Look Back - Tasmanian 000 Services Frequency Guide

Many thanks to "JR" - SK for the original file and permission to update this back in 2016.

Please note - This is posted for historic purposes only, the 000 services are now all on the TASGRN P25 Phase 2 network and most are 100% encrypted.

Tasmania Fire Service

The Tasmania Fire Service is unique in Australia, in that the 'rural' and 'urban' brigades are the one entity, the Tasmanian Fire Service. As such there is no division between those brigades in the metropolitan and country areas. All brigades use the same VHF radio system. Volunteer personnel form the bulk of fire fighting brigades in the country, and volunteers support the regular fire fighters in the metropolitan areas. The only 'retained' fire fighter stations are Hobart, Launceston, Devonport and Burnie.

In the past the TFS channels have sometimes used for special events, such as Targa Tasmania, although this does not seem to happen anymore. As more people have and use UHF CB’s, the TFS has developed a policy in which at a fire UHF CB channel 12 will be used as a fire ground chat channel between TFS vehicles also for landholders to get help and communicate, UHF CB channel 13 may be used for specific communications in emergency's also, where the TFS radios on VHF may not be helpful, e.g. a landholder stuck and wanting specific advice or similar.

Frequency Channel Numbers Area covered or use

76.0375 F35 Major Incident 5 - simplex

76.4875 F34 Major Incident 4 - simplex

77.0000 F33 Major Incident 3 – simplex

77.5875 F37 Major Incident Repeater2

77.7500 F36 Major Incident Repeater1

78.0375 F38 Portable Repeater

78.0625 F9 & F30 Devonport & Hobart secondary

78.3375 Nil allocated Tasman Peninsula area

78.5250 F11 & F24 Northern Midlands & far North East region

78.5625 F5, F18 & F25 Mersey Valley, Flinders Island & Southern Midlands

78.6500 F16 & F23 Tamar Valley / North-east & South-East Region

78.6875 Nil allocated Mole Creek / Deloraine area

78.8875 F1 & F20 North West region & South-East region & training

79.0375 F8, F19 & F29 Burnie, Launceston & Hobart (Main urban frequency)

79.1375 T3 Dover area

79.5000 Nil allocated Bothwell area

79.5625 F2, F10 & F28 King Island, Northern region & South-East region

79.6000 F6, F14 & F26 West Coast, Esk Valley, Midlands & South-East region

79.6125 F7, F15 & F27 West Coast, Esk Valley / East coast & far Southern

79.6500 F4, F13 & F21 Far North-West region, Far North-East & Southern East

79.6625 F3, F12 & F22 North West, North East, East Coast and Flinders Island

79.8375 F32 Major Incident 2 - simplex

79.9375 F31 Major Incident 1 – simplex

(All the above channels are repeaterised (except where noted as simplex), but operators can select low power simplex for car to car operations, base will not hear these simplex operations)

The TFS also has other channels programmed into their radios that operate on the Forestry and other timber producing companies and State Emergency Service frequencies.

In particular instances Ambulance, heavy industry, councils and a few miscellaneous channels are programmed in to some radios should the need arise to liaise with other services.

Other frequencies:

The TFS have in recent years installed “on truck” repeaters in the 400MHz UHF band, these are used to allow crews to talk to each other and back to the truck which then links in to the main VHF channels as above. These frequencies are well worth having programmed in.

411.18750 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

411.61250 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

412.36250 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

415.46250 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

415.47500 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

415.48750 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

415.51250 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

415.53750 TFS UHF SIMPLEX

Call signs:

The base is always referred to as 'FireComm', and has its radio room centralised in Hobart.

Units are initially referred to by their originating station name, and a two digit number which indicates their type:

1-1.0 Sedans / station wagons

1.1-2.0 Urban heavy pumper, 4 person cabin. (In main city stations)

2.1-3.0 Urban medium pumper, 4 person cabin

3.1-4.0 4WD heavy tanker, (some new 3.xP are now active with a 4 person cabin)

4.1-5.0 4WD medium tanker

5.1-6.0 4WD light tanker

6.1-7.0 Metropolitan appliances - Simon Snorkel & Teleboom

7.1-8.0 4WD dual cab utility

8.1-9.0 Rescue, HazMat & miscellaneous

9.1-9.9 SES Rescue vehicles

Division Vehicles:

Vehicles attached to commission divisions, that fit the above descriptions will also be numbered according to this system. Vehicles at the training division then become “training 2-1” and “training 2-2”

Personnel:

