Brisbane (Ipswich) Police Scanner Stream

[telemetric]

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1288694

[ThunderIdeal]

13 page thread. summary?

first post tells us that mms://60.241.110.103:2400 can handle 50 connections and is streaming audio from ipswich police....... and that he believes it's legal for us to listen in to the police channel.

[Neoshaman]

13 page thread. summary?

first post tells us that mms://60.241.110.103:2400 can handle 50 connections and is streaming audio from ipswich police....... and that he believes it's legal for us to listen in to the police channel.

thats funny shit thanks for that I'm going to check the NSW links when i get home and i have a computer with sound should have some good entertainment value

[C_T]

ok, pretty sure... if he's using the same scanner as in NSW, then listening isn't illegal, but in possession of the scanner itself i think may be...

[botanika]

ok, pretty sure... if he's using the same scanner as in NSW, then listening isn't illegal, but in possession of the scanner itself i think may be...

Scanners are not illegal in Australia. You can listen to any transmission except telecommunications.

[reshroomED]

As botanika stated, scanning is *totally* legal (I've an old radioshack scanner in my car, though more for CFA and SES, rather than listening to the jacks).

These days nearly all capital city police Rf communications are digital and encoded, meaning that no-one can listen in. Most rural areas are still analogue and unencrypted (and bar what you may read will stay this way - digital tramsmissions are not suitable in most of the country), so you can listen in if interested. Pretty boring most of the time, mainly license-checks, although I was listening to an interesting domestic the other day.

ed

[watertrade]

When I was living in south west Sydney a mate of mine had a scanner - we used to get bored and listen in to the local police. Quite often we would hear about something happening, jump in the car and get there before the police. A few times we had the police try and confiscate the scanner. It always ended when my mate would ask for the officer’s service number and take down details. The scanner was never confiscated. I see now we were a real pain in the ass, but it was fun at the time.

Edited October 10, 2009 by watertrade

[AndyAmine.]

From what I have been told by both hobbyist and crim' types is that if one is using a scanner in country areas to listen in with the hope of finding out in advance if they are going to be raided, then generally one should not be listening for chatter but for prolonged silence as the majority of units will be told to cease communications.

(assuming you are already familiar with the average level of chatter on a day to day basis)

Edited October 11, 2009 by AndyAmine.

[botanika]

As botanika stated, scanning is *totally* legal (I've an old radioshack scanner in my car, though more for CFA and SES, rather than listening to the jacks).

These days nearly all capital city police Rf communications are digital and encoded, meaning that no-one can listen in. Most rural areas are still analogue and unencrypted (and bar what you may read will stay this way - digital tramsmissions are not suitable in most of the country), so you can listen in if interested. Pretty boring most of the time, mainly license-checks, although I was listening to an interesting domestic the other day.

ed

Yep cities mostly digital - good luck trying to listen into that! The police also use mobiles and are allowed to talk on them while driving as long as it's for police business.

The ham radio bands - you will hear some mind numbingly boring chatter!

[mescalito]

I was under the impression that mobile(in car)scanners were illegal,but base units weren't....hmmm I wonder can they trace your carrier signal and see who has a scanner?

[botanika]

I was under the impression that mobile(in car)scanners were illegal,but base units weren't....hmmm I wonder can they trace your carrier signal and see who has a scanner?

All legal (unless your using them for criminal gain). Tracking a scanner would be like trying to track someone using a AM radio. It only receives signals. There is no TX with a scanner so I dont know how they could track you.

Edited October 13, 2009 by botanika

[reshroomED]

The only restrictions are that certain frequency bands aren't allowed to be scanned, but this is accomplished via hardware ie only radios that scan 'allowable' frequencies are available for sale in Australia. My old piece of crap was actually made for the US market and as such was enabled to scan the GSM mobile frequencies. Before release in Australia they were altered internally to disable that band. It would be quite simple for me to 'reverse' this mod and listen in to peoples phones if I so desired but can't see the point. This would be illegal, but scanning any frequencies available on an Oz-purchased scanner is 100% illegal.

And, as botanika stated, they are undetectable, and no-one's looking anyway. Listening to the cops is pretty boring anyways, St John's ambos at a big concert are far more interesting. Some of the drunken antics and injuries can be quite amusing.

ed

[Smiling Cloud]

When i was living out of reception a few friends and i bought these really cool (and really cheap) radios. THey had all the frequencies, rather than just the normal 40 channels. We got these because it meant that we could have our own channel and noone else would interrupt. We mainly used it to see if each other was home. You couldn't really have a good chat, it was like sms talking. But it was pretty handy as reception was non-existent.

