Emergency Services





	TETRA Etcetera



	Listening to the Plod

		The seemingly bad news for anyone who has just joined the hobby is that the Police forces of England Scotland and Wales have upgraded their radios to a more up to date digital system called TETRA. Apart from being a digital system, it also uses some very advanced layers of security. Even the data channel which controls the voice channels is encrypted. There is very little chance that there will be anything which is able to log on to and receive police TETRA transmissions.

		This shouldn't have come as a big surprise to anyone, it's been known in the radio industry from the early eighties that a digital system was going to be eventually implemented.

		In fact, it would be more truthful to say that the Police moved to a secure digital medium about ten years ago. When all officers were issued with a personal cellphone, a lot of the more sensitive traffic was no longer passed over the analogue radio system. In fact it could almost be claimed that the PR system was used for little more than cuing up mobile phone calls since the mid nineties.

		At present, the ambulance trusts and fire and rescue services are generally using conventional analogue comms but there is a move afoot to migrate to TETRA . Ambulance trusts and Firelink who are the procuring body for nationwide fire services have awarded to contract to O2 Airwave after considering other tenders. At present, the contracts are only for England but Scotland and Wales are likely to follow.

		The good news is that despite this, there are more and more radio users than there ever were before and still an enormous variety in what you hear. There were those who think that the show is all over now, and there are those who have just got busy.



		What is TETRA? It stands for Terrestrial Trunked Radio. Trunked radio has been around for a few years now but TETRA is all digital from beginning to end. It's a lot more like the mobile phone network than the radio systems of old. It is important to note that there are different types of TETRA. Dolphin was a nationwide system which was quite widespread at one time but the system ran into difficulties and the network was switched off. Essentially, this system was very useful but it was badly managed and maintained. Dolphin went to the point of insolvency, and was bought out by another consortium but too late to undo the lack of development which had ensued during the previous years.

		TETRA is a suite of standards defined by ETSI `(European Telecommunications Standards Institute)`with the focus being on interoperability. The TETRA Association is the body behind bringing this standard into existence.




		The TETRA system is available to a wide number of public safety bodies, not just the Police.


		`LIST OF SHARER ORGANISATIONS PERMITTED TO APPLY TO AIRWAVE 02 LTD TO TAKE UP SERVICE OF THE AIRWAVE NETWORK`

		`(Updated March 2005)`

		`Adjutant General's Corps - Provost Branch`
		`Air Ambulance`
		`Air and Land Search and Rescue Organisations`
		`Airport Fire Brigade`
		`Allied Forces based in or transiting the UK and, while in the UK, performing identical functions to those others on the list of sharers`
		`Ambulance services of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland`
		`Armaments Transport operations`
		`Armed Forces Bomb Disposal teams`
		`Army Ambulance`
		`Army Air Corps Air Traffic Controllers and Air Station Operations`
		`Army Fire`

		`Army regional Brigades:`
		`51 (Highland) Brigade 42 (North West) Brigade 143 (West Mercia) Brigade 43 (Wessex) Brigade 145 (Home Counties) Brigade 52 (Lowland) Brigade 15 (North East) Brigade 160 (Wales) Brigade 49 (East) Brigade 2 (South East) Brigade HQ Northern Ireland HQ London 2 Signal Brigade`

