Radio Shack & GRE limit scanner's ability to monitor for Big Bro

Radio Shack and GRE (GRE makes RS' scanners) was asked by an "un-named government agency" to limit the Pro 106 ability to monitor the 700MHz and some of the 800MHz band due to Homeland Security concerns. The older Pro 106s could monitor these frequencys as well as others such as the Uniden 396 and I know this to be true because I had an older Pro 106. It is thought that the GRE 500 would be linmited as well but reports are that it isn't. Which makes one wonder why the Pro 106 then? The Pro 106 and the GRE 500 are identical in terms of their insides. essentially they are the same rame radio all but one has Radio Shack on it and the other, GRE. I own a Pro 106 and tested it out and sure enough I can't enter the National tactical 700MHz frequencys which are in digital mode. A friend of mine who owns a Uniden 396 could enter these frequencys. I went to radio reference, a widely used website and in the Pro 106 Wiki it is stated that its true. However the Wiki can be edited by anyone I know this, but this along with the fact that I couldn't enter the frequencys AND my buddy could on his 396 verifies this for me.
The old scanning range has been changed in the scanner which eliminated these frequencys and this is per the packaging that comes inside the scanner's box. It clearly states the eliminated scanning range which is not illegal to monitor for any reason.

Pro 106 Wiki

I still wonder though, why in the world would Radio Shack and GRE do this on one of their own scanners? Anyone have any insight regarding this?

reply to post by Humint1


I have a pro-106, older one.. full functioning apparently.

I read somewhere the newer ones were more limited.. but that there was a "glitch".. "Signal stalker" banks 7,8 and 9 (func, scan) will still, allegedly, seek out verboden frequencies.

There's mostly silence in those freqs around here.. although there are a few that sound like a steady stream of data of some sort.

btw.. I have found Win500 software to be invaluable programming the 106, it also allows you to tweak various settings.

www.starrsoft.com...

Been thinking about a scanner for a long time. Had one back in the analogue days and loved listening to police, fire and local airport. But now everything is digital and/or encrypted. You guys recommend one that will pick it all up?

So far, this is what I have found. One reviewer says these are "tactical frequencies":

The old range of this scanner was 764-805 and now it is 764-796 which limits from scanning the national 700MHz tactical frequencys and a lot more.

PRO-106

However, this site: highways.transportations.org mentions the 700mhz band, but doesn't give specific frequencies therein. (Warning: link goes straight to a PDF.)

On September 25, 2008, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted and released a Notice of Further Proposed Rulemaking regarding the 700 MHz radio spectrum and published in the Federal Register October 3, 2008; and

The FCC proposes restricting eligibility to the Broadband voice, data, and video network (the Public Safety Broadband Network [PSBN]) that will be created “to entities that provide ‘public safety services,’ as defined in Section 337 of the [Telecommunications] Act [of 1934 as amended]; and

So I'm thinking these frequencies may have been set aside for a PSBN tactical, and possibly repeater network on a national level.

reply to post by kozmo


Uniden 396 for sure. Encryption monitoring is illegal.

reply to post by GovtFlu


I like the ARC 500 better but just because it given to me as a gift by my wife.

reply to post by Apokalypsis


The national 700 tactical freqs are clear to monitor. They are not protected or restricted so this limitation by RS and GRE is puzzling.

I have a Pro-95, the portable kind that looks like a walkie talkie, and when we bought it at RadioShack, they asked if we wanted it "programmed, to pick up the right channels." I said "maybe later." Does that have anything to do with 'blocked' channels? Ive noticed some channels it stops on sound like interference or untuned AM radio rhythms. Should I have let them "program" it?

I know back years ago when they took 900mz band ( cordless phones) off of radio shack scanners all they did was add a resistor across a point on the circuit board.

Now they block them on the EEPROM (programable chip) firmware
someone will come up with a way to reprogram these just watch the Internet.
wiki.radioreference.com...

Now you also may find that these bands are not blocked in other countries.
and if you buy the same scanner in Canada they likely will not be blocked(ebay?)

Originally posted by Humint1
reply to post by Apokalypsis

 

The national 700 tactical freqs are clear to monitor. They are not protected or restricted so this limitation by RS and GRE is puzzling.

Maybe it is being done in anticipation of upcoming legislation? Or it could be an unofficial ban by the back door.

reply to post by ANNED


They took only the portion of the 900MHz band out allocated to cordless phones. However there were still many scanners that were not blocked and could still monitor the 900 band. Just like the older 40.00MHz cordless phones, they too were monitorable.

reply to post by Apokalypsis


Perhaps. But the frequencys are as of today not restricted so this limitation by Radio Shack & GRE is premature at best and deplorable due to their willingness to be a government puppet company.

reply to post by Humint1


When law enforcement started to move to 800mghz they were running into issues with Motorola / Sprint, since the frequencies were close enough to cause issues in certain situations.

