Whistler TRX-1 Digital UK Police Scanner ?

[sas29uk]

Hi guys

Been a while, was thinking of getting back into scanning, its been some time now since i was last into the hobby. I was looking at maplins in the UK and see the Whistler scanner advertised as a police scanner ? Last time i was scanning you could no longer pickup anything like that as they went over to tetra. Have they now decoded tetra and can this scanner actually pickup the police here in the UK ?

Many thanks in advance.

[Admiral]

I don't see any mention of police on their advert page, if you have seen police mentioned elsewhere then it is referring to US law enforcement agencies, there is no third party equipment that can resolve encrypted Airwave Tetra.
If some Russian reverse engineer/hacker/coder genius had managed it and made a prototype and sent it to Maplin, Maplin liked it and commissioned it, the CEO of Maplin would be in gaol within a day of them going on sale, and every Maplin would be closed down whilst stock was assessed and confiscated, that is how seriously it would be taken, you can mess around putting out 50w on 446 and the authorities don't give a toss, but if you found a way of resolving police comms then you would be in the Tower within hours and probably never seen again.

[Sam P]

I don't see any mention of police on their advert page, if you have seen police mentioned elsewhere then it is referring to US law enforcement agencies, there is no third party equipment that can resolve encrypted Airwave Tetra.
If some Russian reverse engineer/hacker/coder genius had managed it and made a prototype and sent it to Maplin, Maplin liked it and commissioned it, the CEO of Maplin would be in gaol within a day of them going on sale, and every Maplin would be closed down whilst stock was assessed and confiscated, that is how seriously it would be taken, you can mess around putting out 50w on 446 and the authorities don't give a toss, but if you found a way of resolving police comms then you would be in the Tower within hours and probably never seen again.

Lol...

You spent some time putting that response together didn't you I particularly liked the anachronisms...

[sas29uk]

Well that told me lol

Thanks for the reply.

[jhampton2000]

TETRA channels/frequencies can be detected by most scanners, including the Whistler, but that's all they can do: detect the digital data.

TETRA channels can be decoded using a linux-based software package, such the following: http://www.rtl-sdr.com/tetra-decoding-o ... th-telive/ It can tell you its encrypted, it can't decode the encrypted comms. This package isn't for the faint hearted, and you'll need a reasonable degree of linux skills to get it going.

Encrypted TETRA channels - such as that used in the Airwave system employed by all UK emergency services - cannot be decrypted, including by any ofthe above solutions.

[radiosification]

Encryption is incredibly easy to get these days, and incredibly difficult to break. There's no way the public will ever be able to scan the police unless they give us access.

[MrWeetabix]

Other than becoming a plod, the only way you'll be able to listen to Police comms is to become a CCTV controller (they often have a TETRA terminal for direct comms with Police, or just stand really close to a plod

UK police scanning is DEAD. It was fun while it lasted.

[paulears]

I particularly liked the anachronisms...

What anachronisms? metaphors maybe? Like the Tower one - perhaps we should slap a few more people in there!

[stanogs68]

Other than becoming a plod, the only way you'll be able to listen to Police comms is to become a CCTV controller (they often have a TETRA terminal for direct comms with Police, or just stand really close to a plod

UK police scanning is DEAD. It was fun while it lasted.

i love that one ,stand really close to a plod ,lol

[MrWeetabix]

Tell him you're part-penguin, so huddling around others is part of your animal instincts!

[stanogs68]

Tell him you're part-penguin, so huddling around others is part of your animal instincts!

imagine following them round like a shadow ,what would they think telling them to turn his squelch up haha

[thelad]

Get iansradios round

[Sam P]

I particularly liked the anachronisms...

What anachronisms?

The use of the spelling 'gaol' is 18th c. The last state prisoner held in the tower was Rudolf Hess in 1942. Ergo an anachronistic stylised fora response - it wasn't a criticism, just an observation.

[paulears]

~Ha! spot on. Missed that one! Bugger.

[Admiral]

Once upon a time English was not my first language, 'gaol' was the spelling that I was taught, I also put a strikethrough on the body of my sevens, not because it's trendy, but once again, that was how I was shown way back when.
I humbly think dated words are more desirable than modern text-talk M8.