OT: Sydney Police Radio

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 09 August 06 12:55 pm

Melbourne metro east have pulled the plug on analogue in the last few days.

The analogue feeds from their digital system showed just how shocking the digital quality was. It was so bad I had to turn it off most of the time.

Good luck to the poor cops who have to listen to it for a job.

shocking bit rate, digital drop outs, brick walled at 3Khz wrote:We have a reeeeeet of a _____bnce behine_ the thopth.......

Oh but it's digital it must be good

Hounddog · Post by **Hounddog** » 10 August 06 11:52 am

I have been listening to VKG (Sydney Police Radio) for 30 years and even wrote a column for ASM scanning magazine. The best place to go for all your emergency service scanning is a site called "The Spectrum's Edge".

I can tell you with certainty that there is nothing illegal about simply listening to the police frequencies with a receive only scanner. I have told and even demonstrated my scanners to officers of the law over the years and even had them check on the legality of this for me. I'll repeat, it is not illegal to listen to police radio.

What is illegal is acting on any of the information heard in any way shape or form. This includes disclosing information heard for illegal purposes or financial gain and such like.

Much has been said about this over the years. Scanners have been a common household appliance for years also, and are still available for import and sale in this country. However having said this, there is a loophole in the law that allows for this to happen. The law states that the receive radio must not be specifically designed for picking up police and government services so this is why police or even air band radios are also capable of picking up general broadcast radio as well. As long as it appears to be designed to pick up broadcast radio it will be ok.

Unfortunately, over the last year and especially in the last few weeks, VKG has switched from the old analogue system (easily listened to with any standard scanner) to a digital system which can only be picked up with a digital scanner that is very expensive and not widely available. In fact the last of the Sydney channels switched over just a few weeks ago.

I have to admit I am not sure about the legality of rebroadcasting police radio over the internet, but spectrums edge have been doing it for years with no legal action taken against them.

Copy that Radio

Cheesy pigs · Post by **Cheesy pigs** » 10 August 06 8:26 pm

Hounddog wrote:Much has been said about this over the years. Scanners have been a common household appliance for years also, and are still available for import and sale in this country. However having said this, there is a loophole in the law that allows for this to happen. The law states that the receive radio must not be specifically designed for picking up police and government services so this is why police or even air band radios are also capable of picking up general broadcast radio as well. As long as it appears to be designed to pick up broadcast radio it will be ok.

Unfortunately, over the last year and especially in the last few weeks, VKG has switched from the old analogue system (easily listened to with any standard scanner) to a digital system which can only be picked up with a digital scanner that is very expensive and not widely available. In fact the last of the Sydney channels switched over just a few weeks ago.

I've read the posts in this thread and I've got to ask, why?
 
I just don't understand what is so interesting about listening to the radio transmissions. Also, what is ufortunate about the system being changed from the analogue network to a more secure (but hardly unbreakable) digital network which, I will admit, sounds much worse than the analogue system. The problem isn't necessarily the people who are curious about police work, but the ones ho try to keep track of where police are located, which people they are after or addresses they are intending to search, or more criminal activities like timing responses to alarms, or finding out which businesses have dodgy burglar systems, that sort of thing. THAT is when scanners become an issue.
 Anyway enough from me.

president & 1st lady · Post by **president & 1st lady** » 10 August 06 8:53 pm

I found it interesting listening to what happens when a person is pulled over, how incidents are managed and stuff like that. Not being in the police force myself, this is cool and interesting for a little while, like 30 minutes!!! Gives you a new respect for our law enforcers too.

However, I do have a concern with the information that is available to listeners. If I gave out that kind of information on my customers, even half of that info, I'd get the sack for breaching the Code of Conduct, no questions asked. People have a right to privacy, particularly when it comes to matters that require police assistance/intervention (whether requested or not, lol!). Like I said in my previous post, it's not cool to be listening to the details of someone who has threatened self harm. I couldn't help but think how I would feel to know the world could hear that I had broken up with my girlfriend/boyfriend and was upset about it. Yes, I listened to it for a little while the other night before my ethics set in and I took the moral high ground, again

(I so have to stop doing that!).

I hope the link is removed soon, I know the NSW Police now about the link, I'm surprised it's still there. If people want to get a scanner and listen themsleves in the privacy of their home, good for them, but it shouldn't be on the net. EcoDave, not having a go at you, just the guy who owns the site it's hosted on.

1st lady

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 11 August 06 12:15 am

I used to be a regular scanner listener when back in NSW and found it entertaining as well as informative. I am sure people near Sydney found it just as frustrating as I did when trying to get up to date information from the media during natural disasters such as bushfires - especially when ones house is potentially in the firing line. Listening to the scanner - in this case more the fire services - meant I was a lot better informed as to what was happening than waiting for the local commercial stations to give me out of date information.

