes of time that would be required to expend the iButton and rack up "$2,000,000.00" in piracy. For a stupid people, here's some more math:

655,350 /60 (minutes) = 10,922.5 (hours) / 8 (working hours/day) = 1,365 days. That's how long someone would have to sit there, wearing a diaper, flashing radios, to rack up that kind of profit. You couldn't pay me $2,000,000 to flash 65,535 radios. I'd go (more) insane.

The alleged behavior (keep in mind he hasn't even been charged at this point) involved taking those PERSONAL iButtons to work and asking others to use them, to perform firmware updates to agency radios. Not feature additions. FIRMWARE UPDATES.

Even if the alleged conduct is true, there are still some major issues which need to be addressed here:

- Why did the whistle-blower (rat) take six years to come forward? Surely it was personal.
- Why did the complaint come forward around the time the Harris system went live? (Motorola lost out on the bid)
- Why did the whistle-blower have no problem committing an alleged crime until six years after-the-fact?

Then there are these questions, which are even more relevant:

- How was this alleged activity of benefit to Mr. Richardson? It wasn't.

- Did Mr. Richardson incur any financial gain as a result of these alleged actions? NO.

- Why did Mr. Richardson participate in any alleged crime? Was it to save the taxpayers money, or because he was concerned about the safety and well-being of the emergency services workers whose lives were being put at-risk by Motorola? Motorola was puts profit before safety. Don't believe me? Motorola stopped charging for firmware updates. The APX, TRBO and all other tiers do not require money for firmware. Only a paid software subscription.

- Who did Mr. Richardson victimize? NO ONE.

- Did Mr. Richardson's actions endanger anyone?

- Is Mr. Richardson a danger to society? NO.

- Is Mr. Richardson likely to re-offend (if convicted of any alleged crime)? Highly unlikely.

- Does Mr. Richardson have a history of the alleged behavior or any other criminal activity? NO.

- Has Mr. Richardson lost his reputation, career, mental health, and experienced distress as a result of this matter? Stupid question.

The action of dropping the "cartel" and "homeland security" garbage into the story was only to sensationalize it. It also puts Mr. Richardson and myself at-risk to exploitation or potential retaliation, if anyone in criminal circles were to assume these allegations are true. The conduct of DHS and the WPS is HIGHLY RECKLESS and DANGEROUS.

For anyone not familiar with what happened to me three years ago, I am the person referenced in the story. There have been no charges. I did not supply encryption to any drug cartels. The DHS is butt-hurt they wasted huge money investigating me for crimes I did not commit. They alleged criminal copyright infringement. I provided email exchanges from MSI dating back to 2015, indicating otherwise (consent). They weren't prepared for that. Further, they screwed up the following:

- They claimed I was in the US in June 2016. Impossible. I returned from Dayton, OH. in May 2016 and never went back.
- They documented the wrong serial number of the laptop they seized. (evidence continuity issues)
- In written correspondence I received from them, they addressed me as someone else. Idiots.
- They sent me a letter, advising they'd be keeping my "iPhone 6s". I wasn't traveling with one. I had a iPhone 6 Plus.

Peter Wilt, the agent mentioned in some of the stories, works for Homeland Security. He's an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). In Sept. 2016, he traveled to Winnipeg, Canada, to meet with the Winnipeg Police Service. His goal was to dig up dirt on me and advise the WPS "of the dangerous person" living in their community. The WPS is relatively small, and was very impressed with Wilt's shiny DHS badge. The basically got on their knees for him. He told the WPS I had sent an "innocuous email' (the exact phrase quoted in the story) to Mr. Richardson, pertaining to amateur radio. This is true. Richardson and I constantly talked about ham stuff. Wilt was implying Richardson was somehow "compromised" because he was in contact with me. DHS had obtained search warrants for my Gmail, Microsoft and other accounts, to try and establish I was a "cartel encryption salesman".

