The difference between Radio Kill and Radio Disable

Radio Kill is a Capacity Max only feature. A killed Capacity Max radio will stop functioning altogether and must be sent to a Motorola repair depot to be un-killed (revived). This is the same as Equipment Permanently Disable in TETRA.

In a Capacity Max system it is possible to disallow a radio access to the system (in this case, the radio still works but will show "Register Denied" on the screen when trying to access the system).

Like all MOTOTRBO systems, Capacity Max also supports Radio Disable. A disabled radio will still register on the system but will not be able to make or receive calls. This would allow the radio to be monitored (e.g. location and remote monitor) whilst appearing to be dead. 

Other system topologies - such as Capacity Plus, IP Site Connect and Conventional - only support Radio Disable. A disabled radio can, in theory, be re-enabled over the air by anyone who knows the radios' ID; its frequencies; colour codes and privacy keys. Most of this data can be obtained by reading the radio with the CPS or Radio Management. However, the privacy and RAS keys are write-only so even being able to read the radio will not reveal this sensitive data. 

A radio can also be configured with a codeplug password to prevent it being read with the CPS or RM. The password is checked by the radio so it's not possible to sniff packets in order to reveal this.

Having a password in the radio does not prevent someone from cloning another matching codeplug to it. Writing another codeplug to a disabled radio also re-enables it but this also overwrites everything that was in there before. If the codeplug is password-protected, the radio cannot be read and so the loss of a radio will only be a material one and will not result in the compromise of communications.

When disabled or killed, the radio will appear to be dead (i.e. no tones or anything on the display or LEDs).

A radio can be disabled from another display-keypad radio with this feature enabled in the menu. It can also be disabled from a console application which supports this (most console applications do anyway).

It is only possible to kill a radio from a console application such as Avtec Scout; SmartPTT Plus or TRBONET Plus. You cannot kill one radio from another radio. Though remember that Radio Kill is a Capacity Max only feature.

A radio which is on a Capacity Max system cannot be read with the CPS. The only way to read such a radio is to do a device recovery. Recovering the radio also means losing the configuration data so the loss of the radio does not mean a compromise of communications (only an insurance claim).

With both radio disable and radio kill, the target radio will send an acknowledgement to confirm that the command was successful.

Security-conscious customers may want to also consider implementing authenticated radio disable. This prevents radios from being disabled by anyone other than a supervisor or system administrator. It is also free (no software licence required) in all new high tier MOTOTRBO radios (at least on radios shipping after November 2019 in EMEA).