[NLRS] Radio Article - OT but of interest.

[Doug Reed]

If you ignore the "radio" side of things, Felde is probably charged with
felony theft or receiving stolen merchandise, the two radio techs are
probably charged with aiding and abetting a felony, and the fire chief
certainly submitted false paperwork for state/federal reimbursement of
funds and that also has a fancy legal name.... Listening to radios doesn't
even come into it. 

And Don's point about listening versus transmitting is valid. Keep that in
mind if you did the "MARS" mod on your mobile radio. As long as it could
only listen, it was legal under state law as long as a licensed individual
is in the car. But if it can transmit out of band and you don't have
convincing paperwork that says you are allowed to use those frequencies,
the radio is subject to being confiscated. And since it is not FCC type
accepted it isn't legal to use outside the ham bands anyway.... If you "cut
the wire" you're not protected by your ham license any more. 

As for the APCO-25 digital radio system in Minnesota, they are very serious
about system security and use digital encryption on many (most?) of the
channels. The public will be able to buy an APCO25 scanner at Radio Shack
or wherever and listen to the basic dispatch channels. But the on-scene
channels will use different digital keys and every department will have
multiple encrypted secure channels for other uses, ranging from
investigations, surveillance, and special ops, down to simple car-to-car
chat groups. The intent is to limit severely what the public and news
organizations can hear. There is provision for news orgs to purchase radios
and have them programmed for more than the public channels but that will
still not get them into the most secure encrypted channels. Security is
very important to the departments particularly given the growing technical
sophistication of drug groups and terrorists.... 

As far as I'm concerned, they have done what the FCC should have done 20
years ago. Instead of making it illegal to listen to cellphone frequencies,
make the user provide security by applying encryption to the radio if he
doesn't want it monitored. That is what the police have done for years,
APCO-25 just makes it easier for them. 

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS

>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Don" <KA9QJG at WOWWAY.COM>
>> To: <RadioModifications at yahoogroups.com>
>> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 9:12 PM
>> >          Lansing, MI - An Oceana County fire chief and three other
>> > men were charged Friday (December 18, 2004) with scheming to
>> > illegally tap into the state police radio system.
>> >snip...
>> >          Andrew John Felde, 41, of Grand Rapids is accused of
>> > obtaining stolen or illegally manufactured Motorola radios. James
>> > Benjamin Brunk, 44, of Cadillac and James Edward Werner, 38, of
>> > Rockford, who were state police civilian employees, allegedly helped
>> > Felde program the radios to access the 800-megahertz system. They
>> > gave him computer software and templates for the radios so they
>> > would work on the system, Cox said.
>> >
>> >          Walkerville Fire Chief Jerry Lee Frick, 63, then bought
>> > three of the radios at half price, Cox said, in part with grant
>> > money by submitting a fraudulent invoice to a local 911 system.
>> >
>> >          The men face various felony charges. Frick faces up to 14
>> > years in prison if convicted, and the other men face up to 5 to 10
>> > years.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Happy Holidays Don KA9QJG
>> >
>> > PS What the Heck is A   Illegally manufactured Motorola radios ?