"Joe Rhett" <joe@Navigist.Com> writes:

This would be great if the Police didn't use radios that everyone has scanners for. This is the same as cracking - if you can prompt a legitatimate query which creates a legitimate response then you can snoop the session.

...until the police finally get better radios. Apologies to those of you who live in countries where the police have caught on to this.

Not to drag the NANOG list down a completely irrelevant path (like that's ever a concern for others here :-) ), but there are other rather substantial concerns here. In most areas, public-safety radio frequencies are considered public-access, and the relevant agencies are prohibited from encrypting their radio traffic. This is mainly an oversight issue; the idea is that private agencies should be able to keep an eye on what the police are doing. Naturally this doesn't prevent the police or similar agencies from coming up with creative ways around the issue, ranging from voice radio codes ("code 6" instead of "domestic assault", etc.) to "trunking" radio systems that hop frequencies every time you push PTT. Apparently the regulatory agencies have decided that this is okay, but (e.g.) digital spread-spectrum isn't... -Marc