Commission officers, and senior brigade personnel, both career and volunteer, are referred to as their own personal call sign this is because they sometimes shift between vehicles at large vegetation fires, or may be using a portable radio. Examples of these are below:

Position Call sign example

Chief Officer Commission 1

State manager, Engineering Services Engineering Services 1

State manager, Communications Division Communications 1

Regional Officer (e.g. South) Southern 1

Group Officer (e.g. Derwent) Derwent 1

Brigade Chief (e.g. Hobart) Hobart 1

Second Officer (e.g. Kingston) Kingston 2

District Officer, (e.g. Hobart Operations) Hobart 2

District Officer, (e.g. East Coast) East Coast 1

Base station Call sign example

State-wide Dispatch Office Firecom

Regional Control Room (e.g. North) Northern Base

Group Headquarters (e.g. Derwent) Derwent Group

Brigade Station, (e.g. Glenorchy) Glenorchy Station

Aircraft:

Air Services Australia have allocated standard call signs for use by aircraft operated by authorities, for fire fighting purposes. The first prefix “7” identifies the Tasmanian based aircraft. The second allocates the type, and the third is the typical “issue number”

Aircraft Call sign example

General fire support aircraft Firebird 701, 702 etc.

General fire support aircraft (crew insertion) Helitack 711, 712 etc.

Fire bombing aircraft (Fixed and rotary) Bomber 721, 722 etc.

Co-ordination of fire bombing aircraft Birddog 741, 742 etc.

Intelligence (Fire) gathering aircraft Fire spotter 751, 752 etc.

Remote sensing fire operations aircraft Fire scan 761, 762 etc.

Pro-Words

The Tasmania Fire Service uses a formal style of communicating, but it is good to note that all pro-words used by the fire service are not “implied” as such, and are understandable to the layman. The only pro-words worth knowing are the vehicle movements. These are:

Pro Word Meaning

Mobile/Responding en route to an incident

Arrived - Establishing * control First vehicle on scene ( * = nearest landmark or street)

Arrived Second, third etc. appliance arrived on scene

Closing Down Closing down the incident control

In service Vehicle in service, able to respond to other incidents

Returning Returning to their respective station

Stationed In service, and stationed at their respective station

Other call signs:

F.I - followed by a number: Fire Investigations

CommTech - Communications technicians

Portable followed by a number - Handheld radio which originates from an appliance of the same number i.e. Launceston 1.1 & portable 1.1 are the same crew.

Code orange/3 - Normal road conditions

Code red/1 - Lights and sirens.

Upon arrival to the fire scene, the senior officer will assume the call sign of the street name or locality appended with ‘control’; for example "Brisbane Street control" or "Kmart control" or “Queechy high school control”

All messages are passed without codes in plain English, and are quite descriptive which makes listening to the fire service easy.

Tasmanian Ambulance Service

The Tasmanian Ambulance Service (TAS) is the government run ambulance service covering all of Tasmania. The frequencies below are 'repeaterised', except where noted. In areas where the network does not reach, such as the west coast and far north east and far north west, the ambulance will share the local fire service frequencies, only using different CTCSS tones.

77.1250 Car to car simplex state wide. (Not logged in a few years)

Southern Tasmania

77.2375 Hobart city simplex

78.2500 Mt Wedge

78.4125 Mt Rumney (Hobart area)

78.9125 Mt Faulkner (Hobart & southern Tasmania)

78.9250 Herringback (Huonville & surrounding areas)

78.8625 Mt Koonya (Tasman Peninsula area)

78.8500 Bradys Sugarloaf (southern central plateau)

79.0875 Mt Hobbs (southern Tasmania)

Northern Tasmania

78.7750 Millers Bluff (Northern Midlands)

78.6250 Mt Barrow (Launceston & North East Tasmania)

78.7000 Mt Dismal (Tamar valley & Launceston)

79.0625 West Launceston (shared with Fire Service)

78.8250 Dazzler Range (central north Tasmania)

78.4875 Flinders Island

North West Tasmania

78.3750 Kelcy Tier (Devonport)

78.2500 Sullocks Hill (Penguin / Ulverstone)

78.5125 Montumana (Rocky Cape area)

78.9125 Companion Hill (Hampshire area)

79.3125 Round Hill (Burnie)

79.3500 Mt Claude (Kentish area)

Other frequencies:

The Tasmanian Ambulance Service have in recent years installed “on truck” repeaters in the 400MHz UHF band, these are used to allow crews to talk to each other and back to the truck which then links in to the main VHF channels as above.

