TSA Radios

[abbylind]

Went through a few US airports of the last few weeks. Looks like TSA got new portables. Didnt see many XTS5000s. These looked real small maybe Kenwoods or Harris radios. Had tiny speaker mikes and earpieces.
Anyone know what they are? Are they still on the same VHF freqs?

Fowler

[FireCpt809]

This is off RadioRefrerence.com

I know its a little off topic, but I also picked up TSA screeners using their new icom F50 portables on 172.150 pl 136.5 (voice inversion scrambling in use). they still use the regular apco25 system for longer distance comms it seems.

I searched the internet and found this story about it:

TSA wants its personnel to 'whisper' at airport checkpoints to reduce stress
By Jacob Goodwin, Editor-in-Chief
Published February 11th, 2009

In an effort to reduce shouting between its security officers at airport security checkpoints, and reduce overall stress levels for passengers, TSA is planning to purchase as many as 20,000 land mobile radios that would enable its personnel to whisper to each other.

“Wireless whisper will reduce noise levels that contribute to the current sense of stress at checkpoints,” explained TSA in a solicitation for mobile radios published Feb. 6. “These noise levels are elevated by the current mode of communication which often consists of [Transportation Security Officers] speaking or shouting to one another in the open, over other checkpoint noise.”

TSA’s Office of Operational Information Technology intends to procure at least 9,260 Very High Frequency land mobile radios, and, perhaps, as many as 20,000 of the units, to enable officers to speak more quietly.

“A speaker microphone is intended to be worn on the uniform of the TSA employee around the shoulder area while the radio is attached at the belt level,” says the statement of work for the proposed three-year, fixed-price, indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity contract. “The device shall allow for the attachment of a receive-only earpiece that allows for discrete monitoring of audio.”

According to the statement of work, the radios will possess the following capabilities:

• Weigh no more than 12 ounces, including the battery;

• Operate in the 162MHz through 174MHz VHF spectrum;

• Provide a vibrating alert on message reception;

• Prevent unauthorized eavesdropping on voice transmissions through voice scrambling, encryption or other technologies.

The radios will be distributed to more than 160 TSA locations at airports and other sites, over a four-month period.

The effort to “reduce ambient noise and facilitate more discrete communications between TSOs” is one element of the Checkpoint Evolution Program initiated by TSA in 2007.


They are still using XTS's at O'hare the last time I was there.

[resqguy911]

Perfect. So they are going to replace the $4,000 XTS5000s capable of P25 and real encryption with $400 pieces of crap because their purchasing agent couldn't find a lapel mic/earpiece combination?

[AEC]

Gotta love the TSA...finding NEW ways to defraud the people out of their money....All to make you 'safer'(sic)

Most people go to jail or prison for fraud, government just gets new equipment and couldn't care less who pays for the folly!

[Bill_G]

... unless you are the successful bidder, and then (everybody sing, follow the bouncing ball) Happy Days are here Again, the skys are full of cheer again ...

(hat tip to Mitch Miller..)

[tvsjr]

Actually, it may be a good thing. They've never had enough XTSs. The supervisors now carry XTSs and the flunkies carry the Icom radios. I'd rather them buy a few thousand Icoms than a few thousand XTS5000s!

[resqguy911]

That part was not clear. If they are retaining the 5000s and just adding icoms for the "have nots", then I suppose its better than nothing.

[Pj]

Yeah the TSA Leads, managers, BDO's etc are still walking around with the XTS's (on the shoulder, look for more than one stripe at the end...two more stripes at the end indicate they have some desision making ability given to back to them). Listening to them is usually uneventual.

The rank and file are getting the ICOM's with ear pieces. We have already sent a couple to hospital due to stuck ear pieces. Makes our day

[tvsjr]

(on the shoulder, look for more than one stripe at the end...two more stripes at the end indicate they have some desision making ability given to back to them)

I thought the stripes were to indicate IQ - 1 stripe for every 10 points over 50. 1 stripe = 60, 2 stripes = 70. Maybe I'm being too generous...

[abbylind]

Well I read that AIRINC also has a contract to provide radios and interop systems for TSA.

