[FedCom] Encryption and Aircraft Radios (was: Questions)/The Answer

[Steven Rutledge]

The only federal agency that I know of that has OTAR is U. S. Customs. 
This is Over The Air Keying.  Each radio has to have a code injected in
it so it can operate in the encrypted mode.  All of the radios that are
trying to talk to each other have to have the same code.  If you have
used one of these radios, you know that they continually DROP the code
for one reason or another.  When this occurs, you have to take your
radio to someone with a KEY LOADER and get your radio re-keyed or you
are out of luck.  It is rare, during day to day ops, that someone's
radio doesn't drop code.  We are talking Motorola here.  So, unless you
are a Customs person who can get their radio keyed immediately by the
dispatcher in Orlando, FL, you are SOL.  As far as the AC goes, usually
it is just a simple matter of coordination.  The airplane is parked in
one place and the cars are parked somewhere else.  The coordination of
keys and key loaders is a logistics nightmare.  Further, analog
transmissions using DVP are absolutely terrible.  Many times it is so
bad that everyone just gives up and talks in the clear.  Only a very few
federal agencies have repeater systems that adequately support DVP.  In
fact, I would say that the FBI might be the only one.

Chris Parris wrote:
> 
> I think the original question could have been;
> 
> Why do we often hear federal operations that have the ground units all
> running encryption, but the aircraft flying above with the aerial
> observer is in the clear?
> 
> I have often heard such operations, and still do occasionally. I
> originally thought that the aircraft radios simply didn't have
> encryption available, as they were probably not the same model radios as
> we find in mobile situations on the ground. And I didn't think they
> normally just jumped in a plane or helicopter with a hand-held radio...
> 
> I'm sure as the aircraft radios get upgraded, digital encryption will be
> available. But as we have discussed earlier, things still show up in the
> clear for no obvious reasons...
> 
> --
> 
> Chris Parris
> Beaverton, OR
> cparris2@compuserve.com
> 
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