A battle is brewing between the city of Wichita Falls and the local media
 

I agree. Police communications a private, as are all two way radio
communications. According to the Communications Act of 1934, personal or
monetary gain form the unauthorized reception of radio communications is
prohibited. The TV stations etc make money from reporting news events.

No it doesn't. Try walking around with a pistol in open view, while not
having a carry permit. The Constitution does not allow me to yell fire in a
theater (The classic argument). There is no 1st Amendment issue here.
Before there were scanners or tunable receivers in the police bands;
newspapers, radio and TV reporters made beat calls. They called the desk
Sergeant in each precinct and asked what's up? Or they camped out at the
precinct. They'll just have to go back to that method.

Here is an excerpt from the ECPA
(e) (i) intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any other
person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication,
intercepted by means authorized by sections 2511(2)(A)(ii), 2511(b)-(c),
2511(e), 2516, and 2518 of this subchapter, (ii) knowing or having reason to
know that the information was obtained through the interception of such a
communication in connection with a criminal investigation, (iii) having
obtained or received the information in connection with a criminal
investigation, and (iv) with intent to improperly obstruct, impede, or
interfere with a duly authorized criminal investigation, shall be punished
as provided in subsection (4) or shall be subject to suit as provided in
subsection (5).

Yeah, yeah. You'll argue that they are not interfering with an
investigation. That distinction is open to the officers at the scene. TV
cameras can incite riotous behavior.

Another excerpt
"(16) 'readily accessible to the
general public' means, with respect
to a radio communication, that such
communication is not---
"(A)scrambled or encrypted;
"(B)transmitted using modulation techniques whose essential parameters
have been withheld from the public with the intention of preserving the
privacy of such communication;....."

APCO P-25, DES, 3DES and other scrmabling techniques are not "readily"
available to the public; as conventional AM, FM or TV. Only to those that
seek them out or reverse engineer them. Reverse engineering is another
illegal activity.
The TV station might win or they might not. Remember what happened to the
couple that taped Newt Gingrich's cell phone call and then disclosed it?
Arrested, tried, fined.
SO take you purple finger and keep switching it from your a** to your mouth.
You'll figure it out.

Ok...here's a random thought for that media outlet...if anyone wants to
forward it to them...


Find out what type of system it is, and BUY RADIOS FOR THE SYSTEM. When
my city went encrypted, I went out and got a Motorola XTS3000 and
progged it for the local system. My radio worked just fine.

Must be a small market TV station if they didn't think of this.

wrote:
No it doesn't. Try walking around with a pistol in open view, while
not
having a carry permit. The Constitution does not allow me to yell
fire in a
theater (The classic argument). There is no 1st Amendment issue
here.
Before there were scanners or tunable receivers in the police bands;
newspapers, radio and TV reporters made beat calls. They called the
desk
Sergeant in each precinct and asked what's up? Or they camped out at
the
precinct. They'll just have to go back to that method.

Here is an excerpt from the ECPA
(e) (i) intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any
other
person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication,
intercepted by means authorized by sections 2511(2)(A)(ii),
2511(b)-(c),
2511(e), 2516, and 2518 of this subchapter, (ii) knowing or having
reason to
know that the information was obtained through the interception of
such a
communication in connection with a criminal investigation, (iii)
having
obtained or received the information in connection with a criminal
investigation, and (iv) with intent to improperly obstruct, impede,
or
interfere with a duly authorized criminal investigation, shall be
punished
as provided in subsection (4) or shall be subject to suit as provided
in
subsection (5).

Yeah, yeah. You'll argue that they are not interfering with an
investigation. That distinction is open to the officers at the
scene. TV
cameras can incite riotous behavior.

Another excerpt
"(16) 'readily accessible to the
general public' means, with respect
to a radio communication, that such
communication is not---
"(A)scrambled or encrypted;
"(B)transmitted using modulation techniques whose essential
parameters
have been withheld from the public with the intention of preserving
the
privacy of such communication;....."

APCO P-25, DES, 3DES and other scrmabling techniques are not
"readily"
available to the public; as conventional AM, FM or TV. Only to those
that
seek them out or reverse engineer them. Reverse engineering is
another
illegal activity.
The TV station might win or they might not. Remember what happened
to the
couple that taped Newt Gingrich's cell phone call and then disclosed
it?
Arrested, tried, fined.
SO take you purple finger and keep switching it from your a** to your
mouth.
You'll figure it out.

This is ENCRYPTED, not just digital audio. For encryption you have to have
the user's system encryption keys, which it isn't likely you'll get. If it
was as easy as you say, we'd all be monitoring the FBI, DEA, Secret Service,
etc.

M

wrote in message
oups.com...
Ok...here's a random thought for that media outlet...if anyone wants to
forward it to them...


Find out what type of system it is, and BUY RADIOS FOR THE SYSTEM. When
my city went encrypted, I went out and got a Motorola XTS3000 and
progged it for the local system. My radio worked just fine.

