Melbourne, Aus. - Police radio network used on Black Saturday 'could have killed'

[Thunderbolt]

MELBOURNE, Vic. -- The rural police radio network used on Black Saturday was a "disaster waiting to happen" and could have led to deaths or injuries amongst officers on the day, the royal commission investigating the bushfires was told today.

Police radio network used on Black Saturday 'could have killed' | The Australian

[N_Jay]

Sounds like the kind of article placed when you want to build momentum and funding for a new system.

[rankin39]

When I lived there in 2000, the Melbourne metro police used uhf radios, the highway patrol in the rural bush used highband radios and the Country Fire Authority still used the old 66-88 MHz. mid-band system as far as I know. Metro fire was uhf like the police. So I suppose a case could be made for an improved system.

Bob, WoNXN (ex-VK3FLW)

[radioaustralia]

Originally Posted by rankin39

When I lived there in 2000, the Melbourne metro police used uhf radios, the highway patrol in the rural bush used highband radios and the Country Fire Authority still used the old 66-88 MHz. mid-band system as far as I know. Metro fire was uhf like the police. So I suppose a case could be made for an improved system.

In present times the current structure is as follows:

Metro - Police, Fire & Ambulance - UHF MMR Network
Rural - Police, CFA & Ambulance - VHF

The CFA and rural Ambulance services still use selected few of the older frequencies which still happen to be in operation to this day, these are linked-in using cross band repeater links.

I believe there was mention in the latest ACMA review of the 400MHz band that a portion of the spectrum had been identified as a possible contender for a future government / emergency services allocation. Agencies that would be affected by the possibility of this were invited for their feedback on the suggestion, with a similar issue amongst them being identified - the cost to roll this out across the board and the young age of the MMR network.