TasGrn

[vk7ham]

Is anybody listening to this? Any guides online yet?

[Adam]

Hi,

If you're referring to the new network, then the simple answer is while you may hear the odd "in the clear" activity at the moment, while the final preparations and testing are being done, TasPol for certain and more than likely Ambulance Tasmania, and also possibly others as well, will be using full-time encryption on every channel, and as such will not be able to be monitored at all, unless, of course, you like to listen to digital type noises!

In regards to online guides, currently as far as I'm aware there are none, however, there may come a time when someone puts one up, but if they do then it will only be a basic guide on listening to those users who are not using encryption.

The bottom line is, the day has finally come when listening to TasPol, possibly Ambulance Tasmania (and maybe others too) will no longer be possible, by any means, well unless you want to join TasPol!

But from what I understand, TasPol should be moving over very shortly followed by others, it's been in the papers and on the news recently so I would presume it won't be very long now till it all starts happening.

Hope this has answered your questions.

[Katabatic]

Hi all,
Further to the above and I've been following the progress of the TasGRN roll-out with great interest, mainly due to my personal interest in the project itself, the design, funding, participating agencys, etc. as it's quite interesting but also the technology.
What I can tell you for certain is that all emergency services will be encrypted (and there's literally zero to be heard on any trunk-following system you may care to use, so while I've mapped all the Talkgroups through snooping during testing, the data is useless. Given some insight I have, I can tell you that i believe Hydro Tasmania has chosen not to be encrypted (it's a cost to licensees) and I can't vouch for other non-emergency services. In terms of deployment timing, interestingly, Hydro Tasmania is the first organisation to switch to the new network, which goes live Today, Monday, 24 July, 2023. TasNetworks, Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service follow soon after, along with Sustainable Timber Tasmania, and then the Emergency Services begin their transition, with Tasmania Police the first in line.

[Scan1987]

I have also been keeping an eye on the roll out. I have logged some traffic, mostly Hydro. I saw somebody Facebook market place selling ready-made configurations for the UBCD436 and 536. Do we know how up to date these are?

[Adam]

To be honest, I think getting configs (especially paying for them!) might be a waste of time, at least at this stage, why do I say that? Well given it is so early on in the transition period who knows what will change and how? Unless those people selling them are happy to do lots of updates and corrections for free?

Current information to date is that only Tas Networks/Aurora/Hydro, Parks & Wildlife and maybe one or two others will be in the 'clear', however, you can guarantee that they will try and talk even those that don't need encryption into getting it, after all, it means more dollars in the contractors pocket! But, really until everyone actually transitions over, we won't know for sure who will actually end up on it, and if they are in the clear or not, except for those already mentioned who we know for sure will be secure.

So that doesn't leave too many in the clear, at least at this stage, so my advice would be, by all means, to keep monitoring it, but to hold off doing anything else (including buying a new scanner) until everything is completed and everyone who is going to use it transitions over, then reassess the situation and go from there, and if those that are left in the clear are services you want to listen to, then start sourcing the information you need to hear them or look for a config file, which by then should be readily available, have most of the bugs ironed out, be fairly current and working properly.

This network is going to be around for a while, I think waiting a bit and seeing what happens (while actively monitoring it), who actually ends up using it, and who stays in the clear might be a good idea, once this is known I'm certain there will be some config files floating around, free of charge one would hope, that will allow those who want to listen do so.

In fact, I'd be more than happy to obtain (or build) and host such a config file here on the forum when the time comes, that won't be any problems at all.

[MikeNZ]

Adam,
That is very sage advice,
I have to agree, this is a very "grey area" at the moment with things still in very early days.
Only time will tell exactly what this will look like down the track.