Question: What Exactly Is A System Key???

[Son of Trido]

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours at the local Motorola Service Shop last Friday (a ham friend works there).

He was showing me some things related to trunked radio systems in the RSS. One thing he demonstrated was a stand-alone program called SKG - system key generator. Basically all you do is enter the system ID and it makes a system key.

Can Elroy (or perhaps someone else) explain exactly what this "key" does? When printed on the PC's screen, it showed some hex numbers but not much else. Is this all that's needed (besides the Connect Tone and data channel frequencies) to properly set up a trunked radio?

Thanks from a beginner,
Son Of Trido

[wavetar]

The system key is a requirement if you wish to program a Motorola radio onto a Motorola tunking system. You must tell the RSS what directory it resides in on your computer (usually "F9", "F3" from the main menu, depending on which RSS). Without doing this, the RSS will read the radio, but it will not let you edit or create various parameters such as control channels, individual IDs, talkgroup IDs, etc, etc. You are limited to adding/deleting from the Zone/Channel assignment, and conventional personality functions. Every system has a corresponding system key for this purpose. There is an SKG program floating around, which if Motorola catches you with would likely land you in prison. Your friend should be careful who he shows it to.
Elroy & others have gone into much greater detail about the system key, but this is really all most people need to know.