Fowler

[mt1000ff]

I made a trip from Nasville to Chicago and back yesterday. At Nashville all of the TSA workerbees had the ICOMs with most having the speaker mics and earphones. Appeared to be VHF from the antenna. There was one XTS5000 with VHF wide band antenna on the desk. At Midway there were no ICOMs visable, about half of the workers had XTS5000 or nothing. I thought about taking a cellphone picture of the ICOMS, then thought longer about questions and decided not to.

[d119]

Well I read that AIRINC also has a contract to provide radios and interop systems for TSA.

Fowler

Do you mean ARINC? (Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated)

[KE7JFF]

This might explain this more:

http://mt-fedfiles.blogspot.com/2010/02 ... adios.html

[mancow]

As a tax payer it sounds like a good idea to me. Why spend $5K so some guy can say, "hey Gus can you come over here"? That's about all I've ever heard on their freqs.

Perfect. So they are going to replace the $4,000 XTS5000s capable of P25 and real encryption with $400 pieces of crap because their purchasing agent couldn't find a lapel mic/earpiece combination?

[abbylind]

This is the ARINC article but it looks old
ANNAPOLIS, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 2003

ARINC ARINC Aeronautical Radio, Inc.
ARINC Aircraft Radio Incorporated
ARINC Aeronautical Research Incorporated Incorporated has finished deploying thousands of new, high-security mobile radio systems for airport screeners and the staff of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA TSA

See tax-sheltered annuity (TSA). ). The nationwide installation of new Land Mobile Radio technology at more than 400 airports and TSA offices was completed a month ahead of original schedule.

Officials of Unisys Corporation (company) Unisys Corporation - The company formed in 1984-5 when Burroughs Corporation merged with Sperry Corporation. This was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined. and TSA acknowledged the successful deployment at an all-hands review teleconferenced nationally in June. Patrick Schambach, assistant administrator and CIO CIO: see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


(Chief Information Officer) The executive officer in charge of information processing in an organization. of TSA, and Greg Baroni, president, Unisys Global Public Sector, identified ARINC's work on the Land Mobile Radio (LMR LMR Land Mobile Radio
LMR Labor-Management Relations
LMR Last Minute Resistance
LMR Living Marine Resources
LMR Longmoor Military Railway (UK)
LMR Liquid-Metal Reactor
LMR Laser Magnetic Resonance ) team as one of the most successful deployments under the innovative Information Technology Managed Services An umbrella term for third-party monitoring and maintaining of computers, networks and software. The actual equipment may be inhouse or at the third-party's facilities, but the "managed" implies an ongoing effort; for example, making sure the equipment is running at a certain quality contract (ITMS iTMS iTunes Music Store (Apple)
ITMS Interim Traffic Management System
ITMS Immediate (Check) Truth Maintenance System (AI)
ITMS Integrated Transportation Management System ). Unisys is the prime contractor.


Ads by GoogleSecurity Career?
Get Trained - High Paying Homeland Security Jobs. Get Free Info Now!
ChooseICDCCollege.com/Security
Used Avionics
Buy, Sell and Trade Used Nav/Com, Transponder, GPS, DME, Audio Panels
www.jaair.com/avionics

The ITMS review was attended by hundreds of TSA staff and Team Unisys members. The members of the Land Mobile Radio team--17 employees of TSA, Unisys, and ARINC--proved themselves "knowledgeable and accepting of change, and never lost sight of the objective," Schambach stated. "Thanks to all of you for a superb effort."

The Land Mobile Radio program was the only deployment activity to receive special recognition at the ITMS review. Two ARINC members of the Land Mobile Radio Team, Thomas McDonald and Robert Renoud, were among those receiving Certificates of Excellence for outstanding performance and lasting contributions.

ARINC deployed more than 7,170 portable digital radios and repeater stations at 420 airports and TSA offices in about four months. The new digital radios are equipped with special encryption technology designed to prevent TSA security messages from being intercepted by outsiders and block intrusive outside transmissions. TSA security screeners and managers will use the system from coast to coast, and it will provide a secure national wireless communications wireless communications

System using radio-frequency, infrared, microwave, or other types of electromagnetic or acoustic waves in place of wires, cables, or fibre optics to transmit signals or data. "backbone" for the TSA, linking it with law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is a term used to describe any agency which enforces the law. This may be a local or state police, federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). nationwide.

