Any Analogue Police/Emerg channels left in NSW?

[MrDirections]

Hi Everyone,

Firstly, please excuse my ignorance as I haven't kept abreast of what is going on in NSW radio being from VIC and all, but I'm wondering if there are any analogue police channels left this side of the border? I've done a fair bit of scouting around on various forums and I cannot seem to find anything that clearly tells me whether the analogue frequencies have been completely shut down or not. Its clear that most are over to the P25 however you see some posts around that suggest that there are one or two analogue frequencies still running in some areas. Can anyone confirm this is the case and if by chance there is one or two, could you let me know? I don't have a P25 scanner yet and in Vic, its not really a problem as I have UHF & VHF in the car.

Anything you can tell me would be appreciated!

Cheers,
-Adam.

[blacktown]

You didnt say where you lived.
Its P25 from Albury up if you are coming up the Hume Highway.
NSW far south coast is in the process of moving over to P25 from analog ... probably will be complete by the end of the year. The Batemans Bay area moved over a week or two back
P25 is also being rolled out along the NSW North coast and New England-Tamworth area ... still a work in progress.
The Central West is largely 78Mhz VHF analogue plus UHF. It seems to be the last area to remain analog
So to answer your question there is analog here and there but it is decreasing all the time and being switched off on VHF and UHF, once they have moved over to UHF Digital P25
So far regional NSW P25 has been in Digital clear mode but I would expect in the longer term (probably a couple of years), once they have fixed up the black spots in transmission, it will eventually end up encrypted like the Greater Sydney Metro.
As for the other emergency services there seems to be a general push to roll out P25

[brianWE]

Police channels are analog VHF and UHF on the Far North Coast. Can still be heard on UHF links from the Mid North Coast, too.

[MrDirections]

Beautiful, thanks guys. I live in Melbourne, however I travel regularly in NSW via car, so would like to program up what I can until I get myself a digital scanner. After a while, you can only listen to so much music so to have that to break up the quietness is quite helpful. My days can be easy 800-1000kms long, so to have something else to faff with would be a nice help. Cheers for your replies, shall program up the UHF freqs and go from there. My VHF is 136-174 so wont have too much luck with the VHF freqs unfortunately.

[brianWE]

I always found the truckies' channel on UHF CB entertaining, too...sometimes, helpful.

Ch 29 on the Pacific Highway, 40 elsewhere.

Although, a few years back...when I travelled, the truckies seemed to prefer the local "Radio Watch" repeater channels on the New England Highway.
There used to be road signs with the local channel number.

The police used it to disseminate traffic information. In effect, the local Radio Watch services performed as an emergency service.

Anyone know if that is still the case on the NE Highway?

[Phantom]

Last time I went down that way, the signs were still there

[brianWE]

Good!
It is a very useful service.
I don't know why other regions aren't doing it more.
Maybe they are...I'm not nearly as mobile as I was.

[Phantom]

Think you will find more people out there have a mobile phone rather than a UHF radio in their car.

[Spectre]

Here in Mildura I can hear the emergency services both sides of the river on VHF lo/hi band and UHF, with the numerous small RFS brigades (and current economic climate) I can't see an adoption of P25 in the near future for the local brigades.

[brianWE]

Think you will find more people out there have a mobile phone rather than a UHF radio in their car.

Phone is fine if you want to talk to someone whose number you have.
Not much use for finding out what traffic is like up the highway.
Or if there is fuel on the next stretch.

Radio is better for disseminating general info, too.