On Sun, 8 May 2005 17:15:57 -0400, "Bill Crocker"
wrote:

APCO-25 digital signals are not encrypted by default, and can be easily
monitored, in the clear, on scanners designed to do so, such as; Uniden's
BC296D Hand-Held, and BC796D mobile/base, and Radio Shack's (GRE), PRO-96
Hand-Held, and PRO-2096.

To my knowledge there is no APCO-25 Digital Conversion module available for,
or planned for the AOR 8200 Mk-III. AOR does make an APCO-25 decoder (ARD
25), but it has limitations. You can read more about it he
http://www.universal-radio.com/catal...ders/0657.html

In Michigan, the State Police have used encryption on occasion, when it was
necessary to ensure the safety of the officers, or to protect the
sensitivity of the information being discussed. I think this is reasonable,
and necessary, especially in today's world, with the severity of the crimes,
and the advanced technical capability of the criminal/terrorist element.
For example, if you were distraught over the loss of a loved one, and were
threatening suicide, would you want your full name, address, and phone
number, to air over the scanner, in the clear, for all your neighbors,
friends, and co-workers to hear? Or maybe your daughter was being followed
home from school by a stalker, and your wife called the police. Should they
broadcast her name, home address, phone number, and the name of her school,
and the hours she goes to, and from, in the clear, so the pervert can find
her more easily? I think not. Don't get me wrong. I like freedom of
information as much as anyone else. I want to know what's going on around
me. But sometimes it's not a good idea, and certainly not necessary.

hey Bill .......

I agree whole heartedly . Interestingly , in my town, here in
central California ( where ' everything " police is in the clear
and on standard nbfm ) , " all " sensitive information of the type
you speak , is " always " transmitted onto the laptop wi-fi MDT
type computers in each police car. actually " most " information is
transmitted that way and listening to the basic calls mostly provides
little interesting detailed information anymore. recently all the
local police agencies have installed police wi-fi bubble " out of
the car " blue tooth style personal PDAs so that the cops , even
on bicycles or on their dirt bikes , have the same abilities as the
wi-fi MDT inside the cars. the local police wi-fi mdt bubble is always
encrypted.

it's odd and at the same time interesting to hear the dispatch and
cars making calls and referring to items on the " dispatch " screen
, that instead of actually mentioning any details out loud. a quirky
but effective method to keep privacy.




Preventing encrypted radio coms within law enforcement, and government
agencies, will not stop corruption, and wrong doing. I would compare that
to the total elimination of guns in the U.S., then expecting no one to ever
get killed.

Bill Crocker