The recent ITMS review was keynoted by the head of the TSA, Admiral James M. Loy. Part of the vision of ITMS management is to make the ITMS program the model within the federal government for deployment of managed information technology services. Thomas Frederick, Unisys task order manager, noted some ITMS program challenges have never been attempted before. Taking base communications and adding a layer of managed services "amounts to a very different and unique application," he stated.

Developing a trusting relationship between the contractors and the government is essential, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3. David Newberry, the TSA task order manager. He added that the ITMS program eventually could deliver a wide range of other technologies such as cell phones, pagers, and video surveillance equipment.

ARINC Incorporated is the world leader in transportation communications and systems engineering. The company develops and operates communications and information processing systems and provides systems engineering and integration solutions to five key industries: airports, aviation, defense, government, and surface transportation. Founded to provide reliable and efficient radio communications for the airlines, ARINC is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, and operates key regional offices in London and Singapore, with over 3,000 employees worldwide. ARINC is ISO(1) See ISO speed.

(2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI.
..... Click the link for more information. 9001 certified. For more information, visit the ARINC web site at www.arinc.com.

[resqguy911]

As a tax payer it sounds like a good idea to me. Why spend $5K so some guy can say, "hey Gus can you come over here"? That's about all I've ever heard on their freqs.

Perfect. So they are going to replace the $4,000 XTS5000s capable of P25 and real encryption with $400 pieces of crap because their purchasing agent couldn't find a lapel mic/earpiece combination?

Oh I agree now that it has been made clear. I just didn't like the idea of them surplusing the XTS for pennies and buying new icoms. Now that I know the icoms are additional not replacements I don't feel so bad.

[com501]

From a security standpoint, they should ALL be using P25 encrypted as was originally intended for all Govcomm.

This ridiculous backwards step is unreasonable and compromises security, AGAIN.

[tvsjr]

From a security standpoint, they should ALL be using P25 encrypted as was originally intended for all Govcomm.

This ridiculous backwards step is unreasonable and compromises security, AGAIN.

Why? What does the TSA do that necessitates encryption? Other than licensing issues, FRS radios would be sufficient for 99.9% of their personnel.

[Pj]

As someone who is currently working at an international airport, I can assure you that there is nothing exciting, security related or otherwise interesting enough that they say or do over the radio that would want me to put it in my work radio.

Smoke signals and semophore flags rate a higher level of encryption than what plain old TSA does.

If you want to hear "Charlie 1 to BDO 5, can you go over to the CTX machine and releave them for a break" all day long....then go for it.

Now the other components of TSA is like the USSS, FBI, etc and all use a cellphone for routine use

[com501]

As someone who is currently working at an international airport, I can assure you that there is nothing exciting, security related or otherwise interesting enough that they say or do over the radio that would want me to put it in my work radio.

Smoke signals and semophore flags rate a higher level of encryption than what plain old TSA does.

If you want to hear "Charlie 1 to BDO 5, can you go over to the CTX machine and releave them for a break" all day long....then go for it.

Now the other components of TSA is like the USSS, FBI, etc and all use a cellphone for routine use

Which is ALSO wrong. IF the whole purpose of the govcomm initiative was to secure communications, then it should ALL be secure.

If routine comms are run in the clear or unencrypted, then when the S*** DOES hit the fan, every bad guy will know it. Routine traffic and priority traffic should all be indistinguishable from a monitoring standpoint, except perhaps by volume. Feds are going to get their asses smacked for using cell phones one of these days, as anyone who can hack a cell phone to track the control channel and monitor traffic can hear what they say. It is not hard, I have done it, for CDMA AND TDMA. The folks not encrypted would be better off using a land line than either clear or cell phones....

[tvsjr]

Land lines? As in, a buttset and two clip leads and you're good to go?

When the :o hits the fan, the TSA droids will be running around like imbeciles screaming and yelling, or dead from the initial attack. FBI, USSS, etc. won't be "working with" TSA - they'll be kicking their asses to the side and running things themselves.