Anyway they had a scan feature on them and i listened to heaps of stuff. Its interesting to hear what the cops have to do. I heard them walk into a lab (a legal one) and there was a few people passed out because they'd broken a bottle of some chemical. Another time they got called out to chase a snake out of some old dudes house, that was really funny. It was interesting for awhile, i listened to all sorts of stuff, ambos, flight towers, road wrokers (that was really handy), truckies, wreckers yards, taxi dispatch and basically everyone else who was using a radio to communicate. Truckies are especially handy to talk to as they know about road works and where radars are set up. Also, when they get up your arse you can tell them to back off. For some reason they respect people with radios, they treat you as one of their own.

After awhile i got bored with it and just used it to communicate with friends. Afer i moved i didn't really need it as my friends who still had the radios lived too far away and i was bored with listening in. Most stuff you hear is pretty mundane, its only occaisonally you hear something funny/interesting.

I think the law in regards to scanning is that you can listen in but you can't program the police channels in, and you def can't broadcast. I don't think that owning a scanner would help you if you were a criminal as i never heard them arranging any raids on it. THey probably use mobile phone for that or digitally encoded transmissions.

The radio i had was the FDC-460. You can check it out here http://cgi.ebay.com/FDC-FD-460A-UH-410-480...=item518970cc67

THey're pretrty cheap (if you look around on ebay you can get them for $50) but they have a really good range, up to 20km. And as i said before, you have soo many channels to choose from that if you and some mates get one you can all communicate for free with relative privacy. NOt very good for long chats but great for meeting up at the pub. And if you do a 'maggot check' on the truckie channel, great for getting home from the pub (not that i endorse or condone drink driving)

[AndyAmine.]

Like I mentioned in a previous post, apparently a 'crim' would want to listen out for a lack of chatter rather than an increase in chatter or specific codes/call-signs etc.

The theory as I understand it is that the raiding units will be required to keep radio silence in the lead up and because country towns dont have many units that leads to a big reduction in chatter or some unusual communications.

Also FYI ex-police raidos are often available at auctions, last ones I saw were at a local police auction and a lot of x5 went for $10 each.

[reshroomED]

OK, now it's getting misleading.

Any scanner legal for sale in Oz is 100% legal to use to listen in to any communication that it is capable of receiving.

What Smiling Cloud is speaking of is *not* legal in Australia. Transmitting outside of either the old 27Mhz or new 477Mhz Citizen's Bands is illegal without the appropriate license, and this radio has the ability to do so. Would have gotten myself in some strife in my younger days with one of those, being able to offer the constabulary some anonymous advice .

Generally the only police traffick is dispatch calls sending a car somewhere, cops calling in their smoko breaks, and license/rego-checks. Unless it's a large SWAT-style raid there's no need for ongoing radio communications.

And those radios would be useless to a layman Andy, as the cops disable them before sale - that's why they're so cheap. Need to be a radio-tech to make them operational, and that's on other bands. No way of restoring their original function.

The new radios that the cops are using are designed specifically for government-type use by their manufacturer (Motorola? - can't recall). They're purchased as a network, and each radio is coded into that network. If one is stolen it's simply disabled remotely (although I suspect that they'd be chasing it rather than just turning it off).

ed

[botanika]

There’s been a flood of cheap Chinese radio’s in australia with expanded frequency range and many people use them illegally including commercial business’s. I don’t know how much it’s enforced and generally those radio’s are not very powerful, especially out of band.

Years ago during a bush fire I was stuck in the middle of a highway traffic jam somewhere near Coffs Harbour. I overheard the police on my Yaesu scanner saying they were letting trucks through but were going to keep the cars backed up for another 2 hours and were also going to shortly close a side coastal tourist drive route. People were out of the cars on the road speculating how long the wait would be. I actually told several people what Id just heard and they kind of scoffed at me in disbelief the road would be closed for 2 hours. I u-turned, headed down the top entrance of the tourist drive and hung out at a beach for two hours. Refreshed from a swim I drove the empty tourist drive until it connected further down with the main highway right at the beginning of the queue. Just at that moment the police started letting people through and I was first to proceed. Thank you very much scanner!