Or as a train commuter from Gosford to Sydney, it seemed they had a daily excuse list for delays. Monday it was a broken down freight, Tuesday a signal failure and so on. Listening to Cityrail allowed me to know what was really happening.

As for the police, sometimes it could be entertaining and informative as well, though I also had qualms about some levels of the personal information over the air. This lessened as the cars got data terminals, so while they could still radio jobs, looking up people's records tended not to be done so people could listen.

And yes - it is legal to listen to anything except phone conversations. So if listening to the Government Radio Network and they do a phone patch, then you should tune off that channel.

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 11 August 06 11:30 am

I think the bottom line here is that anything transmitted via RF is a target for listening / decription. Encription helps but can not be 100% guaranteed secure.

We should remember that socalled mobile and cordless phones, wireless lans, mobile data terminals etc are in fact mobile radio systems.

I can say it was very reasuring to know, when the police where flying over my house with the big spot light on, that they where in fact looking for a missing senile old man from a nursing home rather than a criminal who could come demamding who knows what or be hiding near buy.

Aushiker · Post by **Aushiker** » 11 August 06 1:50 pm

Mr Router wrote:Bookmarked

Cool stuff

Aushiker · Post by **Aushiker** » 11 August 06 1:52 pm

president & 1st lady wrote:However, I do have a concern with the information that is available to listeners.

Was just listening and the op asked the patrol if their radio was secure before giving them more personal information ....

Andrew

Mr Router · Post by **Mr Router** » 11 August 06 5:31 pm

Aushiker wrote:
president & 1st lady wrote:However, I do have a concern with the information that is available to listeners.
Was just listening and the op asked the patrol if their radio was secure before giving them more personal information ....

Andrew

There's probably only a couple of Cachers listening

Cheesy pigs · Post by **Cheesy pigs** » 11 August 06 6:43 pm

richary wrote: As for the police, sometimes it could be entertaining and informative as well, though I also had qualms about some levels of the personal information over the air. This lessened as the cars got data terminals, so while they could still radio jobs, looking up people's records tended not to be done so people could listen.

What is your worry, that you were listening in, or that they were transmitting personal information over the air?

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 22 August 06 1:15 pm

For those that have not been here that long, I used to work in security. I spent the best part of 10 years doing night patrol, premises protection, personal protection, executive protection and security personnel training.

It was a regular part of my job to hang a scanner off my hip and listen to the local ambulance, fire and police channels for happenings near my location. Usually I had a scanner when I was working in shopping centers. The centers car park were often an area person of interest where offenders would dump stolen vehicles and either decamp or re-steal another vehicle to leave in. Knowing who and what to look for lead to many arrests. In the end I was targeted by the local professional car thieves and I had to have an AVO placed against them from coming near my work place and my home.

The scanner was most useful for my personal protection and the assistance of the police in my area. When it comes to crime information is power.

Now I no longer work in these areas I am happy to have very little interest in what goes on in those circles anymore. I agree the police have a very difficult job but when they complain it is the paperwork that really gets them down. They like nothing more then doing their job on the street but the administrative bit for court is their biggest bane. Second to that is the fact that the courts are frequently too light on continuous re-offenders.

Richary · Post by **Richary** » 22 August 06 2:46 pm

And there are positives for the police in having members of the public listen. Occasionally when I used to listen you would hear details of a stolen car, one used in an offence etc. While driving around I would keep an eye out. Not that I ever saw one, but if I had then a quick phone call could have been of use - instead of when and if it makes the nightly news hours later.

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 22 August 06 7:17 pm

Aushiker wrote:
president & 1st lady wrote:However, I do have a concern with the information that is available to listeners.
Was just listening and the op asked the patrol if their radio was secure before giving them more personal information ....

Andrew

That means that they wanted the officer to step away from the suspect and other people to take the information "privately" on the scene. A standard procedure in many situations.

The guy who is hosting it requests that everyone go in via this address:
http://www.gleff.com/onlinescanner/
as the posted link before may change.

EcoDave

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 22 August 06 7:22 pm

Oh, I just had a thought!

You could do a "radio cam" cache where you had to get a voice capture of a Cacher being busted for "suspicious behavior"!

EcoDave

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 22 August 06 7:25 pm

GIN51E wrote:Most are digital such as the central coast like Gosford etc except for some reason the Sydney North Shore isn't digital yet,

i remember before phones went digital you could listen in to mobile phone calls oops

I used to do that with my scanner, the novelty wore off after about a minute. You have no idea how incredibly boring people's phone conversations are until you listen in!

EcoDave