Legality of scanning in NT?

[Wilrobnson]

Hi all- Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, but I went back a year and couldn't find what i was looking for. I am interviewing for a position in Alice Springs next week, and if I get it, I'd have to move the whole family 'down under'. What are the various legalities concerning scanning/scanners in Australia, and the NT specifically?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Comint]

Hi all- Sorry if this is in the wrong spot, but I went back a year and couldn't find what i was looking for. I am interviewing for a position in Alice Springs next week, and if I get it, I'd have to move the whole family 'down under'. What are the various legalities concerning scanning/scanners in Australia, and the NT specifically?

Thanks for any help!

Scanning/scanners are legal in all States and Territories of Australia, except for monitoring telephone conversations (cellphones / cordless phones / phone patches, etc).

As far as I am aware, the NT Police are APCO25 encrypted.

--
Comint

 

[Wilrobnson]

Thanks!

 

[Air490]

NT Fire Service and SES are also digital. Not sure if they are encrypted. St. John Ambulance (who provide the ambulance service to the state) are still analogue as far as I know.

Let us know what you find up there!

 

[grant]

It is pretty obvious where you will be working.
There is a large american community i(as in several hundred) in one part of Alice Springs
Let us just say there is a mixture of right-hand and left-hand drive cars in Alice Springs.
They bring the cars in on the C141 Starlifters and C5 Galaxies

Despite being over 2000 feet in elevation it gets stinking hot in summer (December eg 40-42 deg C or 105-110F) and the nights are cold in winter (June), down to about -5C (23-25F) but lovely sunny days.
The tourist attractions in that part of the Northern Territory are awesome eg (Ayres Rock or Uluru, The Olgas, Kings Canyon, Simpsons Gap)

I hear that the Police operate an encrypted Motorola Trunking network on 468Mhz in Alice Springs and Darwin and that a number of other emergency services use it. This equipment is suppose to be the remains of the encrypted Sydney Olympics network (NSW sold it to NT!). I am still trying to find out what frequencies the data channels use.


Grant

 

[Wilrobnson]

It is pretty obvious where you will be working.
There is a large american community i(as in several hundred) in one part of Alice Springs
Let us just say there is a mixture of right-hand and left-hand drive cars in Alice Springs.
They bring the cars in on the C141 Starlifters and C5 Galaxies

I hear that the Police operate an encrypted Motorola Trunking network on 468Mhz in Alice Springs and Darwin and that a number of other emergency services use it. This equipment is suppose to be the remains of the encrypted Sydney Olympics network (NSW sold it to NT!). I am still trying to find out what frequencies the data channels use.

Well, if I get the position, I'll fill up the rr.com database, trust me!

 

[commscanaus]

Hello All,

Having been to Darwin twice now- for two weeks at a time in both 2005 & 2006- I had a bit of a chance to scan about- especially during the cyclone warning for TC Ingrid in '05.

The emergency services share a trunked network on 468Mhz in Darwin as stated by Grant.
It was/still is a mixed mode network with 3600 baud control channels- from memory I could receive six from my location in Rapid Creek.
The NT fire service and SES were both using the network but using analogue voice- that may well have changed by now.

As already mentioned- the NT Police are digital (P25) and encrypted on the network.

It is necessary to calculate the base and offset frequencies to track the network with a trunktracker- as CC only mode will not work with 3600 baud networks on UHF.

Both times I travelled with a UBC396T and a Yaesu FT-530.
Having stayed with friends- there was not a huge amount of time to properly scan about as I found out that the local hobby was beer consumption- and lots of it!

Overall I found that the airwaves up there were *VERY* quiet for most of the time- but that may well have been due to being restricted to handheld antenna's.

I love the NT- despite the searing temps and severe humidity- life is at such a relaxed pace and everybody does activity outdoors all year round.
If you have not had the chance to see Australia's top end yet- take a holiday and see it some time- with or without a radio!

Commscanaus.