Below is a quick write-up and some basic FAQs on this new network, what you can expect, who will be using it, and what you can still listen to in the clear. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask us.
What is the new TASGRN?
The Tasmanian Government Radio Network (TasGRN) project will transition eight core Tasmanian Government organisations currently using five disparate radio networks onto one unified, digital and interoperable radio network. Prior to the TasGRN, communications were managed somewhat disparately across government agencies. These networks, Tasmania Police (TasPol), TasFire (TFS), Ambulance Tasmania (AT) and Hydro Electric Commission (HEC pre disaggregation), State Emergency Service (SES), Forestry Tasmania and National Parks & Wildlife Service (PWS) were all operating on the 70-80MHZ band (VHF Low) typically on Philips or Simoco Mobile radio terminals.
In the 1990s, recognizing the age of the system, its lack of coverage, reliability and flexibility and increasing cost to maintain, HEC and TasPol engaged Ericsson Australia to commission the EDACS Trunked Mobile Radio Network (TMRN), using its 800 MHz proprietary technology, which enables analog and digital communications using HEC’s existing telecommunication infrastructure as a basis for the system. The EDACS system has been at the centre of a number of disputes between the Tasmanian Government and the vendor, Ericsson after the digital network failed and police were forced to use less secure analogue trunked radio. The vendor sued because it claimed the police were taking up more network resources than was agreed to in the contract.
In 2008, the Tasmanian Government began to consider its next steps in terms of a consolidated and secure telecommunications infrastructure platform. Even at this time, it was clear that adopting the APCO 25 radio communications standard was the appropriate course of action as it emerged across Australia and globally to be the preferred platform for emergency services. The decision to proceed to tender for the $763 million network was finally announced in 2020 as the EDACS network was beyond the end of its operating life.
Fast forward to 2023 and construction of the TasGRN, a partnership between the state government, Telstra and Motorola, is almost complete. The network has been built on a feature-rich technology platform to provide a variety of additional capabilities for the state's emergency services needed for today and well into the future. These include broadband push-to-talk services enabling seamless communication between radios, smartphones and other devices as well as enhanced integration between existing communication centres’ operating systems and Motorola Solutions’ consoles, encryption capability and interoperability between the eight user agencies and any interstate emergency services that use the P25 platform. The cutover has now commenced in earnest at the time of writing (August 2023) from the old EDACS and VHF networks to the TasGRN.
Main features of the TasGRN for users
Adopting the APCO-25 standard allows users to access a number of basic and more advanced features to ensure convenience and additional safety to the Agencies and end-users.
Basic features include:
- Voice calls to talk groups, which can be set up to support specific user activities, regions or interoperability between agencies.
- Unit-to-unit or individual calling.
- Emergency calls where a higher priority or emergency call can either preempt a channel on a trunked system or be alerted to the dispatch personnel so that they are aware that somebody is in danger and needs immediate help.
- Talking party identification, allows the person talking on the channel to be identified via an ID number or user alias.
More advanced features include:
- Telephone calls from handsets to landlines or mobile numbers.
- The ability to carry IP data for advanced data applications including Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) integration.
- Support for GPS and location services, enhancing user safety by being able to immediately locate them in an emergency situation.
- Ability to “hand-off” communications from an in-vehicle radio to a user’s mobile phone.
- Ability to program analog frequencies into the radio such as UHF CB, allowing further safety and enhanced communication for all users.
Which users will be on the TasGRN?
The users of the new TasGRN will include:
- Tasmania Police
- Tasmania Fire Service
- Ambulance Tasmania
- State Emergency Service
- Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment
- Sustainable Timber Tasmania
- TasNetworks
- Hydro Tasmania
The scope of the contract comprises the design, build, testing, operation and maintenance of the TasGRN as well as transitioning users from their existing networks.
The five existing networks are:
- Digital-based trunk mobile radio network (EDACS TMRN) primarily used by Tasmania Police, TasNetworks and Hydro Tasmania.
- An analogue-based VHF network used by the Tasmanian Fire Service and Ambulance Tasmania.
- An analogue-based VHF network used by Sustainable Timber Tasmania and Parks and Wildlife Service.
- An analogue-based VHF network used by the Tasmanian State Emergency Service.
OK, so can I listen to Tas Police still?
The short answer is, no, those days are gone. Long answer...A key aspect of moving to the APCO 25 standard is that it allows communication via an open standard, allowing radios and terminals from multiple manufacturers to communicate with each other on the same network. APCO 25 or P25 as it’s often known, also provides the facility to encrypt communications at a radio or device level. After a number of incidents involving members of the public repeating sensitive information (heard on a scanner or similar) which put the lives of Emergency Service workers and everyday people at serious risk, the decision was made to enable full encryption in TasPOL, TFS and AT radios used on the new TasGRN network.
The encryption will render any secure communications completely unreadable due to very high-strength AES256 encryption. Some people have suggested that this encryption can be hacked or bypassed, however, only those who have the special key can decrypt it. AES uses symmetric key encryption, which involves the use of only one secret key to cipher and decipher the information. The encryption is so strong, that decryption without the same key used to encrypt the transmission is considered “computationally infeasible”.
So, can I listen to anything at all on the new TASGRN?
At this point in time, the only agencies that have chosen to encrypt their communications are TasFire, TASPOL and Ambulance Tasmania. This still leaves five other services, Hydro Tasmania, TasNetworks, Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT), Parks and Wildlife Services (DPIPWE) and State Emergency Service (SES) that are operating unencrypted comms. It’s important to note that in a commercially run platform, like this, all additional features cost money. So encrypting a service that doesn’t necessarily affect public safety or require data privacy, is typically not cost-effective.
So, is this the end of scanning as we know it? Absolutely not!!! There’s still plenty to listen to on the new network, together with many other communications systems, including air band, councils, fish farms, Planes, trains, transport, marine users, and amateur radio, just to name a very small few, there really is so much more out there to listen to, you just have to search them out or ask us here for help on where to look!
