I worked for Airwave for 8 years during the rollout and testing. Had a lot of fun, quite a bit of airborne Air Ambulance air to ground testing, 75,000 miles in two years in a company Land Rover Defender and a memorable 47 hour straight working day when we had an issue once.
As a UK police officer, in my experience Airwave has for the most part been fairly adequate. On occasion the comms can be extremely poor however. Many of the cars in the service I'm in used to be fitted with "Gateway" mode using DMO rather than TMO, whereby the radio handsets an officer might use with a lower power output would relay to the TETRA network via a more powerful transmitter in the vehicle. This was useful in an underground car park if the vehicle was left outside on the street for instance, but had line of sight to the mobile handsets. Unfortunately they seem to have removed the "Gateway" button on the DIN panel in all of the cars over the last few years, and I wonder if the Gateway system is even still active, back during my training in 2016 (as a special constable) and then 2017 as a full time PC - we weren't even taught anything about Gateway mode, nor how to use it. Having been to numerous hospitals there have been plenty of near misses involving a lack of comms coverage in the hospitals, some parts of the hospital receive no coverage at all and others do. The part you read about the force being charged per second is true, when I joined as a probationer officers used to call each other for the sake of it, or to discuss trivial matters. It quickly came to light by supervisors who reminded us that each transmission costs money, whether that be a point to point call or a transmission across the whole talk group. As for the "Roger, so far" part - we recently had an officer transfer to us from a county force, he used this terminology a lot and none of us understood why he was doing it, until he explained it. He quickly stopped doing it as radio comms in the force I'm in are more casual. I've only ever had to press the "red button" once in my 7 years of service. It's laughably called the "Chicken button" by people I used to work with!
@@andrewbeadle9168 That I can mostly agree with. Recently went into an underground car park looking for a collapsed male - lost comms. As mentioned at hospitals it's notoriously bad, and i've had people make off from me and been unable to even transmit due to no coverage.
An interesting difference between commercial cellular and (this) TETRA implementation is the utilization of receiver diversity. The reason why three stacked (collinear) antennas are used in a 120 degree configuration is because it gives several dB “equivalent” of gain in urban areas where multipath is the main cause of signal degradation. In cellular, 120 degree sectors are used for capacity, and they use 3 highly directional panel antennas per sector, unlike here, where three omnidirectional antennas are used. Historically, transmit was done on a fourth centrally placed collinear omnidirectional antenna.
@@2ftg the different emergency services use slightly different models, but the manufacturers are Motorola and Sepura These models are in use. Motorola Mtp 3250 this is being phased out and is being replaced by mtp 6650 has also seen mpx600 in use. when it comes to sepura, I don't know much about the models. voluntary search and rescue organizations use mtp 3250
Lost radios are a huge problem and the procedures don't work. Initially (2007-2011) the Met alone thought they were losing about 200 a year until a bulk audit showed it was more like 350. More recently in 2022 the lost figure was 1,100 of which 742 turned up so a net 360 and we'll have to see whether another audit finds more gone.
I'm in the Met. A lot of "lost" radios aren't lost at all, simply buried away in a DS/DI's locker in their office, or someone on long term sickness or restriction and they haven't needed to use their radio for months or even years. I was recently restricted on light duties for a period of 6 months and used my radio no more than 10 times in those 6 months. I was frequently receiving emails about "low radio usage" and if I required the radio any longer. When I returned to response team recently I had more radio usage in one shift than in the entire 6 months of restriction. I remember the old MTH800 radios, they were decent enough but the batteries were appalling, you'd easily need 2 and sometimes 3 to last an entire shift. The newer Sepura radio batteries are MUCH better and last a lot longer, a battery only on 60% charge will easily last a normal 9 hour shift.
@@wes11bravo I think what he's talking about is the psychical theft/loss of the radio. Yes the radio certificate can be revoked, thus cutting it off from the network. But the stolen radio can be reprogrammed to work on another network. Loss/theft of the psychical radio itself is not as big of a deal as someone using that radio with it's security credentials to gain unauthorized access to the network.
