Popamania - Pope Benedict XVI is in town for World Youth Day!

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grant

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That is right - Pope Benedict touched down at Richmond Air Force Base on the north-western outskirts of Sydney yesterday afternoon after flying direct from Rome to Sydney (refuel stop at Darwin) in an Aitalia 777 with the callsign of "Alitalia 4000" (suprisingly not Shepherd 1).
He is taking in a couple of days of rest and recreation at a nearby Catholic retreat, before engaging on a fairly intensive schedule from Thursday (dubbed locally as super Thursday for the impact it will have on on the city's transport services), culminating in two large scale masses on the weekend at Randwick Racecourse which will attract crowds in excess of 250,000 of the world's youth.
Many of the Government support services for World Youth Day are already ramping up their activities on the NSWGRN as extra talkgroups come to life to cater for the pilgrims flying into Sydney from all over the world.


Grant

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-yo...-longest-flight/2008/07/13/1215887451559.html
 
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grant

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The pope has come and gone.

From what I could observe radiowise in between working, there was a lot heavier usage of the GRN by several agencies including the special use talkgroups, plus numerous rental radio talkgroups hired for the week on 800Mhz Motorola Type II sites off Governor Phillip Tower and AAP Buildings, as well as some use of the Vertel 490Mhz LTR off Sydney Centrepoint Tower. At a guess I would assume that the security detail who accompany the pope (Swiss Guards) would have been active on 800Mhz TETRA (the dudes on the running boards before and after the popenobile) but seeing one can't monitor it who knows.


Grant
 
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Comint

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The pope has come and gone.

From what I could observe radiowise in between working, there was a lot heavier usage of the GRN by several agencies including the special use talkgroups, plus numerous rental radio talkgroups hired for the week on 800Mhz Motorola Type II sites off Governor Phillip Tower and AAP Buildings, as well as some use of the Vertel 490Mhz LTR off Sydney Centrepoint Tower. At a guess I would assume that the security detail who accompany the pope (Swiss Guards) would have been active on 800Mhz TETRA (the dudes on the running boards before and after the popenobile) but seeing one can't monitor it who knows.

Grant

The last time a Pope visited Australia, his security detail operated Simplex on the Amateur Band (2M from memory). Seems that it is not part of the Amateur Band is his neck of the woods.

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Comint
 

grant

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The Vatican has a 2 site 410-430Mhz TETRA system installed back in 2001 at home in Rome, according to the Motorola blurb I found on it.


Grant
 

grant

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It is more than likely that his security and admin detail used the 800Mhz TETRA system (which is encrypted as standard) as there is good coverage at Kenthurst (sites at Quakers Hill, Horsley Park, Kurrajong Heights) and in the city (GPT).

Grant
 
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