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Media release nswpf

Police radio transmissions to be encrypted in New England, Oxley PDs
Wednesday, 27 November 2019 10:22:28 AM

Police radio transmissions will soon be encrypted in the New England and Oxley Police Districts as part of a project targeted at improving communications and officer safety across the region with the implementation of digital radio.

The encryption process, which is expected to go-live on Tuesday (3 December 2019), will affect digital radio across the New England and Oxley police districts. Chifley and Central West police districts will follow closely before the end of the year, with Central North and Orana Mid Western police districts in mid-2020.

This follows the successful encryption of police digital radios across the state several years ago and will result in a fully encrypted radio communications network for police across the entire state. Over 100 radio sites have been upgraded to date, significantly improving both the quality of transmissions and coverage.


Western Region Commander, Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie, said the strategy represents an important step forward in ensuring the safety of police.

“Criminals will no longer be able to listen in on police radio transmissions to track emergency responses, which means we’re eliminating a significant risk to officer safety,” Assistant Commissioner McKechnie said.

“Policing can be a highly challenging and dangerous job and we’ll continue to develop and implement strategies that make their role as safe as possible.

“Encrypting radio transmissions not only means protecting our officers but also helping them solve and prevent crime.”

The change will also affect local media organisations as they’ll no longer have access to monitor police radio via scanners in newsrooms and vehicles.

“We will continue to assist media in the vital role they play in communicating information to the public that helps tackle crime,” Assistant Commissioner McKechnie said.

“Police will work with affected media organisations to ensure the new measures allow opportunities to attend operations of public significance.”

So is this the old Channel Quebec controlled from Tamworth going over?
From memory Quebec, Yankee and Zulu used to come out of Tamworth, but I havent listened for ages
A long time ago I could pick up Channel Quebec on 78.200Mhz (Tx site was near Armidale) when I was staying at my sisters place (above Flynns Beach) in Port Macquarie


Grant

Yep channel Quebec is going over Tuesday. And zulu which is Chifley and Central West at the end of the year.
Yankee which is Orana Midwest and Central North Pds next year. All 3 channels still come from Tamworth. Yeah id say you would of been picking that up off the point lookout site at ebor about 70 km east of Armidale.

Just for the sake of it, i had a look at the Quebec channel sites closest to Port Macquarie and noticed 468.1125 at Point Lookout Ebor as part of the Armidale vote.

On a visit to my sisters place yesterday above Flynns Beach i set up the Whistler TRX1 to have a "listen". Not much radio traffic but i managed to log the Tamworth VKG radio id 2807 and 2808. Suprised that wasnt 14xx to follow the sequence of the other centres.

Unfortunately its all encrypted these days.

Not sure about 14xx, that must be Sydney VKG.

Warilla VKG's consoles are all 12xx (1201 to 1214 last time I looked, which was quite some time ago now).

Andrew

No, definitely 28xx. I was expecting 14xx myself.

To summarize
10xx = Sydney VKG: A, C, D, F, G, I, L, 4
11xx = Penrith VKG: K, H, 2, J,
12xx = Warilla VKG: R, S, U, W
13xx = Newcastle VKG: 5, B, M, N, O, P
28xx = Tamworth VKG Q, Y and Z

All working channels are encrypted except Y.
In addition each centre runs special operation channels for events such as New Years Eve etc

Update on Zulu, it went encrypted on the 18th of December.

Mungindi
468.300 Enc