@@thefiestaguy8831 Great comment. On Direct Mode (if the network goes down or you don't want the americans and russians earing the comms) the TX power will always be at maximum...and you need 5 to 10 batteries for one hard shift....🙈 TETRA has been always monitored by americans and russians (among others) that can ear all comms and most importantly the location of all units.....the perfect SIGINT operation..... Recently a civilian found lots of failures in the TETRA security, including the version for police/fireman/rescue..... Some were fixed, others are not able to be solved...
Every time a unit transmits, a unit ID is sent, even Baofeng has this feature. Everything is recorded and timestamped somewhere. There is a kill signal to disable stolen radios, along with other features.
@@redactedname5038 dtmf is not a radio I d like digital tetra is digital not analogue therefore very different im licensed and been using radios long time uv5r does not operate the same
@@shackwishprice6924 yep couldnt beat it but these days still plenty to hear with a digital scanner and dmr radio yes i know digital scanners are certainly not cheap mine was 350 pound! cheaper option so you can hear shopwatch etc retevis rt3 for less than 100 its a no brainer
A quick look at the society around me and i conclude that 'national security' was a concept eroded into non existence during the period 1945 to the end of the so called cold war. I enjoy your videos, thank you.
I was told reason cant be used whilst driving is that Airwave has a telephone capability unlike CB so inference is could be being used to make a call, however most do unless a vehicle set fitted. I have called a colleague in London from Hampshire
@@mikemcmikeface Yes it has duplex call functionality when routed through the dispatcher to the pstn. Airwave HTs are exempt from mobile phone law as the primary function is a ptt radio for the ems.
I use Airwaves as a paramedic. I didn't know a tenth of this information ha ha. I know that any lost or stolen radio can be "stunned" so that it fails to connect to any talk group, and this can be done remotely.
We were taught some of it in my trust. Dmo is super handy when your on the 10th floor of a high rise and your crew mate goes to grab the carry chair/ extra kit etc. Do you know about the issi number you can use to point to point your crew mates radio?
In Australia, any transmitter site can be found on the acma's site locator site, its really handy for finding the P25 Trunked NSW PSN Network sites and any site I want to find ^^
Hey! You anticipated the comments being full of claims of breaking nation security but instead, most comments are simply hollering about your new awesome logo!
We had mobile gateways in the Met. Maybe one or two cars on the borough which had two radios in them to use as a gateway. The instructions to set them up looked complex and I don’t know if any being used personally If there is an Airwave issue , Airwave have Mercedes Vito vans and Landrovers with radio kit and pump up masts on them to deploy to an area. There are photos about of the vehicles which have blue lights on them too. I can point you in the direction of them
Any bit of kit that has anything more complex than a "Set the knob to 'A' in this situation, 'B' in that" and so on, is doomed to failure at the hands of coppers or squaddies. What an engineer thinks is "straightforward setup" is often perplexing in the extreme to normal folks and terrifying to the "I lost one and broke the other" brigade.
@@ianmason. You are totally right. I'm a police/firemen/Red Cross/Civil Defense/Mil comms guru and even radio comms instructors call me in the phone to remember them of how they go from TMO to DMO or how to activate the Gateway function.....😂🙈 "Repeater mode" (on selected firmware enabled mobile radios) never used even once ...🙈....
@@ianmason. to be fair it was Sepura, Motorola and Cleartone that designed the interfaces not Airwave. There was a lot of conversation around the difficulties in using gateways and DMO in real life applications.
Ahhh tetra... Great in theory... a problem in practice. I've inherited ~150 radios from the tetra network that was shut down in my country a couple years ago (a couple other hams have the hoards of radios from their cities)... So many sites, so little coverage. DMR and P25 are taking over with good reason... They don't offer FDX calling... but as it turns out, that's less important than being able to actually communicate.
