New radios for Edwards AFB contract 5/23/2012

fbo dot gov

Motorola APX600XE

APX 6000XE Portable Radio, Model 3.5, QTY: 70 .00 EA, with the following options:
H98QDH9PW7AN // APX6000 UHFR1 MODEL 3.5 PORTABLE QA02006AA I I ENH: APX6000XE RUGGED RADIO
QA05575AAALT // TIA4950 BATT IMPRES 2 LllON 4500T (HIGH CAP)
Q629AK I I ENH: AES ENCRYPTION
Q806BM // ADD: ASTRO . DIGITAL CAI OPERATION
Q498AY // ENH: ASTRO 25 OTAR WI MULTIKEY
QA05100AA // ENH: STD WARRANTY APPLIES-NO SFS H38BT // ADD: SMARTZONE OPERATION
Q361AR // ADD: P25 9600 BAUD TRUNKING
G996AU // ADD: PROGRAMMING OVER P25 (OTAP)
NNTN8921 BATT // IMPRES 2 LllON TIA4950 R IP68 4500T, QTY: 40ea.
NNTN7687A // IMPRES SUC ADAPTER QTY: 75 EA
NNTN8860A CHARGER // SINGLEUNIT, IMPRES 2, 3A, 115VAC, US / NA, QTY: 2ea.
NNTN7686A IMPRES MUC ADAPTER (PK OF 6 INSERTS) QTY: 1 EA NNTN8844ACHARGER // MULTIUNIT, IMPRES 2, 6DISP, NA/LAPLUG, ACC USB CHGR, QTY: 1 ea.

This is one of those purchases that can mean "nothing" or "something." "Nothing" would be if they were replacing some broken radios. "Something" would be if they were standing up a new unit for some cool project. Hey, you take your OSINT where you can get it.

The radios have encryption and over the air programming. Smartzone doesn't really mean all that much. Basically as the user roams between sites, the smartzone will enable the radio on the which ever zone they are in. It is a little more useful regarding OSINT if you track a particular user as they travel between zone, such as on the Nellis trunk system. This is known as "traffic analysis".

Assuming this isn't significant, at least we know which radios they use on base. You may not think that is all that useful, so let me tell a little story...

I was driving on the ET Highway and encountered a traffic accident a bit north of the Groom Lake intersection. It was an overturned Airstream and a truck with the front wheels in the air. (Yeah, I have photos, but no use documenting someone's bad day.) I was going to use my ham radio to call it in when I noticed a woman in civilian clothes on a HT (Handy Talky). It was a Harris P25 radio, identical to the ones I've seen on the TTR videos (yeah, more OSINT). I chatted a bit with her and said how handy it was she had a ham radio. She said "Yeah, you need one out here." Could have been a Groom worker, who knows.

Things like radios are bought in bulk. If they are unique to the area, they can be considered a "badge" of sorts.

Argh: Typo in the title, which of course I can't edit. Please make that 2018.