New Zealand Public Safety
-----------------------------------------------
First - please see The Pacific Rim Monitor Website for radio info about New Zealand and nearby nations (primarily HF freqs).
Also see -
KiwiScanner Website - signalling info, etc
-------------------
NZSCANNERS@www.egroups.com or NZSCANNERS@www.smartgroups.com has 147 users - December 2000 - no archives for this list which was created 09Sept00 at smartgroups.com - possibly was called Kiwiscannerhomepage@onelist.com earlier
www.smartgroups.com/group/group.cfm?GID=268114 is reportedly the homepage for the scanner list (01June01)
-------------------
Kiwi Scanner Home Page - (dead Oct 2000 - see above) - has photos of Auckland ambos under "Auckland" - look under FD Callsigns for a list of many fire stations in Regions 2, 4, and 6. (Auckland FD portables - Ch 1 - 143.825 - Ch 2 - 143.7875 - Ch 3 - 140.925 - Ch 4 - 140.6125)
Try www.geocities.com/wastedagain2000/main.html for NZ scanner info (01June01)
===============================================
New Zealand has 3.6 million people living in a ~100,000 square mile/269,000 square kilometer area. 80% of the people live in cities. The island is mostly mountainous with a temperate climate. The local government structure is changing from 93 counties/9 districts/3 town districts to 16 regions/57 districts/16 cities.
-----------------------------------------------
111 is the 911/emergency service telephone number for cell phones and landline telephones. All 111 calls are initially answered by the Telecomm Operator Centers at Auckland and Palmerston North. From there the calls are forwarded to the 3 fire/police dispatch centers that cover the entire country. For more detailed info please go to here - then click on northcomm/ and then look at 111 or 111 guide or radio (there is training material for dispatchers on this site also).
-----------------------------------------------
During the Summer of 1999, the Fire Services are moving from AM mobile radios at 100Mhz to FM mobile radios at 76Mhz. They are not going to trunking, 800 Mhz, nor digital radios. The 100Mhz system used to be set up the same way as the 76Mhz system is set up - multiple repeaters on different channels linked fulltime by microwave and/or UHF channels in chains. Apparently their portable radios will operate at 140Mhz in the simplex mode. I dont know if they will be able to contact the dispatchers with their portable radios.
Here is a link that gives you lots of info from the NZ Fire Service newsletter concerning their new radios - Look for the Article About "?Mobile Radios"
--------------------
New Zealand Fire Radio Systems - radio systems are being moved from 106 Mhz AM to 75 Mhz FM - �Details/Freqs of New Fire Radio Systems�- 1999�
===============================================
Police Operations - Regular police patrol officers in NZ do not carry pistols on a routine basis. (Over in Australia, most police patrol officers do carry pistols.) However, a large percentage of NZ police patrol cars do have pistols in the glovebox (this is not widely known by the public). In addition, all Sergeants have gun lockers in the boot/trunk of their cars to hand out pistols if required at an incident.
For more serious police incidents, the Armed Offender Squads (AOS) are used. These AOS are similar to the SWAT units found in the USA. For anti-terrorism work there are Special Tactics Units which all utilize Nissan Patrol 4X4s. Diplomatic Protection Squads, which are all reportedly armed, are utilized to protect VIPs. All of the special police units use a combination of clear and DES encrypted radio communications.
Per a post on a news group - some NZ PDs are implementing TETRA radios which is similar to GSM (a digital (encrypted) protocol)
===============================================
--------------------
Thorndon Fire Station in Wellington
?Auckland FD - 7/99 info - 4 firefighters (3 ff + ?1 lead ff) per pumper - city seeks to reduce to 3 firefighters (?1 lead ff + ?2 ff) per pumper - aerial rigs ?= 1 scope with 4 men + 1 snorkel with 2 men + ?1 aerial with 4 men (I need to find my note on this)
----------------
If you want more NZ fire websites, just go to http://www.fire-ems.net and look under 7,000 FDs then under International FDs.
-----------------------------------------------
October 2000 Update
The� following UHF� freqs are used in the Auckland region by the Fire Police units who provide security and direct traffic at emergency scenes.
455.1375 Fire Police & Fireground UHF Simplex CH#1 455.0625� Fire Police UHF Simplex CH#6 457.4000� UHF Fire Repeater CH#2 (linked to ESA band VHF) 457.29375 UHF Fire Police Repeater CH#3 457.44375� UHF Fire Police Repeater CH#4 (primary) 457.45625� UHF Fire Police Repeater CH#5
-----------------------------------------------
In my archives somewhere I have a diagram showing the repeater link system for the FDs back when they were at 100Mhz. I also have a premier edition of a Fire magazine from New Zealand. (03Dec00)
-----------------------------------------------
File created by Peter Szerlag - 6/22/99
Lastly Updatus - 7/20/99 - 8/19/99 - 12/27/99 - 08Oct00 - UHF Repeaters - 03Dec00 - NZSCANNERS - 100Mhz diagram for FD repeaters mentioned - 01June01 - more scanner sites listed