Act Trn

[amaruskanic]

Hi,
Does anybody know if there are any scanners available which are able to receive the A.C.T. TRN (Trunked Radio Network). I believe it is using the Motorola ASTRO architecture, however I am not sure if it is encrypted.
Anyone able to confirm?

Andrew

 

[grant]

ACT are using Zone 3 of the NSWGRN Omnilink system- yes to the ASTRO equipment which the brand name of their APCO25 equipment. All Digital - no analogue. Ambos are suppose to be encrypted. Not sure about the rest.

These "US" scanners (ie set up for US bandplan) can track it

Uniden 250, 785, 796, 296 can
Pro 96

Go to the SCANNSW site where you can get details of how to set them up (they need 3 base inputs for the NSWGRN).

If you are patient there is talk of new aussie bandplan digital trunktracking scanners coming out towards the end of the year ( 2 models that I know of).



Grant

 

[amaruskanic]

Thanks Grant,
Assume the new Uniden BCD396T is also capable? Forgive my ignorance but what is a "US Plan" vs "AUS Plan". Does this refer to the frquencies in use in a particular country and what the scanner can access?
Does this potentially mean that purchasing a scanner from the US could be illegal to use in AUS or possibly miss some frequencies?

Andrew

 

[grant]

US Digital Scanners

The band plan for a country spells out who can use what frequency. Type in Google the phrase "Australian Radio Band Plan" and I am pretty sure that you will get references to the plan. The US Band plan (look under FCC) is quite different to the Australian one in many places eg: Different services on a particular band (UHFCB is 476MHz in Oz and Family Radio is 462Mhz as an example) and different offsets in use for duplex on particular frequencies are two that come to mind.

The main problem with buying US scanners (not illegal) is that there is 1Mhz missing for 800Mhz trunking ie 869Mhz. Digital cellular in Australia starts at 870Mhz (not 869Mhz as in the US). Another problem is that scanners like the PRO-96 cannot be used on say listening the NSW police 78Mhz system due to the wrong frequency spacing fixed (no 12.5 khz spacing) for that band. The Wx key for the US is also useless here as we have no SKYWARN system.

The beauty of the new BCD396T is that we are getting an Australian Digital Trunking version of it in about 8 weeks, set up to the Australian bandplan. There is also suppose to be a Aussie version of the PRO-96 in the pipeline.

Grant

 

[amaruskanic]

Grant,
Thanks for that in-depth reply. I will hang on and see what Uniden offer up in 8 weeks.
Andrew

 

[OB]

Hi,
Does anybody know if there are any scanners available which are able to receive the A.C.T. TRN (Trunked Radio Network). I believe it is using the Motorola ASTRO architecture, however I am not sure if it is encrypted.
Anyone able to confirm?

Andrew

It's all encrypted in ACT, so any digital radio is useless, regardless of who makes it.....

OB

 

[Air490]

Do you know for sure that it is encrypted, or is that just the rumour?
I only ask this because many people confuse digital with encrypted.

 

[richardc63]

There are significant management issues with encrytion on the existing NSW GRN/ACT TRN. For a start there is no OTAR capability and without that trying to manage an encrytion key to stay one step ahead of the bad guys is impossible. For a start we don't have enough techs!

Fed Police may be using encrytion but then they have a relatively small number of officers within the ACT (compared to NSW Police) in a very small area. Even then, without OTAR encrytion would be a challenge.

Regards,


Richard

 

[grant]

Encryption

I wonder if the ACT Emergency Services are using Motorola's Advanced Digital Privacy with XTS 5000's (the yellow radios).

From what I have read Advanced Digital Privacy can stop scanners dead in their tracks but they are not as secure as the normal form of encryption.

Grant

 

[asusanator]

The beauty of the new BCD396T is that we are getting an Australian Digital Trunking version of it in about 8 weeks, set up to the Australian bandplan. There is also suppose to be a Aussie version of the PRO-96 in the pipeline.

Got any links to info on the release of these ?
I am looking for a new scanner but ebay isn't turning up much. Do you know of any decent retailers in aust? Who is going to be selling these new scanners?

Thanks