Must be a small market TV station if they didn't think of this.

wrote:
No it doesn't. Try walking around with a pistol in open view, while
not
having a carry permit. The Constitution does not allow me to yell
fire in a
theater (The classic argument). There is no 1st Amendment issue
here.
Before there were scanners or tunable receivers in the police bands;
newspapers, radio and TV reporters made beat calls. They called the
desk
Sergeant in each precinct and asked what's up? Or they camped out at
the
precinct. They'll just have to go back to that method.

Here is an excerpt from the ECPA
(e) (i) intentionally discloses, or endeavors to disclose, to any
other
person the contents of any wire, oral, or electronic communication,
intercepted by means authorized by sections 2511(2)(A)(ii),
2511(b)-(c),
2511(e), 2516, and 2518 of this subchapter, (ii) knowing or having
reason to
know that the information was obtained through the interception of
such a
communication in connection with a criminal investigation, (iii)
having
obtained or received the information in connection with a criminal
investigation, and (iv) with intent to improperly obstruct, impede,
or
interfere with a duly authorized criminal investigation, shall be
punished
as provided in subsection (4) or shall be subject to suit as provided
in
subsection (5).

Yeah, yeah. You'll argue that they are not interfering with an
investigation. That distinction is open to the officers at the
scene. TV
cameras can incite riotous behavior.

Another excerpt
"(16) 'readily accessible to the
general public' means, with respect
to a radio communication, that such
communication is not---
"(A)scrambled or encrypted;
"(B)transmitted using modulation techniques whose essential
parameters
have been withheld from the public with the intention of preserving
the
privacy of such communication;....."

APCO P-25, DES, 3DES and other scrmabling techniques are not
"readily"
available to the public; as conventional AM, FM or TV. Only to those
that
seek them out or reverse engineer them. Reverse engineering is
another
illegal activity.
The TV station might win or they might not. Remember what happened
to the
couple that taped Newt Gingrich's cell phone call and then disclosed
it?
Arrested, tried, fined.
SO take you purple finger and keep switching it from your a** to your
mouth.
You'll figure it out.

wrote:

APCO P-25, DES, 3DES and other scrmabling techniques are not "readily"
available to the public;

This is not true, they are. But this does not make it easier to obtain
the proper code to decrypt the messages :)



regards - Ralph

--

Want to get in touch? http://www.radio-link.net/whereisralph.txt

wrote:

Find out what type of system it is, and BUY RADIOS FOR THE SYSTEM. When
my city went encrypted, I went out and got a Motorola XTS3000 and
progged it for the local system. My radio worked just fine.

I guess they went digital, but _not_ encrypted. The encryption is not
breakable without big efforts, or without knowing a guy who is illing
to give you the key.



regards - Ralph

--

Want to get in touch? http://www.radio-link.net/whereisralph.txt

As for decrypting, i was told that there is a schematic in either
Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics that can be used to build such a
device, and can be built for somewhere around $100. I haven't found
this yet, but if/when i do, i'll post it, and ask anyone else to do the
same.

In article ,
Mark wrote:

As for decrypting true digital encrypted transmissions, I don't believe there
is such an animal since you NEED the key. Without it, you're just guessing.
Perhaps this box rambles through keys in a trial and error mode until it picks
up a signal? Depending on the key size, this could take countless years to
accomplish.

One thing to remeber is that cracking an encryption key in these fixed
key type systems, can be done with bruteforce technequecs with some ease.
Once the key has been found it is unlikely that it would be changed
as any new key would need to be programed into ALL units on the system.
Most of these PRS Systems don't use a Rolling Key Codes, as keeping
evveryone in sync is a major headache, and PITA.
Just get 50 CPU's clunking along on the same sample bitstream, and
when you get the key, don't let on to the systems folks that the
key is out.


Me cracked a pile of fixed keys over the years......

In message , Mark

As for decrypting true digital encrypted transmissions, I don't believe there
is such an animal since you NEED the key. Without it, you're just guessing.
Perhaps this box rambles through keys in a trial and error mode until it picks
up a signal? Depending on the key size, this could take countless years to
accomplish.

Try doing a google search on "police tetra in the UK."
British police have recently gone from analogue FM to encrypted digital
and are no longer receivable by scanner users.
Where Britain goes today the Americans follow!!
--
Bill

In message , Mark
writes
On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 19:56:42 GMT, Bill wrote:

In message , Mark

As for decrypting true digital encrypted transmissions, I don't believe there
is such an animal since you NEED the key. Without it, you're just guessing.
Perhaps this box rambles through keys in a trial and error mode until
it picks
up a signal? Depending on the key size, this could take countless years to
accomplish.

Try doing a google search on "police tetra in the UK."
British police have recently gone from analogue FM to encrypted digital
and are no longer receivable by scanner users.
Where Britain goes today the Americans follow!!

That's because we're not fools. We let you do all the grunt work and
debugging for us. Why should we go through all that when you're willing?

Fair comment, slow down a bit though. Ours is far from debugged yet!
--
Bill