Police TETRA

[Twocky61]

Years ago before the UK police went TETRA encrypted you could listen to police transmissions

I did a lot of the time & also assisted police though the ungrateful so and so's didn't see it that way as they saw it as us public (me!!) were impeding there duties

One classic occasion when I helped them was I heard over their frequency here in Dorset/Hampshire UK that there was a report that a certain individual was going to be leaving Home James coaches depot driving a coach & that he had been drinking. I thus phoned the company and asked to speak to Mr X. He came to the phone & I told him he might want to offer his job to another driver as the police had just received a report he had been drinking and the police were waiting for him on the Rushmore roundabout. He thanked me and handed his job to another driver as when I heard the police on their frequency the police said they had pulled the driver but he gave a negative breath test little did they know it was another driver lol

One time us CB'ers assisted the police and they appreciated our assistance. As mentioned elsewhere here on DYR we assisted the police searching for a missing child. We gave them one of our radio's tuned to channel nine as obviously they refused to give us one of theirs. We subsequently found the child beating the police to it. We wished the police had found the child first. I will leave the rest to your imagination

[staffslad]

Re: Police TETRA

I remember doing that a bit in the 70s. Some friends of my parents used to listen quite often and when I heard them discussing it, thought I would give it a go. It is a bit hazy now, but I think it was on FM (VHF) and often only one half of the conversation could be heard. I don't think I ever heard anything of particular interest, but I only listened for short periods and after a while I didn't bother.

[Twocky61]

Re: Police TETRA

Around 450mhz UHF was & still is, but now TETRA encrypted police band

In the US emergency frequencies (police & fire & EMS & Port Authority & air both general ATC & company channels & Marine band & so on) the public are allowed to listen into as the US see it as a way to let them know where their tax dollars go

There is a forum on the Web: Liveatc.com where you can stream ATC live & also listen to interesting recordings such as the Hudson river landing. Also you can ask professional commercial/military pilots questions re all things aviation.

I asked in forum why during 9-11 the transponders were able to be disengaged. Why are they not similar to black (actually orange) boxes which remain on all the time. I also posed this question to both the FAA & CAA but no response except the auto generated reply thanking for the comment & they would get back to me. They did not.

Anyway I did receive a few replies from professional commercial/military pilots. The transponder is only used in flight but is not engaged on the ground as it interferes with ground radar.

[staffslad]

Re: Police TETRA

Twocky, I am a bit confused. I could have sworn I listened to them on my old standard transistor radio, but FM on that would have only gone up to 108 or so MHz. Are you saying that a special UHF band radio would have been required to listen and it wouldn't have been possible on a standard radio?

[Richard1978]

Re: Police TETRA

I read that some 2-way radios used the top end of the FM radio band, about 105-8 MHz until the early 1990s.

The first time my Dad had a car with an auto tune radio it sometimes picked up taxi radio transmissions, but you normally only heard half the conversation.

With the right scanners it was possible to pick up early cordless phones, especially "grey market" ones that were intended for other countries & would stray into already allocated UK air space.

[HG]

Re: Police TETRA

I remember listening to the police radios on my parent's stereo, I can't remember the band or frequency. I remember there being a beeping sound when there was no transmitting going on.

[Mulletino]

Re: Police TETRA

In the US emergency frequencies (police & fire & EMS & Port Authority & air both general ATC & company channels & Marine band & so on) the public are allowed to listen into as the US see it as a way to let them know where their tax dollars go

There was an App for the iPhone/Android that let you listen to the Police frequencies here (in Australia), but I think they went encrypted since then.

I used to listen in on a big old wooden radio under my bed, used to pretend it was the radio of my spaceship and they were ground control.

[Twocky61]

Re: Police TETRA

1600khz MW you could hear cordless phones within a certain range of neighbours talking on their landlines totally oblivious to the fact someone who is one of their neighbours could be listening in. Cordless phones have since gone DECT encrypted up around 800mhz UHF & CB Radio secondary band 934mhz UHF has also been reallocated to mobile phones

Since losing 934mhz UHF CB'ers have gained a further 40 channels on the CEPT band so we gained another 20 channels over the 934mhz UHF 20 channels. 934mhz UHF was line of sight whereas 27mhz VHF had a radius of around 20 miles or more depending on atmospheric conditions