Secure is a pain. It's not just "throw a module in the radio and hope it works". Gov crypto must follow FIPS - there goes Infinite Key Retention out the window. So now you have radios dropping keys, which means either a crypto manager on-site to rekey radios or an infrastructure to automatically rekey the radios over the air (assuming that you can do so and comply with gov regultaions). You have to ensure keys get rotated on a proper schedule and are generated in a secure manner. Don't go through all of this, and one stolen radio means your crypto is 0wned.

Before you say "radios won't get stolen", recall that DHS (who are, by and large, far more qualified and trained than TSA) *lost* over 200 firearms in 3 years. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/18/ ... index.html

There's no reason to encrypt traffic that isn't secure. Further, if you haven't vetted all of the potential receivers to ensure they are secure, your crypto is meaningless.

In short - the TSA are a bunch of security guards with a federal commission. There's zero reason for them to run full-time crypto.

[Pj]

I started to write a similar post until I lost service...so here we go again...

From a fiscal and needs standpoint, there is no sense to encrypt the TSA screeners. Say at a discount cost of $400 a module times x amount of radios and you just bought some better xray machines, bomb dogs, or just plain save that amount of OUR taxpaying money. In that cost, count the difference in price between say the ICOM's they are buying now and a XTS5000/XTS2500/APX6000 and their accessories and infrastructure (read Quantars, etc).

TSA screeners CANNOT enforce laws at an airport. They are not commissioned law enforcement officers. They are not armed. They don't have covert nijas at the checkpoints. If they find something in a bag or have an issue, they call the police. 99 out of a 100 times, if something is going thru that isn't allowed on an aircraft (but is legal to have) the person will have to trash or mail back that item. If its not illegal, there is nothing to arrest the person on. We go through this everyday. In fact, some "eager" bag searchers will take out narcotics and brings us down a slippery slope as since they are under DHS and DHS is a law enforcement agency...any narcotics seized without a warrant gets thrown out of court anyways (TSA becomes an agent of the state and should know better). But thats another issue...

If something goes down at an airport serious enough, the most they are going to do is close the checkpoints and not let anyone through until the airport/local/state/etc police have enough manpower to just kick everyone out in a timely manner and start their investagation.

I mean really, they DO NOT use the radios that often and in a manner which would require such secure comms. I am not aware of any MADATE that states that Feds have to go secure. I know the local FLEO's here are not going to do it, although they are capable of it.

[SlimBob]

Land lines? As in, a buttset and two clip leads and you're good to go?

When the hits the fan, the TSA droids will be running around like imbeciles screaming and yelling, or dead from the initial attack. FBI, USSS, etc. won't be "working with" TSA - they'll be kicking their asses to the side and running things themselves.

USSS has the badges, guns, big guns, and doesn't take no for an answer.

[Ravenboy2001]

Well I read that AIRINC also has a contract to provide radios and interop systems for TSA.

Fowler

Do you mean ARINC? (Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated)

ARINC is no longer affiliated with the TSA radio program. ARINC was subbed to Unisys on the original bid and had the task fielding and maintaining all the LMR stuff at airports (about 9000 total XTS's and repeaters at about 200 larger airports)

A couple years back when it came time to recompete there was some sort of falling out and the two sides (Unisys and ARINC) parted ways. The parting left ARINC out of rebid process due to them being sub to Unisys' prime on the overall TSA contract. ARINC partnered with another company on the re-compete but the new prime (can't remember who it was) didn't win.

[danneskjold]

Slight necro post..

Went through SEATAC on 9/2 and all I saw were Icoms - but it looked like they had hirose adaptors with speakermics attached. Anyone seen those adaptors?

[Josh]

Slight necro post..

Went through SEATAC on 9/2 and all I saw were Icoms - but it looked like they had hirose adaptors with speakermics attached. Anyone seen those adaptors?

That's exactly what they use at DTW, here in Detroit. That and plenty of XTS5ks. I don't know what frequency the iComs are on.

They look like a hi-rose, but probably isn't. Who knows.