[FedCom] Boston FBI

[Chris Parris]

Jeff,

Since the FBI was one of the first federal agencies to adopt  
encryption back in the early 90's, they have had a reputation of  
keeping their traffic as secure as possible. Sure, occasionally  
radios would drop their code keys and they would run in the clear for  
a while. Some cities have certain repeaters that seem to stay in the  
clear all the time, but for the most part, they do keep the  
encryption on.

As they transition to P-25 digital gear, I suspect the encryption  
policy will be maintained. In fact, the P-25 make keeping the  
encryption on much easier, as the radio system users shouldn't notice  
any voice quality difference between clear and encrypted, as there  
was in the analog days. Plus the radios can be programmed with the  
secure mode turned on full time...

As far as the FBI using the forthcoming IWN system, they are probably  
going to be one of the prime users of this system as it starts  
showing up across the country. They are already one of the major  
users of the Pacific Northwest portion of the IWN system that is on  
the air now. The need to replace their aging VHF radio system was one  
of the prime motivations for the IWN project in the first place.

- Chris

Chris Parris
Fed Files Columnist
Monitoring Times Magazine
chrisparris at monitoringtimes.com
http://www.monitoringtimes.com
http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/




On Nov 9, 2007, at 6:50 PM, Jeff Kenyon wrote:

> Does anyone know if the plan is to encrypt everything on these  
> freqs?  In
> Detroit I am surprised at the amount of all the thigns that are in the
> clear, but more and more has been goign on in encryption and this  
> in on
> UHF.  The FBI though I've heard them chasing and watching people  
> and using
> clear, analogue just through repeaters.  Will the FBI be moving to  
> that
> new nation wide P-25 system that is coming on line in different  
> parts of
> the country?
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, 9 Nov 2007 kennyblues at aol.com wrote:
>
>> On Tuesday November 6 FBI Boston "Central" announced on channel  
>> Alpha 1
>> (172.0750) that until further notice Alpha 1 and Alpha 3 (167.7875)
>> would be down until further notice, all admin traffic should be on
>> Alpha 2 (167.4875) and surveillance  traffic on Alpha 4  (167.4375).
>>
>> On Wednesday November 7 the radio techs (Echo units) started the
>> testing of P-25  modulation on the  A-1 channel, yesterday and today
>> they continued the testing this time with encryption being tested  
>> out.
>> Prior to this taking place there has been a minimal amount of P-25
>> traffic on the local channels, most use appeared to be used by the
>> SOG/SSG teams almost always encrypted. Routine admin traffic and
>> various other surveillance  activities  has been in the  clear/analog
>> for quite some time, It would appear that it now coming to an end.
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