parnass@ihuxf.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (08/20/84)
United Press International White House Radios Prevent Eavesdropping SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The White House, irked that repor- ters and others eavesdrop on its communications when President Reagan is traveling, has turned to new high-tech radios that leave snoops listening to static. When Reagan flew to California recently, his staff and secu- rity forces were carrying smaller, more sophisticated ver- sions of the two-way radios they use to case the problems of presidential travel. Until these new radios were brought in, news agencies and others could monitor the White House frequencies to keep track of the President's movements and quickly detect any sign of trouble. The practice is legal but White House officials were angered last fall when reporters heard - and recorded - a radio- telephone conversation between Reagan and a gunman holding hostages at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, where the President was spending the weekend. White House spokesman Mark Weinberg said the new "encrypted radios" use technology that codes a radio transmission as it comes over the wire so it can be understood only by radios that have the same equipment. Anyone else receiving the coded transmission hears only sta- tic, and for additional protection the codes are changed from time to time. -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihuxf!parnass - (312)979-5414