[Scan-DC] POLICE TO SNUB EAVESDROPPERS AS THEY ROLL OUT ENCRYPTED NETWORK

[Alan Henney]

New Zealand Press Association

May 21, 2009 Thursday

POLICE TO SNUB EAVESDROPPERS AS THEY ROLL OUT ENCRYPTED NETWORK

LENGTH: 341 words

(eds: with POLICE-RADIO-MEDIA)

Wellington, May 21 NZPA - Police are rejigging their radio
communications to prevent them being snooped on by criminals, boy
racers, and anyone else with a $175 scanner.

An encrypted digital radio system will be launched in Wellington next
month, then extended to Christchurch and Auckland by November 2010.

Other districts will be added over the next four years.

Eventually, the digital technology will enable 1.7 million messages to
be sent on a network of over 300 radio sites to 2500 vehicles and 3000
handheld radios.

Police said it would make effective encryption easier so that people
would no longer be able to track their activities with scanners.

While listening to a scanner was not illegal, acting on information
obtained from one was.

Police have been keenly awaiting the technology to beat the scanners,
Police Association president Greg O'Connor said.

``Everyone, including the local burglar, is sitting at home with these
things.''

In small towns, where there were only one or two police vehicles on
patrol, scanners could tell criminals where police were working, he
said.

And in Christchurch, area commander Malcolm Johnston complained in
February that 300 thuggish boy racers screaming out ``kill the pig,
box him in'', apparently used scanners to target Sergeant Nigel
Armstrong in suburban Wigram.

``They knew that there was only one car coming at that stage,'' he
said. ``The whole thing was an orchestrated ambush.''

In July 2007 police awarded Tait Communications a $6 million tender
for Apco P25 digital equipment for specialist groups such as the armed
offenders squad, special tactics group and investigators.

The American Apco standard was used after ``performance issues'' meant
an order for digital trunked radio running on the European Tetra
standard for the 1999 Apec conference in Auckland was axed.

The new standard allowed other agencies such as fire, ambulance,
fisheries and customs services to eventually migrate to the new
service, while still using their old analog radios.




Sunday Tribune (Ireland)

May 17, 2009

New garda radio system will play havoc with television reception

BYLINE: Ken Foxe,

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. N02

LENGTH: 437 words

The garda's new EUR100m communications system will play havoc with
television reception around the country.

Garda stations are preparing for hundreds of complaints from
householders over severe disruption to their TV services.

The new digital mobile radio service, Tetra, is being rolled out
nationwide for use by the garda and emergency services. It is vastly
superior to the existing garda radio system and is encrypted, ensuring
criminals cannot use scanners to monitor police communications.

The communications regulator Comreg said it had already prepared an
information leaflet, which is being distributed to garda stations
nationwide, for householders whose TV reception is affected.

"People who live in close proximity to a garda station or another
facility where a Tetra base station is installed may experience
degraded terrestrial television reception if they have an unfiltered
wideband masthead amplifier installed with their television aerial,"
said Comreg. "Cable and satellite systems that are not directly
connected to a terrestrial television reception system will not be
affected."

The 'masthead amplifier' is used throughout the country to receive TV
stations from abroad, particularly along the border and on the east
coast. It is also used when householders want to split the TV signal
so they can watch programmes on different TV sets around the house.

"The degradation of reception experienced when a masthead amplifier is
installed occurs when unwanted nearby signals from outside the
television band enter the masthead amplifier causing it to overload
and operate incorrectly," said Comreg.

Perplexed homeowners who have watched their TV screens go fuzzy since
the rollout of the Tetra system have two options. They can remove the
masthead amplifier, but weaker signals from stations outside the
Republic would no longer be received. Alternatively, they can add
another filter which will cut out unwanted signals from Tetra, mobile
phones and private mobile radios.

"Television reception systems have traditionally been installed in
such a way that they only account for conditions that are present at
the time of installation," said Comreg. "This means that a filter
would not have been installed unless a signal that could overload an
amplifier was present at the time of installation. However, now that
spectrum in Ireland is being used more as technology advances, it is
good engineering practice to install filters in all new installations.

"It is important to note that within the Republic of Ireland, no
protection is afforded to television services originating from another
jurisdiction," Comreg added.