Hello and Welcome Back... Bank 2 of my radios is probably the most used bank on my scanner and where alot of my time is spent.
The NSW Government is spending millions on this network, upgrading and extending the network with new bases popping up all over the land.
For some people, this is all they listen to, ether using scanners or SDR (Software Defined Radio) computer setups, there's always something to listen to on the GRN
The GRN or Government Radio Network is a trunked radio network of around 30 users ranging from Ambulance, Fire & Rescue (Fire Brigade), SES, Rural Fire, State Rail, ect, ect..
For a full layout of users that use the NSW GRN, go to this wicked website...https://www.nswgrn.com/
This site also has a comprehensive list of TGID's (Talk Group I.Ds). These talk group ID's is how you identify the user on GRN.
Once you have your tower frequencies programmed in and you press 'scan' (making sure the 'ID Search' function is turned 'on' on your radio) you will get a TGID show on your radio screen that will look like this.. 10301 (this identify's the user transmitting on the network, its not a frequency)
If programmed correctly, your scanner will identify that TGID 10301 belongs to 'NSW Ambulance - State Operations / MRU' which is basically the Helicopter rescue channel..
In setting up your scanner, you would select the 'P25 Trunk' setting when setting up your bank in you scanner.. This is the setting i have in my 436PT (see below)
On my 396XT scanner, i use 'P25 Standard - Digital XT' setting with 'ID Search' ticked (see below)
Once that's done, it time to look for a GRN Tower in your area for frequencies...For that, i use the ACMA Locator Map - https://web.acma.gov.au/rrl/site_proximity.main_page
Here you will find radio allocations in an updated environment in the form of a blue dot, click on a blue dot on the map to reveal the frequencies allocated to that site / tower.
I live in Springwood, Blue Mountains, so the closest GRN Tower at the moment in Glenbrook (Springwood (water-tower) has frequencies assigned but not transmitting just yet).
So clicking on various blue dots on the map in Glenbrook brings me to site '53794' and the user we are looking for is 'NSW Government Telecommunications Authority'..
There are 2 types of frequencies, 'T' (Transmit) & 'R' (Receive)...
The one you want is the 'T' frequency... Grab a notebook and pencil and write down all the 'T' frequencies under the tower closes to the user name above.. (see pic below)
The main frequency range for GRN is 410mhz - 425mhz (roughly) any frequencies around the 145mhz range, don't put them in because they are paging frequencies and are not needed..
Once finished getting your tower frequencies, i enter 'all' the frequencies for that tower... Some people like to just put the 'Control' channel in and leave it like that but what happens if there is a frequency change?.. Razorback in Sydney's South West is notorious for this, it has a habit of changing around control channels..
What is a Control Channel i hear you ask?
On the GRN Tower, there is a set of frequencies (as mentioned above) that includes data channels.. There may be 15 set frequencies, 13 Voice channels and 2 control or data channels. The data channels/frequencies are what you want. This is what the scanner looks for, decodes then displays the user and message. From time to time, a voice channel can change to a data channel and vice-versa which is why, i like to put all the 'T' Transmit frequencies into the bank, so if it changes, your radio just switches to the new data channel and continues like nothing happened...
After finding towers in your area, your setup should look like this.. (see below)
If you look at the pic above, next to the Base (tower) sites on the left is 'Departments', this is where all your 'TGID's' go and should look like the pic below..
And then there's more..
Another bank in our layout is the 'UNIT ID's (next to sites) in the pic above..
These little bits of information are like 'TGID's only more informative..
While TGID '10301' will show on your scanner as 'NSW Ambulance - State Operations / MRU' (Helicopter Channel),... having 'UNIT ID's can tell you if that user is Helicopter 'Rescue 201' or 'Careflight 4'
How do you get UNIT ID's?
I got my list from a Facebook user who has collated a heap of UNIT IDs, but if you want to do it yourself, using a SDR gives you a better readout of users..and you will need a looooot of time
This is what RADIO ID's look like once set up...(see pic below)
To get RADIO IDs to show, while scanning the GRN, press the Hold or Chan Mod button, press the function button (top side button) and then press '9DISP' (Disp = Display) and 'Unit ID Display' 'ON' should show..
A list of RADIO ID's for NSW is here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q44LY9IgoXlS4utE3s-DCVo365GAxbi0/view?usp=sharing
Thank you for the person who put this huge list together... its mind numbing, as this would have taken many hours, weeks, months of listening and writing down..(Opens in Excel)
(Hint - keep your RADIO ID description short when putting into databank as the radio id only shows on a small part of the radio screen..
Another part of this puzzle, is the 'Band Plan'.. Most of the time, this happens automatically and no need to worry about it, but sometimes this doesn't work..
The Pic below is the 436PT / 536PT / SDS100 / 200 version
While the pic below is for the 396T / 396XT / 325-P2
If you find all this very time consuming, you would be correct...
It took me close to 6 months to work out various stages of set-up and i offer my work to program your radio with everything you can think of, including the GRN...
TO PROGRAM YOUR RADIO IN FULL = https://scanradionsw.blogspot.com/2020/09/programming-for-ubcd436pt-ubcd536pt-now.html
And this ends our lesson...
PIC - Central Coast (the 3 top antenna's are GRN)
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