@@Porty1119 TETRA has a ridiculously short delay spread so it's intolerant of multipath. It can only tolerate 15 us vs 28 us for DMR, 48 us for P25 Phase II and 60 us for P25 Phase I. This was not a coincidence: P25's C4FM and LSM modulation was specifically designed for simulcast systems. Essentially, both modulations were designed to quickly change states and hold it.
@@straightpipediesel also tetra is not pure FM, it has an AM component. Especially so in the later qam implementation. This means linear amplifiers are required... End result much, much lower efficiency, so where a DMR HH will be 5w, tetra will be 2w. Where a DMR mobile will be 25-50w, tetra will be 10-20w. Also having an AM component, fading due to moving around will harm signal integrity.
The use of personal sets whilst driving isn't necessarily against the Road Traffic Act. Indeed some forces train officers to use these during pursuits.
As someone who works at Vodafone I find this information super interesting. I hope to progress my career into managing 1 of the key critical infrastructure accounts which we look after at my company.
Just like the 800 mhz systems in the US. When you turn on your Motorola APX radio. It is constantly sharing data with the repeater sites. To include what you are doing on the radio. When you key up the mic, your radio 4 digit code flashes across the dispatchers console along with every radio on that channel. They can even be GPS tracked if you are down or the radio gets lost. If the radio gets stolen, it can be "bricked" remotely the next time it is turned on and tries to shake hands with the system.
The Fire service doesn't use TETRA for on scene comms, only for vehicle to control. Firefighters at an incident either use Analogue or DMR UHF depending on the area.
I (think) I can break down that cover image to this video. Its not so secret because there is a big ass antenna sticking out, but in the US a building that size generally doesn't require a permit to build. Its not as secret as it is... budget friendly.
Can you do something like this for the US emergency services. They usually are unencrypted mobile vehicle and portable on oerson hand helds to a central repeater to the dispatch. Hovering around 155mhz and 46mhz. I know there was talk of them going to trunkated signals for years. Havent seen it in my area yet. There is some means of the units identifying themselves since it shows up on a scanner and can be filtered by that.
There are around 18,000 police agencies in the US. They all get to pick their own radio systems. In my city it's encrypted digital, and has been for years. We periodically manage to find encryption keys and mirror it on internet feeds for anybody to listen to, but after a few months they typically figure out it's happened and change the keys. As long as nothing is actually stolen to get the keys it's legal, as is listening to unencrypted transmissions on older systems that are still in wide use in some places. The newer systems tend to use higher frequencies, around 800MHz is common. The analog TV shutdown meant more frequencies for the cops, and those are almost always digital and encrypted.
Connecticut is pushing hard for everyone to get on their Connecticut Land Mobile Radio Network ("CLMRN") P25 trunked system. I haven't paid any attention in the past few months, but they have hit some bumps in the road with radio compatibility and coverage. Also, they don't provide encryption. But, users can use encrypted radios if they are system compatible. Some towns have jumped on the bandwagon. Others are going their own way.
Lewis, I can't believe you would risk national security like that!! 😂 It's funny to me when people want things to be secret but record it in public records. My favorite example is how (I think it was Massachusetts) mandated fire controls for elevators which theoretically should only be able to be used by firemen. However, in the same regulation, they specified the bitting for the keys. So now anyone who wants their own fire control key for elevators in MA can easily get one made.
At the current rate, ESN will be out of date when (if) it rolls out Use of handheld devices in vehicles is exempted in road traffic legislation for emergency use, and that includes civilians too. Some devices are covered in legislation simply by frequency, which used to rule out most mobile phones, but not things like ham radio, or tetra. Needless to say, legislation around technology is always far out of date, often badly drafted. The current legislation is based on any "interactive data" which can cover both ham radio and tetra, with the emergency exemption still in place.
Fascinating stuff and as thorough and well-researched as always. My Dad worked for the Home Office Directorate of Telecommunications (latterly DTeLS) and was heavily-involved in the planning, provision and improvement of the legacy VHF and UHF schemes used by Police, Fire and 'others'. There were a number of quite innovative solutions employed for getting the most out of the old analogue system which whilst clunky, did work well. It's a shame we can't listen in anymore but I think that's likely for the best these days...