In early 2017, the WPS filed an "Information to Obtain" (ITO) to a Canadian judge, in order to seek a search warrant for Richardson's email. In the ITO, they made the comments about Wilt coming to Winnipeg and telling them about this "homeland security threat" who had been in contact with their radio engineer. They wanted access to his email to confirm these details. Around the same time, another City of Winnipeg employee (we'll just call him Dennis for now) went to the police and made allegations against Mr. Richardson, regarding the iButton stuff.

And that's how it happened. A man's life-long career of managing the emergency services radios was ruined. DHS got their name dropped. The DHS and the WPS took a cheap shot at me by implying I'm associated with cartels, and the clueless media sensationalized the story to try and make it sound like a massive bust. The DHS/cartel crap they quoted was THREE YEARS OLD and was hearsay. At the time DHS made those comments to the WPS (which made it into a search warrant application the media quoted) I hadn't even been spoken to by DHS yet.

Naturally, after 25 years, there's more to the story than what I've relayed. But it's not relevant to the criminal allegations made against Richardson, which are completely without merit. It's no different than anything else that goes on at batboard, communications.support or Austech. No one is a criminal. No selling of depot. No backdoor flashport feature upgrades.

Every reporter who has written about this matter so far is completely aloof and parroting what they've been told. Too lazy to understand the laws, the complexity or what's wrong with the big picture. They fail to realize what's written on the internet stays there for the rest of time. Way to go, [expletives].

The reporter who attempted to contact me before writing the slam-story on Ed, actually implied: "WHY WOULD YOU BE INVOLVED WITH ENCRYPTION!?!??" As if it's illegal or something strange. What a dummy. I wrote this article on the public use of encryption a few days ago, just to educate the stupid people out there:

The public use of ENCRYPTION

Enjoy the read.

Ummmm someone talked to the government and that person had materials taken from them in Illinois. The affidavit states this. That person didn’t help the hobby at all and I am disappointed.
 

Mars_P25

Paid RR Supporter
Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
147
Ummmm someone talked to the government and that person had materials taken from them in Illinois. The affidavit states this. That person didn’t help the hobby at all and I am disappointed.
Ummmm isn't a word, and you make yourself sound stupid when you start a sentence with it..

How is having my property taken against my will nearly three years ago, resulting in no criminal charges and having suffered at the hands of a terrorist government my fault again? Peter Wilt from DHS HSI is a hostile, enemy combatant terrorist. He victimized three people that day. He made allegations which were categorically false and isn't man enough to apologize for his actions.
 

N4KVE

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Messages
4,103
Location
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA
Had someone not openly advertised XPR AES-256 upgrades on the internet available at Dayton in 2016, he would not have been intercepted at the airport in Chicago. Over the years, this person has helped the hobby immensely, but this was a bad mistake. Anyone remember the phrase “loose lips sink ships”?
 

Mars_P25

Paid RR Supporter
Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
147
Had someone not openly advertised XPR AES-256 upgrades on the internet available at Dayton in 2016, he would not have been intercepted at the airport in Chicago. Over the years, this person has helped the hobby immensely, but this was a bad mistake. Anyone remember the phrase “loose lips sink ships”?
Hi Gary. You want to get personal, eh? I HAD WRITTEN CONSENT FROM MOTOROLA. What don't you understand about that? I did nothing wrong. That's why I have not been charged with a crime. That's why I'm here typing this, now. You are clearly very misinformed and clueless. Go find some more socks to put your radios in, weirdo.
 

Mars_P25

Paid RR Supporter
Banned
Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
147
consent.jpg

This is part of a series of emails of which the topic was discussed. Hard to believe, but it's true. I have censored the employee's name as well as my surname, because that's just the way it is.

If you recall, Gary, this dated back to the MOTOTRBO audio "fix" project I initiated in Feb. 2015. These emails related to firmware development and those who were testing various improvements. I also was in contact with another employee who was the manager of Global Investigations. He had an excellent working-relationship with myself and the site. He was well-aware of everything going on, and we communicated very frequently. There was nothing greasy whatsoever taking place.

MSI screwed up. Not me. That's what happens when big multi-national corporations are disorganized and the left hand isn't talking to the right hand. Further, DHS alleged these emails were "made up". That was until I sent them the headers and they were traced/verified.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top