NSW South Coast fires GRN Traffic

[SandBagger1]

Hello, anybody else listening to the NSW south coast fires on GRN. I'm hearing RED, RED, RED emergency messages from fire crews calling for help on talk group 10073. They are taking cover from the firestorm, something like 40 homes on fire at West Conjula. Other emergency services are reporting 3 to 4 minute wait times to get onto the GRN network. Unbelievable!

 

[SandBagger1]

Just heard the emergency alert tone on NSW GRN fire channel, warning issued to all fire crews, fire west of Nowra has generated a dry lightning storm.

TG 10125 crew sheltering in vehicle considering using BA to get out of vehicle to make a run for it and vehicle is on fire.

Fire fighting aircraft and Air Ambulance unable to land at Merimbula Airport. 5 aircraft in holding patterns waiting.

 

[doogs38]

Hi vk1hoo and Happy New Year. I’ve been listening to fire fighting activities on the GRN and other networks like RFS PMR, NSW Fire & Rescue and airband freqs. I’m in Canberra and can hear only so much but certainly enough to understand how dire the situation is, and how amazing all our firefighting and rescue agencies are. I also use Flightradar24 to keep tabs on fire spotter, water bomber and rescue aircraft.

 

[SandBagger1]

Hello doogs38, Happy New Year to you as well mate. I though I might be able to get people talking more if I started this thread, I didn't realise it takes 12 hours for my posts to show up. Never mind you live and learn. You are all over it mate, we have some great resources to look at online when things are happening. I have a couple a radio's now so I can leave a scanner on 124.100 MHz all the time and watch Flightradar24 myself. NSWGRN has given us the ability to listen to comms far away. I also read you post on the other thread and I agree the website you quote is an excellent resource and has some gems of information on it as well. Take care and stay out of this terrible smoke.

 

[doogs38]

You must be in the ACT neck of the woods too?
Yes, the smoke is appalling atm(!) and I haven’t ventured into it. Is 124.1 your local CTAF or Melb FIS/Centre? I too have a several radios, each scanning different services which and provides a rich, more complete coverage of the world around me, especially at this time of the year.

 

[SandBagger1]

Yes I am in Canberra, the smoke is the worse I have ever seen it and not real good for us asthma suffers. Give 124.1 a try, its patched into a around 8 CTAFS covering most of the south east coast. ATC controls a very large area and levels from around north of Nowra, south to Bass Strait, East Sale, north to Albury, Wagga and arc's back around to north of Nowra/Wollongong. If you don't already know, I always have a UBC355XLT on this frequency.

I primary listen to NSWGRN, 124.1 and have my laptop running DSD+ and watch Flightradar24.

If you know how to contact me direct I'm happy to talk to you via email.

 

[doogs38]

It seems that 124.1 is a Melb Centre freq that I didn't have in my very ACT orientated airband monitoring - thanks for the info vk1hoo. I have the 8 Fire CTAF air-to-air freqs that have been occasionally active when there is local fire bombing. I too use DSD+ Fastlane when the mood takes me but I end up with a messy desk of dongles, cables and antennas! It is however great for getting detailed information about a site.

 

[SandBagger1]

It's Mark here, happy to share frequencies with you. You have a good setup, make sure you keep 121.5 in as well. I heard Canberra Approach call a aircraft on it the other day as he wasn't responding on any frequency and looked like he was going to fly into controlled airspace without a clearance. A question, are you able to tell me who is using GRN Talk Group 44112? From what I'm hearing on GRN the traffic from the coast via Cooma is travelling very slowly if at all.

