Victoria Police

Radio Communications Equipment

Victoria Police use various UHF radios (mostly Philips or Motorola) with an EPROM capable of being programmed with 99 to 250 channels and for the Victoria Police issued series their EPROM can be used between 450.000MHz to 490.0000MHz in NFM mode.

Communications with the Police Air Wing to the ground uses these channels. The National Police Helicopter Frequency of 131.6000MHz is used by the relevant Airports Tower and Air Traffic Control to communicate with the helicopter. Only the Police Communications Vans have access to ICOM Pilot Radios (Aviation Band 115-136.000MHz)

These are the same radios issued to all Victorian Government Departments in 1995/6 by the State Department Of Finance

Like the CFA, MFESB, Metrol, and Government the police radios operate in CONVENTIONAL (like an normal two-way radio) and TRUNKING mode where the radios have a DTMF* keypad and the Victorian SMR frequencies pre-programmed, and can dial up other radios, or be used just like a mobile phone, allowing a three-minute duration connection to the normal telephone network. The Philips series of radios are not trunking capable.

The Victoria Police also use 27MHz CB and UHF CB, mostly in Regional Victoria, and I don’t believe they use or monitor it much these days-though I know it would be monitored in Regional Victoria in some cases, no doubt to bust speedsters and the 2003 January fires. The clue to this is that living in Melbourne & being a traveller, I notice that Melbourne Patrol Cars have only their UHF and VHF antennas, except the 4wds, which have a Victoria Police HF antenna usually, and rural cars etc that have UHF, VHF, HF (different radio), CBs, Scanners and more!

The Radio’s That Victoria Police Use Are:

The Philips FM 900 Series Radio, also issued with remote head.

Motorola MCX 1000

Motorola MCS 2000 II/III “Syntrx Pro” Base & Mobiles- Trunking Capable

Motorola “Saber” III portable. (Part Of Current Issued H/H)

Motorola “ASTRO III” Digitally Encrypted Portable Radios-Police Special Issue EPROM Radio

Important Fact:

All State Government Departments will generally use the same radios as the State’s Department Of Finance draws up a purcahse contract with, say Motorola, to supply many thousands of radios to various Emergency Services and other State Departments, like NRE, Sheriff’s Office etc as it much cheaper for the government to buy more of the same radio and then just have the different opearting data programmed.

This has occurred twice in Victoria. The first was the issue to most Victorian Governmnet agencies of the Philips FM Series Radios

The second was in the late 1990s Intergraph came on-line nearly every Victorian Government agency was given new Motorola MCS & MTS Models. These are the current radios in use. Some departments still retain and use some Philips Radios

These arrangements with manufacturers are used across Australia by State and Federal Government and private business alike to save money.

Related Pages On My Site:

*DTMF Page

*SMR Pages

A VicNews The Victorian Scanning News Publication

ISSN 1038-6971 ©2003 Ashley Geelan

Send corrections, updates and other scanner information to ageelan@bigpond.com

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All information correct as at: Thursday, January 30, 2003

vkcradios1.htm-Current Police Radio Eqipment