410.98750 AMBULANCE UHF SIMPLEX

411.31250 AMBULANCE UHF SIMPLEX

411.76250 AMBULANCE UHF SIMPLEX

413.70000 AMBULANCE UHF SIMPLEX

The ambulance service also has access to the fire service, council and miscellaneous other channels.

Call signs:

The base is always referred to as 'T.A.S.' and has its radio room centralised in Hobart.

Vehicles are identified by a three digit number, with the first digit indicating the type of vehicle:

100-399 - Administration vehicles

400-499 - Patient transport vans

500-599 - Supervisors station wagons, carrying medical supplies, but unable to do transports

600-699 - Rescue units

700-799 - 'Regular' ambulances

800-899 - 'Light' ambulances

900-999 - 4WD ambulances

MedEvac 1 - Air Ambulance

Codes used:

A & E - (Sounds like A.N.E) Accident and Emergency at the Hospital.

D.E.M - Department Of Emergency Medicine. (Is replacing A&E above)

QV - Queen Victoria Maternity Unit - Used for the arrival of newborns.

TNR -Transport Not Required.

A / Alpha - Serious condition; life threatening. (Old CAT 1)

B / Bravo - Serious condition; not life threatening. (Old CAT 2)

C / Charlie - Patient dying unlikely to live.

D / Delta - Not urgent or low Priority. (Old CAT 3)

E / Echo - Patient deceased. (Old CAT 5)

Alert 41 – Police required

DOA – Dead On Arrival

PFO – Patient Fell Over.

The TAS radio system is probably the least interesting to listen to, since much of the communication about jobs is done before the ambulance leaves the station, and selcalls are used to indicate the status of the ambulance: proceeding to job; arriving at job; leaving job for hospital; and lastly clear of hospital & clear to take new jobs. There are other codes, but the above codes give you the general idea.

St John Ambulance

Existing VHF allocation:

76.9125 St John ambulance allocation simplex

This new network is presently being installed across the state; however it is not yet operational. It appears to be designed to support the SJAs operations at major public events (shows, sporting events etc.) The frequencies below are for reference only.

469.525

470.000

470.150

470.400

470.975

472.150

472.200

State Emergency Service (SES)

The SES is a volunteer based, Emergency Response agency, supported by a small number of permanent staff members located statewide. The SES utilizes the following channels in their Road Accident Rescue, Search and Rescue, Storm Damage and General Response roles.  

Frequency, Channel Area / use
78.7125 81-83 Grass Tree Hill, Snow Hill and Tyler’s Hill Repeater

77.675 84 Mt Maria & Bonneys Tier Repeater
79.7500 85 Mt Koonya Repeater
78.9375 86 Bradys Sugarloaf Repeater  (Planned Repeater)
77.5250 87,90,91 Mt Arthur, Table Cape and Mt Cleveland Repeater

79.2250       88       South Sister Repeater (Planned Repeater)
78.1375       89       Mt Horror (Planned Repeater)
78.7125       92       Mount Read (Planned Repeater)
77.5250       94       Simplex Operations
79.0250       96       Police SAR Repeater (Planned Portable Repeater)
78.4500       98       SES Portable Repeater
76.400       99       Disaster Liaison Channel (Simplex Operations)

 
The SES uses the standard VHF Tasmanian Emergency Services Radio Plan, Which gives access to TAS Fire, TAS Ambulance, Forestry Tasmania, Parks and Wildlife, Council and Private Forestry Company radio channels.
 
SES can be heard on TFS channels when attending Road Accident Rescue incidents (ie. "Unit Name 9.1" 9.2 9.3 etc" call signs) on Channel 98 or 99 during Search and Rescue Operations and on their local repeater or simplex channel during Storm Damage incidents and other SES activities. Some SES staff members also have access to the Police EDACS system (Police Call Groups, Romeo Call signs) for inter-agency communications if required.

But what about the Tasmania Police Service?

I have purposely omitted the Tasmania Police Service channels for a few very good reasons. The TAS Police use a sophisticated 800 MHz EDACS trunking radio network. At the best of times is very difficult to listen to and you will find that a considerable percentage of their communications uses "Provoice" digital encrypted transmissions.

The only active VHF frequency is:

79.0250 - Police Search & Rescue portable repeater

The Tasmania Police Service also have two VHF air band frequencies which get very little use however, they may be handy to have, just in case:

119.1000 For helicopter use

131.6000 For helicopter use

A final note:

Please don't use this information to go 'chasing ambulances'. The professionals of all emergency services have a job to do, and wouldn't appreciate you getting in the way with your scanner. Use your scanner sensibly, and stay well out of the way.