InterceptRadio.com Forums

In case you missed the post -- Bannock County, Idaho is testing its NEW 700 Mhz ENCRYPTED Trunked Public Safety radio system and will go online by the 5th of next month. Its here. Its real. And its not going away. You can walk accross the US Border but you can't listen to the Police stop for donuts. I don't need a Potato in my ear. Heck the lump of coal is worth money. What or Whom are we being protected against?? The bovil ? Spoonge BoB Square Pants ??? What do you expect from a town called Pocatello.

Spoonge BoB Square Pants is evil

Oh those evil cops! How dare they?

Seriously, however. The law protects your ability to monitor anything that is broadcast in the open as much as it does law enforcement's ability to encrypt it.

So on goes the game of scanner companies scrambling to sell you a new toy.

While "Money" is the great Equallizer - it seems that Radio Shack and Bearcat as well as other scanner makers, have fallen way behind in marketing the most up to date "toys". Its time to add the 700 mhz band to any scanner as well as the Military Air Band ( 225 - 400 Mhz). Not in 2009 or 2008 but NOW. If most Public Safety users - have Motorola Trunking systems - that may have 2500 talkgroups or more, a scanner that has room for more than just 100 talkgroups would be nice. I love the PRO-95, but a scanner without PL or DPL??? What kind of idiot would leave out CTCSS from any new scanner?? The FCC has been pushing to get HDTV inside your home by the end of next year. What are the scanner makers waiting for ??? It looks like they don't think that we kids need new toys.

I agree with MTM. It is time the scanner markets came out with a product which is up to snuff. I can see why agencies would want some messages encrypted, but not all.
Who is paying for all of these "upgrades" and new systems? Is it Federal tax dollars or local tax dollars? Whoever it is seems to be spending a lot of unnessary money. Having been in Pocatello and Bannock County many times I am at a loss as to why they would need a 1) trunked system at all and 2) an encrypted system.
All I can say is that Motorola and the other manufacturers who sell this trunked systems must have a great sales force who can really put the fear into these local governments.
Speaking of things such as this, what effect is the frequency allocation move (for the benifit of Nextel) going to have on those of use who monitor agencies in this area?