I have read that secure spectra's cannot scan. How is this possible? I have worked with two police depts that have spectra's with encryption modules in use, and they scan quite nicely.
Am I missing something?
On the spectra line does the term "Securenet" mean something else?
Thanks!
Spectra's and scanning
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SecureNet is for conventional channels. You can hear "white noise" on the channel when this is in use. The audio quality is poor. For CAI Project 25 audio (which is digital to begin with), encryption simply scrambles the bits as they go over the air. There is no perceptible degradation to audio quality over unencrypted CAI. So these are two different methods. Bits have to be decoded properly for open squelch. There may also be the issue of whether the Spectra radio is using trunking... scanning not recommended... defiliation ... mess. Conventional channel scanning, no problem.
The radio I was looking at was a plain jane VHF spectra. It has a secure board installed, and the guy says it will not scan because it has it installed. However, with the PD's that I have worked for, all our secure spectra's scanned. There is a blurb on this site in the specta information that says securenet spectra's will not scan. Everything thing conventional and with encryption that I have seen has been known as "securenet". Hell, the KVL's say securenet right on them. So what's the deal? Did motorola start with "SecureNet" as a trunking marketing thing and then turn it into an encryption thing or what?
My understanding is that some of the very early Spectras were made in a non-scanning model. Just like the saber was (AN model is non scan, CN model is scan) I actually saw one of these non scanning spectra's once for sale. I didn't ask about any specifics on the Spectra because it was non-scanning, how worthless.