Need a police scanner "expert"

[XR6Naranja]

Hey guys,

I'm looking at police scanners on eBay but unsure what to get, I am not an expert on scanners at all.

I've read up the laws and have seen that it's legal to have and listen to but it's illegal to interfere with police work, also illegal to have radar scanners.

Basically we had one up in the NT and when it was flooding or any other emergency the scanner was the first one to inform us of what was happening in the town, it saved a relatives furniture from being wrecked over night.

We've moved to NSW and no longer have the old one, I've searched a bit and have realized there's analog ones and digital ones, ones with trunked and ones without, I'm not really sure which is the best to buy so far I've come up with getting one that has analog/digital/trunked and that'll allow me to receive the best I possibly can.

Any help is appreciated, cheers.

[The Yeti]

Most police channels are enriptid in NSW

For good reason

[Jim Goose]

Pretty sure in QLD they have gone the same as well now...

[The Yeti]

theres plenty of apps for your phone I personaly like TuneIn Radio but there are others like 5-0 Radio & Aus Scan

What you are talking about you really dont need or want Police, SES or RFS will be your best bet as they tell the police what they see

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

Pretty sure in QLD they have gone the same as well now...

CIB yes, GD & TB no

[GasoLane]

Digital in the cities but still mostly analogue in country areas.

Yes, it's perfectly legal to listen but illegal to pass the information onto a 3rd party...

Although these days scanning on the Police band is purely for entertainment value.
They know people listen to them so if they don't want you to know anything they use their mobiles.

Can also be when rocking along and your number plate comes over the air

[xisled]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Digital in the cities but still mostly analogue in country areas.

Yes, it's perfectly legal to listen but illegal to pass the information onto a 3rd party...

Although these days scanning on the Police band is purely for entertainment value.
They know people listen to them so if they don't want you to know anything they use their mobiles.

Can also be when rocking along and your number plate comes over the air

LOL when I was 18, this happened a few times. LOL

[GasoLane]

Bugger, that was meant to be "can also be scary"

[XR6Naranja]

Cheers guys, well I'm a bit more inland, but not necessarily a country town, I've got the one for the phone but doesn't list my town or anywhere near my town unfortunately, but thanks for the info, might look at the digital ones to be on the safe side of not having to buy another, anything is better than nothing I suppose when it comes to encryption.

May have to take it down the street like you did GasOLane, would be a laugh.

Cheers guys.

[redxm]

Depends on how desperate you are to listen and how deep your pockets are.
P25 encryption is coming, it may be 3 or 4 years away in country NSW but it will happen.
Once they go encryption you will have a wheel chock.
There is absolutely no way to break the encryption. They said that with pay tv but it happened. Unfortunately with DES-OFB encryption, the only way to listen will be to pinch a radio, and that will last 10 minutes until they realise its stolen and kill it over air.
I have personally done a Motorola encryption course. The lengths they have gone to is incredible.
The basic concept is that each radio has an encryption key that is stored in the radio. It is impossible to read this key back out of the radio. At no time is this key broadcast, so it cant be intercepted.
Thats as much info I am prepared to post. But if Billy at the pub reckons he has a mate who has hacked it, he is full of cow poo.

[The Yeti]

Originally Posted by redxm

Depends on how desperate you are to listen and how deep your pockets are.
P25 encryption is coming, it may be 3 or 4 years away in country NSW but it will happen.
Once they go encryption you will have a wheel chock.
There is absolutely no way to break the encryption. They said that with pay tv but it happened. Unfortunately with DES-OFB encryption, the only way to listen will be to pinch a radio, and that will last 10 minutes until they realise its stolen and kill it over air.
I have personally done a Motorola encryption course. The lengths they have gone to is incredible.
The basic concept is that each radio has an encryption key that is stored in the radio. It is impossible to read this key back out of the radio. At no time is this key broadcast, so it cant be intercepted.
Thats as much info I am prepared to post. But if Billy at the pub reckons he has a mate who has hacked it, he is full of cow poo.

Listen to this man, he knows what hes talking about

[flappist]

The only gotcha with crypto is the users and the network. The more complex the system the more often it gets broken......

[Smoke Pursuit]

I dont think they will go digital across Queensland, one of my friends in the know reckons its too expensive... Any special operations etc are done off air anyways.

[Radtek]

Queensland and all the other States will be going fully digital with encryption.

They have no choice as they have to move frequency bands due to the ACMA moving their current assignment. This wont happen immediately but QLD will get some funding for it due to the G20 summit.

I wouldn't waste my money on a scanner even a Digital one. All digital transmissions are and will be encrypted to my knowledge.

I work in the Industry on Digital Radio mainly with P25.

[mcnews]

And how often they change the crypto. We changed it every six hours for voice in the ADF, and the IFF was changed every 24 hours through 4.5 billion possiblities.

[Streets]

You can still have fun with a UHF scanner. There's other interesting things you can listen to besides the police. I used to take my portable one on the train so I could stick the earbuds in and listen to what the real cause of the delay was