Batboard

Does anyone know if a Motorola 800 P25 phase 1 trunking system can have 2 talk groups hard or soft patched at either console or trunking controller to allow two talk groups with two seperate aes encryption keys to be patched?

I realize the system would normally single broadcast with two talkgroup id's for a patched trunking talkgroup. This is in a system where two agencies each have their own keys but desire to have seperable (in case of security breach) but secure interop on a daily basis while retaining their own keys, and only one of the two groups radios are flashed for multikey.

Thoughts aside purchasing a flash upgrade for multikey?

Thanks.

First question I have is, which console platform are you doing this on? MCC7500? 7100? 5500? There is no such thing as a "trunking controller patch" in the 7.x world so it has to be done at the console level.

You'll probably need multi-key capability.

From what I remember, the consoles and subscriber radios would use a different key when the talkgroup is patched to another. Look in the APX CPS under the trunking system's "Secure/Multikey" section down at the bottom of the trunking system's page. You'll see a drop down menu called "Patch Key Select" which tells the radio which key to use when talkgroups are patched.

I guess the thought was to program a "common" key in every subscriber and console position that would automatically be used whenever talkgroups are patched.

I also remember if a console user patches an encrypted talkgroup to a clear one, the calls will go out on two voice channels--one for the encrypted radios and one in the clear. A small message appears at the bottom of the MCC7500 screen warning the dispatcher that they have patched a secure resource to a clear one, or something to that effect.

All true for a wireline console, however if he's using a MCC5500 with APX or XTL consolettes the system will treat both talkgroups as separate voice calls and use their respective traffic keys.

You can patch them without using the 'patch' key if you set their talkgroups to be 'non-regroupable', but then you utilize two repeaters at each site instead of one.