		`Atomic Weapons Establishment`
		`British Transport Police`
		`Borough Parks Police`
		`CCTV control rooms (where there is a need to have CCTV information fed through directly to blue light emergency services users)`
		`Coastguard Service`
		`Defence Fire Service`
		`Donor organ and transplant team transport`
		`Central Scotland Major Incident Control Committee`
		`Customs & Excise Enforcement Branch and National Investigation Service`
		`Electricity Industry (1) Operational Emergency Team`
		`Environment Agency Enforcement Officers`
		`Environment Agency Environmental Crime Unit`
		`Environment Agency Flood Defence Engineers`
		`Environment Agency Flood Defence Officers`
		`Environment Agency Navigation Officers`
		`Fire Brigades of England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland`
		`Firing Range Security`
		`Fraud Investigation Section of Department of Social Security`
		`Government or Local Authority funded and managed Uniformed Street Wardens`
		`Heathrow Express Operating Company Ltd Emergency Incident Group`
		`Highways Agency Integrated Incident Management Personnel`
		`Highlands Council Roads Maintenance Personnel`
		`Home Office Fire & Emergency Planning fire appliances and assigned personnel`
		`Home Office Immigration Service Intelligence & Investigation Unit`
		`Immediate Care Schemes (e.g. BASICS)`
		`Inland Revenue Special Compliance Office`
		`Intelligence Corps`
		`Joint Service Liaison (Emergency)`
		`Local Authority Emergency Planning Departments`
		`London Underground Ltd Emergency Incidents Group`
		`MOD Guard Service`
		`MOD Police`
		`MOULD replacement`
		`Control Rooms in Naval Establishments`
		`Navy Ambulance`
		`Navy Fire`
		`Navy Police`
		`NHS Community Trust Staff`
		`NHS Hospital Trust Staff`
		`NHS Primary Care Groups and Primary Care Trusts`
		`Nuclear Accident Response Organisation (NARO)`
		`Nuclear Industry [2] Emergency Response Teams`
		`On-site Fire Services (Magnox and BNFL sites)`
		`Patient Transport Services`
		`Police forces of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland`
		`Ports Police`
		`Post Office Security and Investigation Service`
		`Prison Service`
		`Private Ambulance Services`
		`Private Prisoner Transport`
		`Privatised Police Patrols (including stadia and complexes)`
		`RAF Ambulance`
		`RAF Air Traffic Controllers and Air Station Operations and Security`
		`RAF St Athan`
		`RAF Aldergrove`
		`RAF Cottesmore`
		`RAF Crash Response Organisation`
		`RAF Fire`
		`RAF Leuchars`
		`RAF Linton`
		`RAF Lyneham`
		`RAF Nuclear Accident Response Organisation`
		`RAF Odiham`
		`RAF Police`
		`RAF Provost & Security Service`
		`RAF Regiment`
		`RAF Search and Rescue`
		`RAF Shawbury`
		`RAF Uxbridge`
		`RN Air Stations: Prestwick, Culdrose and Yeovil`
		`RN Naval Operations and Security`
		`RNLI`
		`Royal Marines`
		`Royal Marines Police`
		`Royal Military Police`
		`Royal Parks Constabulary`
		`RSPCA Inspectors`
		`RSPCA Animal Collection Officers`
		`Special Forces`
		`UK activities of the Tactical Communications Wing`
		`Traffic Wardens`
		`Transco Gas Emergency Services Personnel`
		`UK Immigration Service - Ports and Enforcement Directorate`
		`UKAEA Constabulary`
		`Volunteer First Responders`
		`Waterway, Tunnel and Airport Police`
		`Water Industry [3] Event Response Team Personnel`

		`[1] ELECTRICITY INDUSTRY CE Electric UK Funding Company Central Networks East plc Central Networks West plc EdF Energy networks Ltd National Grid Transco plc Scottish Power UK plc SSE Power Distribution Ltd United Utilities Electricity plc Western Power Distribution (South West) plc BNLF Magnox plc British Energy plc British Nuclear Group plc RWE nPower`

		`[2] NUCLEAR INDUSTRY British Energy Generation Ltd British Energy Generation (UK) Ltd BNFL BNFL Magnox Generation`

		[3] WATER INDUSTRY Anglian Water Services Ltd Bournemouth & West Hants Water plc Bristol Water plc Welsh Water Cambridge Water plc Northumbrian Water Ltd Dee Valley Water plc Essex & Suffolk Water plc Folkestone & Dover Water Ltd Hartlepool Water plc Mid Kent Water plc North West Water Ltd Portsmouth Water plc Severn Trent Water Systems Ltd South East Water plc South Staffordshire Water plc South West Water Services Ltd Southern Water Services Ltd Sutton & East Surrey Water plc Tendring Hundred Water Services Ltd Thames Water Utilities Ltd Three Valleys Water plc Wessex Water Services Ltd Yorkshire Water Services Ltd Scottish Water

TETRA Etcetera

Listening to the Plod