Newbie port Macquarie nsw

[smithy658]

Hello I'm trying to pick up port police used to be able to pick it up on my uniden ubc355xlt on 78.5125 now I can no longer hear a thing scanned all the 468 range to and nothing
Has pmq all gone digital and if so is it encrypted and what scanner and antenna would I require
Cheers

[blacktown]

Port Macquarie switched over to full digital coverage about April-May 2013. Analog appears to have been switched off during July 2013. i dont know the exact date as I am only visiting my mother from time to time, and these are the dates i noted. I am using a GRECOM PSR800 which displays radio id (RID) and Network Access Code (NAC) information. I also use a Uniden 396 digital scanner as well.

The ACMA database for the Port Macquarie area has a common input of 459.0125Mhz for digital voting. Output frequencies are as follows:

468.1375 Tx Mt Cairncross Port Macquarie
468.5125 Tx Jolly Nose Hill Port Macquarie
468.8375 Tx Transit Hill Port Macquarie
468.9625 Tx Yarras Mt Seaview (I have only heard this site when at Forster)
469.3375 Tx Middle Brother

Channel O for Oscar. NAC 61F. Newcastle Dispatcher rid "is 13xx". Local car rids appearing. Non local cars rid appearing as "0" (Coffs-Grafton area patch) or "'1" (Kempsey-Macksville area patch). There are several other digital P25 signals, most are from the north of Port Macquarie (Kempsey and Macksville digital votes on Channel Oscar ... 468.0125, 468.3875, 469.0625) and one from the south (Channel November off Middle Brother on 469.3750)

For the short-medium term future there is a program underway to rollout P25 digital along the entire NSW North and South coast, as well as the New England area. Currently police in the Port Macquarie area are transmitting P25 digital clear but I suspect that in the longer term encryption will be used (once coverage blackspots have been sorted) just like the greater Sydney Metro area.


Blacktown

PS i am currently in Port Macquarie as i type this but I am travelling back to Sydney tomorrow

[Phantom]

Hi Smithy658, welcome to the forum!

[christopher]

Thanks for that info blacktown... gess ill have to buy an motorola xts3000 encryption board soon

[mn1983]

Encryption board..? What for?


Sent via my Samsung Galaxy S5 using Tapatalk

[peteramjet]

Thanks for that info blacktown... gess ill have to buy an motorola xts3000 encryption board soon

Save your hard earned. If they switch on encryption you won't be able to decide it, even with an encrypted board. That is the idea behind encryption after all

[blacktown]

Relax, encryption will be some time. Apart from the police you can still monitor the rest of the emergency services in Port (ambos, firies, ses, rfs) for the time being. You only need a digital scanner. A moto radio is a waste of money. But at the some point in the future that will be the reality, once the budget is available and the blackspots are eliminated. Where i live in sydney it has been encrypted for 6 years, so i have to rethink my scanning approach.

From my listening experience at port there is a heap of users to listen, particularly the commercial rental frequencies which utilise wide-area links across the north coast, so it possible to hear operators 200-300km away. You can listen to the auto weather broadcast on 128.450 at port macquarie airport (it is a machine broadcasting up-to-date weather information 24 hrs a day every day) or listen to the air traffic in the port circuit area on vhf common frequency. I have heard the virgin crew talking to the ground staff on their company frequency. You Just have to do the research eg use the acma searchable database by postcode and frequency range

Send us a pm if you want some frequencies to listen to. For starters ambos are 462mhz, firies on 419mhz, ses and rfs in the 410-430mhz band. Digital is being slowly rolled out to rfs and ses.

[brianWE]

I turned my scanner on this morning for the first time in weeks.
I am in Lismore. It is around 7 AM. Traffic is very slow.
Oscar and Papa are combined.
I just heard a call for a Port M car on our analogue system..I heard the crew respond.

Would that mean the Port crews are alternating between systems? Or would the signal I am hearing be, simply, a link in the system?




Just had a Kempsey one, too.

[blacktown]

You are hearing a digital patched in link.
From what others have told me who are familiar with the equipment, DIU or digital interface units are being used to patch analog and digital transmissions together from different sites into the one channel
Port Macquarie and most of Oscar is already digital ... There are pockets of analog still around Grafton
Papa is all analog
The DIU interfaces the digital and analog ... Motorola DIU3000

From a reliable source on P25
Mattrobert.com/wiki/index.php/Motorola_DIU3000

"The Motorola DIU3000 is a digital to analog gateway device that is used to interface analog equipment to Motorola ASTRO capable infrastructure. Typically these units are used in the field to connect up an analog console to a vote comparator, such as a ASTRO-TAC 3000/9600, or to a standalone repeater. These interfaces are a bit like a swiss army knife, in that they are extremely configurable and provide many different features. For example, they can be used to interface a P25 digital repeater to an analog phone patch via the MRTI port. It can also be used to interface P25 digital repeaters to analog 4 wire tone remote equipment, or 4 wire E&M style analog interfaces"

Was that helpful Brian?
Digital audio on analog channel normally sounds a bit tinny

[brianWE]

You answered my questions in your first sentence!

