The Sydney newbie has a question about frequencies

[dannews]

Hi there,

As you may have seen from my earlier post, I’ve moved to Sydney.

It feels weird not being all across where you can hear everything.

I’ve looked at the frequencies online and it all looks very different, so I was hoping someone could help me out.

basically, is it possible to listen to fire and ambulance dispatch? If so, can someone be so kind as to help with frequencies? As I said, I find the lists confusing.

two other questions, is there any paging that can be monitored?

And lastly, I’ve found all the ATC frequencies for Sydney Airport. But, I’d love to listen to the general aviation ones used by choppers buzzing around the city and I’ve not been able to find any general aviation frequencies.

thank so much, and if anyone has any other tips please get in touch!

 

[Kazzaw]

Fire and Ambulance is on the GRN or PSN, which is a P25 Trunking network. To monitor, you will need to program the sites nearest to you into a scanner and identify talk groups that are related to NSW Ambulance/Fire.

PSN has some information on RadioReference - NSW Public Safety Network Trunking System, NSW Statewide and ACT, Multi-State

 

[dannews]

Thanks. Talk groups are new to me. I’m sure I’ll figure it out with a tutorial.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Thanks. Talk groups are new to me. I’m sure I’ll figure it out with a tutorial.

I'd suggest starting here:

Trunking Basics - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[dannews]

I'd suggest starting here:

Trunking Basics - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

Fantastic, so do I tune in all the frequencies and it will do it's thing? That part isn't covered in the basics. I get how it works, I just need to know how to get it started.

 

[Kazzaw]

Just tune in what has been identified as the control channels. The control channels will tell the scanner where to look for the frequencies.

If you are looking at NSW Public Safety Network Trunking System, NSW Statewide and ACT, Multi-State , and you were programming in Beecroft, you would only program in 416.1375 and 416.8875

 

[dannews]

You guys have been awesome, thank you so much. I was worried I might get piled on being the newbie.

 

[RidingDownUnder]

Hi newbie,
don’t worry because we’ve all been there.
I live in Sydney about 10km’s from the city where Governor Phillip Tower is, that’s the building or site where the GRN/PSN transmission comes from.
Program these control channels into your scanner. Make sure you are using a trunk tracker or simuilar.
415.625
416.125
416.875
417.125
The good thing about this site, it’s P25II trunking and all the NSW Government agencies except police use this system.
They are, NSW Ambulance, NSW Fire and Rescue, State Emergency Services, NSW Rural Fire Services, Sydney Harbour Ferries, Sydney Roads, NSW Railway and a lot more. Where it’s mentioned NSW, that service is link to all areas in the NSW state. So you can hear activity from all over the State.
We are blessed to have all these services coming from 1 site.
I program all these into 1 favourite list and name it NSW PSN. I always scan with ID search turned on incase new undocumented services are added.
Hope this helps.
Also the GPT is a high building so you should be able to access this site Sydney wide.

 

[scannerboi2000]

Sydney Aviation freqs:

Harbour ops 120.800 MHz (in uncontrolled airspace below 1000ft, North of the Southern shore, and coastal at 500ft. Includes North Shore Hospital and Rose Bay. The harbour area is called R405. Victor 1 is the coastal route South of South Head.

Sydney Departures 123.000 (TX from Centrepoint). Controlled airspace above the harbour (above 1000ft) and over the city. However, the approaches to Sydney Airport when Runway 16 is active will be on the Director and Tower frequencies.

You may also be interested to listen to the Orion Network if you have a DMR-capable scanner. Compared to PSN/GRN, Orion seems to be very quiet: I have only heard a few bus companies and a handful of others, but interesting none the less. I have heard Airport users and the Metro construction on the GPT TierIII site. Check the frequencies on the Radio Reference database.

 

[RidingDownUnder]

Sydney Aviation freqs:

Harbour ops 120.800 MHz (in uncontrolled airspace below 1000ft, North of the Southern shore, and coastal at 500ft. Includes North Shore Hospital and Rose Bay. The harbour area is called R405. Victor 1 is the coastal route South of South Head.

Sydney Departures 123.000 (TX from Centrepoint). Controlled airspace above the harbour (above 1000ft) and over the city. However, the approaches to Sydney Airport when Runway 16 is active will be on the Director and Tower frequencies.

You may also be interested to listen to the Orion Network if you have a DMR-capable scanner. Compared to PSN/GRN, Orion seems to be very quiet: I have only heard a few bus companies and a handful of others, but interesting none the less. I have heard Airport users and the Metro construction on the GPT TierIII site. Check the frequencies on the Radio Reference database.

Interesting about 123.000 Sydney nth/est departure’s transmitting from Centrepoint. I wondered why 123.000 was a lot stronger to my location than 129.7 and 118.4 as I have a line of sight to Centrepoint and GPT. Did you find this from the ACMA site Frequency search.

Yes, Orion is not very active or interesting. I to have only heard bus companies so I don’t care for it.

I have a massive amount of (SAC) Sydney Airport Corporation and other contracting companies frequencies to the airport use DMR and DT3 transmissions. Everything from pushback tug, refuelling trucks, baggage handlers, cleaner’s, check-in’s and more. It’s interesting I find.

FYI, 123.450MHz is a general aviation chit chat channel. It’s recognised worldwide.

 

[scannerboi2000]

Interesting about 123.000 Sydney nth/est departure’s transmitting from Centrepoint. I wondered why 123.000 was a lot stronger to my location than 129.7 and 118.4 as I have a line of sight to Centrepoint and GPT. Did you find this from the ACMA site Frequency search.

You can look everything up on the ACMA website. Here is the licence for 123.0 at Centrepoint. The redundant site is the old tower at the airport.

https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/assignment_search.lookup?pEFL_ID=9715683

Here is a link to ACMA search for licence by frequency

ACMA Register of Radiocommunications Licences (RRL)

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Register of Radiocommunications Licences (RRL).

web.acma.gov.au

On the aviation charts, they will usually tell you the location of the radio site where applicable, eg. Image below from Sydney VTC or see image attached. The green borders on the map show the boundaries for each frequency's control area.(matches the frequency box colour). Note not everything is shown, eg. aerodrome frequencies or frequencies only listed on STARs and SIDs. Search for "Airservices AIP" to download charts and ERSA for aerodrome info, STARs (standard arrival routes) and SIDs (standard instrument departures).

 

[RidingDownUnder]

Thanks for that. Yes I know about the ACMA freq search but I have never looked up airport comm’s Frequencies. And thanks for the chart information.