[FedCom] Digital Charlie

[Ted and Kim Moran]

Some time ago our local US Secret Service office's primary radio freqs went
to digital modulation format. Not DVP/DES, which they've used for a couple
of decades, but real digital modulation. Happily, I have a local report from
a friend with a Uniden BC250D and the digital card that it works just fine
on this user. He says encrypted digital is apparently available for the
users, but isn't commonly used. So apparently, they are using true Apco25
format modulation. I can't confirm this myself as I'm not currently
"digitally enabled".

Here in the Chicago area we've seen virtually no migration (yet) on VHF/UHF
to the new narrowband / digital frequency or modulation schemes, other than
the above. I've been told it's coming, eventually...

Not that it matters much. Thanks to Nextel, display pagers and cell phones
federal law enforcement radio ops here are no where near as active as they
once where. I miss the 80's sometimes... Sometimes I can go for a couple of
weeks before hearing anything juicy. Here and there's a smattering of
regularly used freqs, but generally speaking, things are awfully quiet on
VHF/UHF.

Happy Scanning! - Ted