The rest was icing.... a shame about my diet

Thanks!!!

[smithy658]

thanks guys
can anyone recommend a good digital scanner
cheers

[wombataaron]

Hi,
Iam also a newbie from Port Macquarie.
Im in the RFS, just bought a Uniden XT digital scanner to listen to the local PMR channel, and also the police and Fire Rescue Etc.
I got a radio reference account and got freescan.
I loaded the whole NSW GRN onto it, but i get nothing on it, and i have no idea how to find my local channels anyway.
Any help im totally lost

[Phil]

Wombataaron,

The NSWGRN is only as far as Buladelah so you wont have to worry about the GRN, as you are probably aware the NSWRFS are in the process of upgrading to P25 across the state, i can give you links to the band plans for the RFS aswell as the PMR for FRNSW on radio reference

FRNSW
NSWRFS

as for police
468.1375 Tx Mt Cairncross Port Macquarie
468.5125 Tx Jolly Nose Hill Port Macquarie
468.8375 Tx Transit Hill Port Macquarie
468.9625 Tx Yarras Mt Seaview (I have only heard this site when at Forster)
469.3375 Tx Middle Brother
Courtesy of blacktown in a prior post, if in doubt for the police and you would like to see what you can hear, create a custom search for the 467 - 469MHz and have a listen, apparently Essential Energy are in the band aswell but you will know rather quickly if your listening to NSWP

[wombataaron]

I just loaded all the Police, RFS, Fireies, SES and ambos onto it and im getting nothing:(
I loaded all the local Police ones from your above post but haven't heard a thing.
Is there something else in the settings somewhere i have to fix up?

[blacktown]

Police are transmitting P25 digital signals
The Uniden 355 appears to be an analog scanner
All the analog VHF and UHF analog police transmissions have been shut down in the Port Mac area and surrounds

Ambos are on 462.8375 off Transit Hill (Vehicles 471-476)
Firies are on 419.1000 off Mt Cairncross (Pumper 424)
SES are on 416.3750, 416.4500, 416.5375 but only heard when active
RFS are moving across to P25 Digital

Aviation is one area you should be able to monitor fairly easily. I frequently visit the area to visit family. On one occasion i spent the day listening to the aviation frequencies. A lot of voice traffic on 118.1000, especially from the planes conducting parchuting operations from 10000ft. As there is no tower all planes have to identify themselves (hint: look them up on the CASA online register). Virgin and Qantas often have to wait a few minutes for other traffic (and parchutists) to clear the airspace.

Port Macquarie Airport
118.1000 Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF)
120.5500 Brisbane Centre - Circuit area comms
122.3000 Pilot activated lighting (PAL)
123.0500 Virgin
126.6000 Brisbane Centre
128.4500 Auto Weather (AWIS)
130.4250 Virgin
131.6500 Qantas

[brianWE]

I'm in Lismore.
I still get some Port M and other Mid Coast traffic on VHF 78.700. Scratchy stuff, here. Pretty sure there is a UHF channel, too.

However, it MAY only work when the Northern Rivers and Mid Coast channels are combined.
That's pretty often.
You may find a link that is active on a full-time basis.
But I will try to keep an eye (ear) on it for a while.

[blacktown]

78.7000 is located at Ballina, Woodburn and Wardell
There are UHF analog frequencies also
However as I have indicated elsewhere these frequencies are slowly but systematically being switched off as digital sites are switched on
I agree that you hearing the Port Macquarie digital patch when Oscar and Papa are combined channels

[brianWE]

No worries!

I did think I was getting Mid Coast stuff when channels are not combined......but that seems to be wrong.

I WAS thinking that the OP might find an analog link to the North. But my tech knowledge is less than rudimentary.

Actually, on thinking about it, I used to listen to 78.700 last year when I lived near Woodburn.

BTW, the channels are combined right now. "Staff shortages...issues to the supervisor, please"
Happens a great deal.

[blacktown]

From Woodburn I think you can hear the northern most transmitter of Channel Oscar, so that does sound right. I have vague memories travelling north in 2006 past woodburn and hearing a Port Macquarie car on my scanner

[wombataaron]

I just spent the night in Coffs Harbour and was getting digital Police on the scanner.
NSW Police
Zone 2 Ch 44 468.2000

Havent heard anything since being back in Port though, i loaded the entire GRN onto the scanner plus manually put in all the frequencies listed above for the Police and can't hear anything:(
I can pick up Firies from Newcastle and the ambos in Port though.

Would replacing the stock rubber aerial on the scanner help with picking more up? Any recommendations on replacements?
Uniden UBCD396XT