help - looking for scanner to pick up Tas freq

**hard_industries** · 01-09-08, 08:41 PM

hi all just after a few recomendations on what scanner to buy that will pick up tas police, fire, ambo and various other freq... any help would be awesome.. thanks all.. looking for something thats easy to use and not going to cost me an arm and a leg..

thanks guys..

**mitaux8030** · 02-09-08, 07:24 PM

For Tas Fire, Ambulance - any old scanner that does 70-80 MHz will do fine.
For Tas Police - you need an EDACS trunk-tracker that covers 800 MHz.
A Uniden 245XLT will work and is about the cheapest option, but they're pretty unreliable scanners, and hard to find in working condition now.
A Uniden 780XLT or T8 will work too - and work well. But again, not too common, and not so cheap.
A Uniden 396T or 996T will also work, and are plentiful on the second hand market because people in Sydney are dumping them after the police went encrypted there, these scanners are the most advanced of the lot, but are most expensive and most complex to operate.
Actually every trunk-tracker scanner is 'complex' to program and operate by comparison with 'simple' scanners, its something you just can't avoid.

However be warned the Tas Police will also soon be going encrypted digital (perhaps around Christmas, perhaps a little later) in most populated centres, and no scanner will decode that when it happens.

**Antennaman** · 02-09-08, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitaux8030

However be warned the Tas Police will also soon be going encrypted digital (perhaps around Christmas, perhaps a little later) in most populated centres, and no scanner will decode that when it happens.

Is that kosher, because when on holidays in Hobart last summer, all the scanner was able to pick up in the public service area was fire, ambulance & forestry, although because the family was with me, there was not much time to play around.

There were channels with digital noise signatures just below 900MHz IIRC.

**mitaux8030** · 03-09-08, 04:02 PM

my info is absolutely 100% correct... The Tas Police have been on-of-on-off with digital for a while now, and they've been 'off' for about the last 5 years, but the switch they're about to make is to the latest 4th generation digital voice system, and should work better for them. Specificly, they're in the 800 MHz trunking band of 865 to 870 MHz (which also means you need to be careful not to purchase a USA-spec scanner which will stop receiving at 868.9875 MHz).

You might have been hearing the CDMA or NextG signals at 870-890 MHz???

**Antennaman** · 03-09-08, 06:12 PM

Good point, suppose I was locking onto the control channel of the trunking network when scanning and it was a period of low activity. Guess there is not much crime in Hobart.

What a dumb choice for frequencies for such a hilly little rock in the ocean, there must be a lot of dead spots. Makes for small antennas, though.

**gordon_s1942** · 26-09-08, 09:51 PM

Police in my part of NSW are still in the 'Clear' but how long that will last is anybodys guess as they FINALLY went UHF some months ago.
The old VHF was running last time I checked a few weeks ago but its days must be numbered by now surely.
With Bathurst just around the corner, I wonder if they bring up the usual extras from Sydney, if we're not digital/encrypted will the car/motorcycles be able to communicate with the western area base in Lithgow?

01-09-08, 08:41 PM	#1 (permalink)
hard_industries Junior Member iTrader: (0) Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 1 Spent time on board: 0:27:51	help - looking for scanner to pick up Tas freq hi all just after a few recomendations on what scanner to buy that will pick up tas police, fire, ambo and various other freq... any help would be awesome.. thanks all.. looking for something thats easy to use and not going to cost me an arm and a leg.. thanks guys..

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02-09-08, 07:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
mitaux8030 Member iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: A rock in the ocean Posts: 41 Spent time on board: 12:24:27	For Tas Fire, Ambulance - any old scanner that does 70-80 MHz will do fine. For Tas Police - you need an EDACS trunk-tracker that covers 800 MHz. A Uniden 245XLT will work and is about the cheapest option, but they're pretty unreliable scanners, and hard to find in working condition now. A Uniden 780XLT or T8 will work too - and work well. But again, not too common, and not so cheap. A Uniden 396T or 996T will also work, and are plentiful on the second hand market because people in Sydney are dumping them after the police went encrypted there, these scanners are the most advanced of the lot, but are most expensive and most complex to operate. Actually every trunk-tracker scanner is 'complex' to program and operate by comparison with 'simple' scanners, its something you just can't avoid. However be warned the Tas Police will also soon be going encrypted digital (perhaps around Christmas, perhaps a little later) in most populated centres, and no scanner will decode that when it happens.

03-09-08, 04:02 PM	#4 (permalink)
mitaux8030 Member iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: A rock in the ocean Posts: 41 Spent time on board: 12:24:27	my info is absolutely 100% correct... The Tas Police have been on-of-on-off with digital for a while now, and they've been 'off' for about the last 5 years, but the switch they're about to make is to the latest 4th generation digital voice system, and should work better for them. Specificly, they're in the 800 MHz trunking band of 865 to 870 MHz (which also means you need to be careful not to purchase a USA-spec scanner which will stop receiving at 868.9875 MHz). You might have been hearing the CDMA or NextG signals at 870-890 MHz???

03-09-08, 06:12 PM	#5 (permalink)
Antennaman Member iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 50 Spent time on board: 13:25:38	Good point, suppose I was locking onto the control channel of the trunking network when scanning and it was a period of low activity. Guess there is not much crime in Hobart. What a dumb choice for frequencies for such a hilly little rock in the ocean, there must be a lot of dead spots. Makes for small antennas, though.

26-09-08, 09:51 PM	#6 (permalink)
gordon_s1942 Premium Member iTrader: (0) Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 82 Spent time on board: 1 Day and 0:06:41	Police in my part of NSW are still in the 'Clear' but how long that will last is anybodys guess as they FINALLY went UHF some months ago. The old VHF was running last time I checked a few weeks ago but its days must be numbered by now surely. With Bathurst just around the corner, I wonder if they bring up the usual extras from Sydney, if we're not digital/encrypted will the car/motorcycles be able to communicate with the western area base in Lithgow?

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