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.

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


"jamoran" wrote in message
...
have an AOR 8200 M-III receives EVERYTHING...no gaps between about 500khz
(am radio) and about 2Ghz (2,000 mhz)

have noticed that some agencies I like to listen to have switched to
800mhz (866-861 and 866-869 mhz)

I know the AOR-8200 does accept slide in option cards for tone
elimination, audio recording, and memory expansion

is ther ealso a card that decodes th APCO-25.. I have noticed several
agencies that have gone to the 800mhz systems only a portion of the
communications is audiable as analog, the rest is hash noise....or APCO-25

the one thing I dislike about APCO-25 is it allows dishonest government
agencies to perpetuate their dishonesty without it being known...
when in the clear, if someone heard something not entirely kosher, they
could call the news media and spark an investigation.....

now you can have "Boss Hogg" and sheriff "Roscoe" run the county and its
easier for them to get away with their antics