VKG North Coast

[brianWE]

Hearing a couple of unusual (to me) callsigns:
North West 224 and
North West Metro

Not sure how long they have been around, but figure they are visiting from New England or thereabouts.

We do get a lot of "foreign" cars in holiday time. For Pacific Highway duties....but Easter is a few weeks away.

Maybe school hols in NSW or Qld??

[brianWE]

Just heard a couple more.
NW 227 and, maybe, 238.

It is possible that 224 and Metro MIGHT be variations on the same call.

[brianWE]

Seems Qld school hols start at the end of next week.

[brianWE]

OK!

According to Wikipedia, North West Metropolitan Region seems to be a specialist group of some sort.

Guessing it is a Sydney group and on hand for the coming holiday period.

Anything further ???

[blacktown]

Highly likely they are NWM highway patrol command .... North west metro visiting your region for a traffic op

My understanding of the highway patrol command is there is no north-western group, either one of the following: Northern, southern, western, (all country regional) then the three metro groups. NWM, CEM, SWM.

Nwm = northwestern metro
Cem = central metro
Swm = southwestern metro

[brianWE]

Thanks for the input.

Seems NWM is a REGION.....covers a pretty large area and many LACs.
I guess they would have the capacity to supply resources to other regions.

[blacktown]

Highway patrol command is state wide.
The vehicle NWM 224 reports to the state highway patrol command via the local North West Metro Hwp commander.
Hwp vehicles no longer report to the local area or regional commanders, though they may assist in jobs from time to time.
Consequently you see a lot of highway patrol assets now sitting on the main highways and arterials road waiting for a hit on their automatic number plate recognition cameras, while at the same photographing all passing traffic.
You definitely heard NWM224 - i heard the same vehicle this morning on Oscar which is patched into Papa, to which the vkg dispatcher exclaimed "you a long way from home"
I was visiting my mum in Port Macquarie.

[brianWE]

Yeah!
Oscar and Papa are combined a lot, recently.
Heard an operator say that it was to do with staffing issues.


Personally. it suits me....I used to live in Kempsey and my job involved regular visits to Taree, Port and Coff's.
Long time ago....but I still have an attachment.
Monitoring two channels is a PITA...you can, often, get two conversations at the same time.

Talking of combined channels, on New Years Eve, 2013, the Northern Rivers comms were handed to Tamworth....maybe Mid Coast, too.
Silliest move I have seen on VKG.
Got the impression that some crews felt the same way. Operators, too.

I mean, it was a very busy night and the operators lacked a fair bit of NC geographic knowledge.

[brianWE]

Another new one:
"Force 10"....pretty sure that's it.
Operating in Byron Bay, tonight.
Possibly here for the Music Festival.

[Grunter1]

That would be "PORS" 10 - PORS = Public Order and Riot Squad.

Cheers.

Grunter1.

[brianWE]

Thanks!!
That fits well.

[brianWE]

Another one.
RDT.
I think the numerals were 01.

This one had the VKG operator puzzled...said they had no record of the call and asked the crew member to spell it out.
Then asked to which station they were attached.
She said they were a mobile working out of Tweed heads.

Operator still sounded a little unsure...but carried on. Cop sounded quite professional and confident.

I thought RBT, at first, but she did say "delta".

Edit:
They are doing transport and licence checks.

[brianWE]

"Random Drug Testing"??

Maybe?

[brianWE]

As noted earlier, VKG has been merging channels Oscar and Papa on a fairly regular basis.
Last night was interesting.
A brawl in Mur'bah was drawing in cars from neighbouring Tweed and Byron areas.
A bit busy on the Mid Coast, too.

Two different supervisors kinda lost their cool and demanded the channels be split.
One bloke said the situation was getting silly and communications were being garbled with cars talking over each other.
Other one sounded quite senior and called the situation "crap" and that it was a health and safety issue.
Operator said they were doing their best with available staff. He suggested the cop ring the VKG supervisor. Cop said he had police work to do and that the supervisor could ring him.

I was only monitoring for a short while but could only hear the local channels from then on.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post, both Oscar and Papa channels were merged with Tamworth on New Year's Eve.....staffing in VKG must be a serious problem these days. Maybe it is about overtime and penalty rates.
Great to see the government is saving us money, here.

[brianWE]

Sorry if I have asked this before...couldn't see where I did...but, old age can make every day a new beginning

Anyway, hearing an "OSG" callsign, this morning. Haven't caught all of the numbers, but it is a 100 grouping.
Clues?

[blacktown]

OSG = Operations Support Group

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_Support_Group

They normally dress in police overalls
We see OSG a lot at the Wanderers games at Parramatta.

[brianWE]

Thanks!!!
That helped a lot.