Thought readers might want to read the story I wrote ....
By Dennis Alan
The TV images and sounds zipped around the world. The flash-booms of the stun grenades. Clouds of teargas stinging the eyes of protestors and bystanders. Groin kicks and the thunks of batons against flesh. The stunned and apologetic mayor. All in a city that finally admitted it wasn't prepared for the World Trade Organization meeting. In the living room of a close-by apartment, however, the lack of preparation was never evident in radio communications on the area's Motorola trunking system.
What developed for a group of scanning enthusiasts camped out in the apartment for five days after Thanksgiving was a rich cornucopia of monitoring gold for a complex event. I hope this account will be helpful to other enthusiasts planning to monitor other large events. Perhaps the most significant lesson we learned was the need to have the right monitoring tools and accessories, and breaking up assignments. After all, with some 25 scanners, several computers running the Trunker software and a spectrum analyzer, mining the gold couldn't have relied on only one or two persons.
We prepared for the event uncertain just how many useful 'comms' we could hear, concerned that a lot of the best comms would be encrypted. When it ended, we were overwhelmed with all the great comms we heard that were in the clear.
Most of the best action was heard on the area's trunking system with nearly 'blow-by-blow' action (pun intended). It was amazing to watch a platoon of officers standing at the ready on live TV and then hear them ordered on a certain talkgroup to march into the crowds with specific orders. And just as revealing to hear so many of the TV reporters confused about what the officers were doing. It still amazes me, despite my former life as a reporter that the bulk of the media hasn't really figured out how useful scanners are.
A concern among the agencies that manage the trunking system was that overloads would sometimes bring the system to its knees or that attempts would be made to jam the 800-mHz system. After the first three days, however, justifiably proud trunking system managers were exultant that the system handled a record 130,000 mike key-ups without failure. As for jamming, it never occurred although several mobile vehicles from the FCC were ready to help identify jammers.
The trunking system in King County appears to be either the largest or one of the largest in the US. Nearly every city and county agency is on the system, including dogcatchers. There are about 13,000 radios using the system, and about 1,100 talkgroups. There are three primary data channels in this SmartZone system that represent the City of Seattle, King County and a group of east county agencies. Each of the three systems also has simulcast sites.
We had two computers running the free Trunker program, and used them primarily to 'hunt out' any new talkgroups. There were a few, but the bulk of the action occurred on already known talkgroups that were patched together. Managers patched together five to seven talkgroups so that Seattle Police and King County Police, who have different 'home' systems, could communicate in the various protest zones.
Probably the most significant feature of Trunker is its ability to 'tag' a certain radio ID, such as the various police commanders. If your only experience with trunking systems is today's current crop of scanners, then you know that talkgroups have ID numbers. Each radio, however, also has a unique ID. Thus, each radio can not only be identified as to whom is using it, but more importantly, Trunker users can assign a high priority number to certain radio IDs. When those radios transmit, Trunker then forces the scanner to jump to whatever talkgroup that user is on. This was invaluable because it meant we could follow the commanders wherever they transmitted. Again, I was amazed that no reporters had this capability. Time and time again, we watched in amazement as the TV anchor would ask a field reporter what the on-the-move phalanx of officers was going to do and hear the reporter say, "Well, we really don't know so let's just watch what happens." And, of course, we knew because we heard the commanders telling the troops exactly what to do.
There were several incidents where larger numbers of protesters surrounded either an isolated officer or a small squad of officers. Motorola's Emergency button feature on the radios significantly helped to identify which officers needed help. In these situations, it was nearly impossible to understand the officers due to all the shouting around them. When the EMER (they pronounce it ee-mer in our area) button was activated, however, dispatchers knew who the officers were. Dispatchers obviously had a database of officer-location assignments and help was quickly dispatched. When the emergency beepers sounded on all the relevant talkgroups, all comms came to a halt until it was clear help was on the way.
Back at the apartment, the spectrum analyzer and search scanners proved also to be useful. There were one or two Blackhawk choppers assigned to keep clear a seven-nautical mile radius of airspace around downtown Seattle up to 18,000 feet. The chopper was assigned a trunking radio but we suspected it had other comms, and were delighted to find frequent spikes on the spectrum analyzer at 395.000 MHz. One commercial helicopter pilot got tired of waiting for an air traffic control clearance to transit this airspace and took off into the sanitized area. Although some harsh words were traded between the Blackhawk and the intruder, prudence won out and it was fascinating to hear the Blackhawk escort the other chopper to a forced landing.
Having a clear picture of pre-event frequencies used in the various federal bands helped us a lot. We set the spectrum analyzer on these bands and could easily identify a number of new transmitters set up for WTO. Several of them ran 'in the clear', including the US State Department's VIP motor pool for transporting diplomats from the 130-plus countries to and from the airports.
Another significant area to monitor was the protesters. Although the bulk of the TV coverage you saw probably focused on the small group doing the damage, there were tens of thousands of other protesters (biggest group were the labor unions). A number of protest groups were equipped with Family Radio handhelds while others had GRMS or itinerant business band radios. Other than using these radios for coordinating their efforts, the most organized protest groups each had a media contact person. These folks kept in touch with the press with their protest plans in efforts to get their 'share' of media coverage and to keep rumors was getting out of hand.
Another helpful tool was the Police Call book. It wasn't any license data that was helpful, but the tables of frequency assignments for different services (such as business band) so they could be correctly programmed into the search ranges.
We also found it necessary to spread out all the scanners as far away from each other as possible due to all the audio 'pollution'. Having enough external speakers was also helpful as we could move them around to certain radios when certain events dominated. When we first heard Air Force One about 12:45AM talking to Seattle Approach, we hooked them up to the airband radios so we could concentrate on President Clinton's arrival.
One of us remembered to bring a printer. He kept a running document of what frequencies were used by which agency. Although a core group stayed fulltime at the apartment, other folks came in to join in the monitoring and handing out updated printouts proved to be really handy getting those folks up to speed. We only had one telephone line and wanted to keep that open so another of us had a wireless modem for access to the Internet (www.ricochet.net). We used this connection to do ICQ chats with certain members of our group at their homes and to keep up-to-date with various web sites for the protesters. During a lax period, it was interesting to download a large file using this wireless modem and watch the spectrum analyzer as the RF signal could be seen in the 900-meg band as the carrier was frequency hopping.
Power strips and extension cords were other needed items. Fortunately, one person in our group took the responsibility for most of these required accessories.
Some of us also ventured in vehicles and on foot into action downtown. As you can imagine, having earpieces helped a lot. And, the various monitor/frequency counter devices made by OptoElectronics came in handy. With any big event, you always wonder if you're catching most of the new frequencies, right? Especially when someone near you is using a radio.
"After a few days of constant radio traffic, I stopped being able to process the info," said one of our group. "I was listening but the info didn't process. One of you would say what you heard on a talkgroup and I would ask 'what talkgroup?' And one of you would say a talkgroup I had in my radio. I just missed it because of the sheer amount of info coming in."
When it was all over, the experience was valuable for our group of scanning enthusiasts. Planning and having the right tools and accessories made a big difference.