scanSydney

So it appears Channel Q is the first of the last 3 remaining NSWPF dispatch channels (Q,Y and Z) to go over to digital. It appears the techs have started on the Oxley police District, with the Tamworth, Kootingal and Manilla sectors switched over at the end of November. Today Nundle, Willow Tree and area's east of Quirindi were switched on. From what I've been told the techs will get Gunnedah, Quirindi sectors done next and move north from there. What I dont understand is that today when VKG broadcast for the car crews to switch over to the digital channel they told them to go to zone 4 channel 151 and the same last month zone 4 channel 36. I was of the understanding zone 4 was the encrypted zone and zone 3 is the digital clear zone, if this is still the case not sure what the point is when the rest of the channel is still vhf anolouge. Maybe they are operating in encryption mode but all the tamworth cars can still be heard. Im listening on VHF at the moment and nowhere near the digital areas so cant tell whats going on. Anyone have any ideas?
Apparently the techs are happy with the coverage as I heard WNS52 say this arvo they were still on the tamworth channel just on the outskirts of uralla. I presume that would be coming from the Moonbi trig site at bendemeer, a considerable improvement(probably an extra 20km worth of coverage along the hwy) considering you would loose the tamworth channel about 25km north of Bendemeer. Not sure if anything has started on the the other channels i havent heard of anything as yet..

It has been done before like that in the Sydney Metro region way back in December 2006 (rebroadcast in clear with full encryption May 2008) but its the first time that I heard them do that in the regional …. I think you will find that the dispatcher headset audio gets rebroadcast for everybody else and for those on Zone 4 Encryption

Ok thanks that definitely makes sense. So I presume that when the analog is switched off and the last areas are switched over and told to go to zone 4 the entire channel will be encrypted. There wont be any of this go from zone 3 to zone 4 that the rest of the regional channels did a few years ago.

I am no expert but on past discussions i have read its something to do with the use of Motorola DIU3000 (or similar) at the different sites linking the channel together. It handles the interfacing of analog and digital (including encryption). The digital id of the radio appears for a fraction of a second then becomes a "0" or "1" or similar

Walcha, Nowendoc went digital at the end of February. Gunnedah, Werris Creek,Tambar Springs and Curlewis went digital late yesterday 20.3.2019. It will either be Narrabri or Armidale next. They are definitely running behind schedule, apparently the entire western region is supposed to be done by the end of 2019, more like mid 2020 at this rate..

They are running 18months behind schedule I’m hearing , and of course over budget ...

From approx 2300 sites to approx 700 sites the end figure will be .

And so it continues, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Piliga and Bellata went digital at the end of April, thats the Oxley PD done. Armidale and Uralla switched over yesterday. From a conversation I had today, Channel Q will be encrypted by the end of September. Then it's Dubbo's turn.

ross85 wrote:And so it continues, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Piliga and Bellata went digital at the end of April, thats the Oxley PD done. Armidale and Uralla switched over yesterday. From a conversation I had today, Channel Q will be encrypted by the end of September. Then it's Dubbo's turn.

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ross85 wrote:And so it continues, Narrabri, Wee Waa, Piliga and Bellata went digital at the end of April, thats the Oxley PD done. Armidale and Uralla switched over yesterday. From a conversation I had today, Channel Q will be encrypted by the end of September. Then it's Dubbo's turn.

So from what has been stated, I would assume that Channel Q is progressively becoming encrypted digital, so as soon as your local analog site goes over, that is it, unless you can hear analog at a distant site, all you have is the squiggle noises of ENC P25. Wow, that is different from before.

Yeah thats it, car crew to vkg is encrypted but vkg to car crew is in the clear, unless you are in an area on the old vhf network you can only hear the dispatcher.

None of this run it in the clear for a few months and have the old analogue as a secondary channel, the old analogue is decommissioned the same day the digital is switched on. Not sure why they are doing it this way this time compared to northern and southern region, at a guess to save time because they are running well behind schedule. Western region was meant to be done end of this year but that won't happen, good 12 months to go yet.