Evening! As a long time listener of the SRECS system, I can safely say that the main channels will not be encrypted. Also, the silence is pretty common as I have had them go dark on me before. It is the same issues that many other users deal with picking up the P25 signals. I am not sure what happened but for the first time since the system was brought online, I am receiving them crystal clear and can even hold on a channel with out loosing the primary control channel. The amazing part is, I tested with the antenna that was shipped with the scanner and it was also receiving perfectly.