 

[doogs38]

Hi Mark. I’d be happy to share local finds ;-) 121.5 is the international civil aviation ‘guard channel’ for emergency comms and I agree, it’s a good one to have in the scanners.
Regarding TGID 44112, it’s in my scanners but marked as ‘unknown’. In fact, there are a couple 4411x TGIDs that occasionally pop up but I don’t know who they belong too. I don’t know if you use ‘alerts‘ in your scanners but I find them helpful for keeping track of emergency services aircraft (in conjunction with Flightradar24). I normally base alerts on radio unit IDs as opposed to TGIDs. They are very easy to set up in Uniden scanners but I did have a few moments of frustration setting up alerts on my USDS100 - now all sorted. The radio unit IDs I currently track are below which may or may not be of interest to you. Information on the aircraft types used for NSW/ACT firefighting can be found here:

Fleet | NAFC.
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/nafc-arena-help/2018+National+Fleet+Booklet+v002.pdf
https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/nafc-arena-help/2018+National+Fleet+Poster+A3.pdf

Alex

Firebird 100	2011506​
Firebird 230	2010243​
Firebird 260	2010297​
Firebird 730	2014394​
Bird Dog 273	2012946​
Bird Dog 275	2017252​
Bird Dog 370	2012945​
RFDS AM269 (King Air)	2013197​
Helo HeliTak 202	2012909​
Helo Helitak 276	2017238​
Helo Helitak 274	2032629​
Bomber 134	2035658​
Bomber 137 (737)	2017253​
Bomber 138	2016099​
Bomber 165	2017240​
Bomber 285	2038919​
Bomber 911 (DC10)	2017136​
Helo VH-NAJ	2311625​
Helo Westpac 1	2313163​
Helo Westpac 2	2313164​
Helo Westpac 3	2313165​
Helo Westpac 4	2313166​
Helo Careflight 3	2311949​
AeroMed Cntrol 1	2310382​
AeroMed Cntrol 2	2311158​
AeroMed Cntrol 3	2330474​
Helo Rescue 201	2313159​
Helo Rescue 202	2313160​
Helo Rescue 203	2313158​
Helo Rescue 204	2313157​
Helo Rescue 206	2313162​
Helo Rescue 207	2314063​
Helo Rescue 208	2314064​
Helo Rescue 209	2313156​
Richmond Air Base	2025968​

 

[pb_lonny]

Bad smoke down here in Northern Tasmania this morning.

 

[SandBagger1]

Hello Paul, yes its getting very bad all around us. I'm listening to NSWGRN TG10078 a RFS crew are under ember attack and are making a run for it in there truck. Just heard they are safe now, but you could hear the fear in his voice. The fires near Nerriga NSW are back out of control due to the increasing winds.

Also like your website.

 

[zerg901]

approx 15 australian feeds in top 50 at this time at Broadcastify - Top 50 Live Audio Feeds

number 1 feed has 3,177 listeners a this time - "

NSW Far South Coast Fire, Flood and Storm "

 

[pb_lonny]

Hello Paul, yes its getting very bad all around us. I'm listening to NSWGRN TG10078 a RFS crew are under ember attack and are making a run for it in there truck. Just heard they are safe now, but you could hear the fear in his voice. The fires near Nerriga NSW are back out of control due to the increasing winds.

Also like your website.

Thanks, we seem to be fairly safe down here. Thanks for the feedback on my site.

 

[SandBagger1]

I'm not surprised, TG10125 is very active with RED, RED, RED messages as they are ordering homes to be evacuated in Bundanoon NSW in the Southern Highlands south of Sydney. Most towns on the South and Far South Coast it's to late to leave.

 

[motorcoachdoug]

May God watch over all the fire crews and keep ALL of them safe while they fight all these terrible fires and willing to risk their lives so they may help others. In Christ name I pray Amen!
Here in the states across the large pond I hope and pray that everyone will be safe while those large fires are going on. In some ways they are worse then the fires we had in the western part of the US.

 

[SandBagger1]

Yes, you have to feel for all those affected by the fires, the cooler weather buys some time but by the end of this week the temperatures will climb again and will make things worse.

These two websites are the best information about the fires:

Fires Near Me

www.rfs.nsw.gov.au

Live Traffic NSW

Live updates, traveller information and personalised alerts for NSW roads.

www.livetraffic.com