Since then, with the push of inter agency / inter governmental communication standards DHS has adopted, the 700mghz range was chosen, which is one of the reasons they are trying to limit its to use anyone other than government.

The new standards also require a narrow bandwidth range of 12mghz (Ill get the correct info, this is just a guess from memory). Im a bit confused as to why Radio Shack would try to limit scan abilities (although they are not the onlyones who make public safety scanners). Aside from a digital trunked system thats encrypted (some police agencies use that setup, but you can buy scanners that can decrypt - about 1k dollars), everything else we use is open to the public for basic operations.

You should be able to go to the FCC website and find the assinged channels to public safety organizations since its a matter of public record.

DHS multi band interoprability pilot program - 2009
Project 25
700mhgz Public Saftey Spectrum - FCC


If anyone has any questions let me know and ill try to get the answers for you.

Sorry but you can NOT decrypt anything digital. Not even with a 1k scanner. And DHS will be digital encrypted as most 3 letter groups are. Your only chance is in listening to the interop channels and local PD/FD as if anything big is going down they will be using clear channels for contacting these guys.

I have the DFW interop frequencies all entered as well as all local PDs and FDs, DPS, HAM as well. There is quite a bit of federal stuff still in the open, but most the really important stuff is encrypted P25 and this is secure.

I havent seen anything I would want to listen to on my 106 not available. There is not many differences with the Pro 106 and the Uniden 396xt , the main thing on the 106 is better digital voice, meaning it sounds better decoding digital supposedly, and the Uniden will NOT hear digital encrypted channels, it will skip over it as it figures you cant understand it anyways where the 106 will play garbled R2D2 sounding voice on these. SO I just dont enter in the encrypted frequencies so I dont have to deal with it.

reply to post by Wiz4769


Digital frequencys and talkgroups can be heard with a digital scanner, just not the encrypted ones I think is what you ment to say. In my area we listen to digital (P25) and analog signals as there are a mix of both. On a fairly regular basis I hear ICE, ATF and the US Marshals in unencrypted digital mode when they are working with local police here.

reply to post by Xcathdra


A lot of things here have been rebanded to accomodate the spectrum allocation so that Sprint/Nextel and law enforcement can operate without any intermod and/or interference with one another. We also have quite a bit of 700MHz interoperability going on here which is why I ordered a Uniden 396 last night and will trash the Pro 106 since Radio Shack/GRE wants to play up to the fed. There is no reason for them to limit the scanner at all.

These is a day coming when ALL scanners will be illegal. They do not want any one to know what they are up to.

reply to post by Humint1


I said decrypt, which means they cant hear encrypted or understand it at least. So anything I said about not hearing it correctly is only encrypted, not in the clear digital. But sorry if that didnt come across correctly in my post. Yes 80% of what I listen to is digital now and its all in the clear with no issues, and the rest is analog , again all heard with no issues. I was just stating that it doesnt matter if you can get certain frequencies or not if they are digitally encrypted. Even if you had this range, at least I would not bother to load it up anyways as I dont want to hear the "noise" from picking up the encrypted traffic. But Im sure its not that hard from a firmware update to have these added if enough complained, I just have not seen any reason to add anything to what I can pick up already. Maybe mine is older so its not an issue, I dont know.

The DFW Interop is 700mhz and I get the entire range they use just fine on my Pro106, its just not used much yet, hear a test 123 once in a blue moon, but thats about it. I have Fed, ICE, FBI, DEA as well, but you can only hear the channels they have open and not the encrypted ones. So maybe you guys needs to voice concern over the encryption and not the missing range, its way more of a problem as this spans the entire range of frequencies just about.

here is the reason transition.fcc.gov... ther is a web site that you can become a member of i do not know if it T&C, therefore i will not post the link but you can find it by searching for on line scanners, have fun listening.

Ok I just had to check and sure enough My 106 is still on 1.8 firmware, the 1.9 update in May was the one that took these out supposedly. So this is why I didnt see it as a big deal, Im able to pick up all I want including these frequencies. Im not certain but believe it might be possible to put the firmware back to 1.8, if you can then its still weird they did this, but you can get it back if you just gotta.

But looking into it I still see 2 reasons being given why this change was made, #1 its some 3 letter agency that requested this, this has all the hallmarks of a myth imho. It literally has that as the reason, not FBI or CIA, just the general 3 letter agency, which lets you create your own boogyman. Then again the #2 reason I have found for this change is because there is an intermod issue on those frequencies on that radio. Now its been known there is an issue with intermod on GRE/RS radios for a long time, yet this also bothers me as its pretty convenient. But technically can make since.... I will admit its strange

So I guess dont update the firmware if you have an older one and if you just bought one in the last 2-3 months you might have to look into going back to 1.8 firmware....