Fantastic video, really enjoyed that. Thank you. As a sort of side note, if anyone is worried about the security angle of these transmitters and revealing their location, I can assure you that if you attempt to tamper with one of these sites you will get one hell of a surprise.
The sites are constantly transmiting, so they are perfect targets for ARM missiles.... But there is no need for missiles: Amwricans and russians monitored all TETRA comms from the beginning, so it was the perfect SIGINT operation. They could ear/record all comms and get the location of all units.... In the event of a war, they will block/ destroy all thr network remotly (remember attacks on Vodafone and others ? it is the same) and will blind all the Forces (Police, Firemen, Rescue, etc.). Direct Mode is not an option (super-short range, batteries draining very fast...) Never put all eggs in the same basket...that's what Airwave is.... You'll see....
I can guarantee 100% this is how things “should be done” as per home office guidelines. But it’s definitely not How things are done. For instance your line manager asking “do you have your radio, do you know where it is” every month they don’t actually check the radio. The pool radios definitely don’t get stored behind 2 locks, that’s not something that will be followed anywhere. I agree there’s some places that have them in locked cabinets but with the Motorola desktop charger being the most common kit for pool radios no one’s locking that huge thing in a cupboard. The network is ancient and flawed. It can’t cope with doing PABX and too many talk groups chatting at once. During events they tell you not to use point to point or PABX to reduce the stress on the network. Most handsets are old, battered and seen better days ( some look like a dog had been let loose with it) the batteries last 1 hour and officers have to keep several batteries in their stab proof vest to keep them warm. They definitely do not say “over” controllers usually say “control out” after a broadcast .
In Brussels, in a park, I accidentally filmed a building of a police unit. 2 police officers came up to me and I had to hand over my cellphone +pin code so they could delete the footage !!
It was due to be EOL a few years ago, but the 4g replacement service radios are still being developed, and (realistically) never going to be at a uaeable state to replace the tetra network. There are multiple forces that have stated the requirements for the replacement aren't nearly enough for what they need. Theres some info out due to FOI requests on this af anybody wants to investigate this further
The Olympic Park Radio Control Centre was located at Project Park, North Crescent, just off Cody Road Canning Town, all equipment including Tower have been removed after the Olympics
A number of years ago in my radio days I was picking up a repeater from a shop that handled radios for a lot of police agencies in my state. The owner (apparently not seeing me on the premises) was talking to police department about how he had set up a talk group for them on his commercial trunked system. I'm guessing they wanted to stay off the radar of their own system. I wonder if that occurs elsewhere.
@@Ayrshore Yes, there are a few agencies that lease time on commercial trunked systems. It's really a bad solution unless there's no viable alternative.
I think it's safe to assume that if it's possible to do it they will be doing it whatever they publicly claim. We've learned in recent years that police have secret operations that can go on for decades without them being revealed. To the point where undercover police will have babies with women under a false name then one day disappear never to be seen again.
On YT are some of the late 1970s /80s documentary "Scotland Yard" a couple of episodes covered the Flying Squad on a stakeouts - although filmed for TV there was a lot of radio traffic - which presumably was encrypted. At one point they were worried the gang had a scanner for picking up radio comms (was it encrypted then?) they also moaned at times "The Voda's arent working" which presumably was a Vodaphone network - mobile phone ?
At its introduction in Finland the personal TETRA radios of ambulance crews were shown to rarely but sometimes interfere with life sustaining medical systems. When the potentially affected and therefore obsoleted medical equipment was quickly replaced, no such problems have occurred. When TETRA replaced the old communications systems, it solved many incompatibility problems between the different emergency services. In addition to voice communications, it offered data services. The communications security of TETRA has been called into question in the preceding decades, and I think the closed source security model is deeply flawed.
Worst of all, if you think you are in a secure network (you are not), you speak "freelly" and then, the intercepting parties (americans and russians among others) will get all the intentions (and lications) instantly. The system can also be attacked by interlaced jamming (locally) or remote cibernetic attacks that can block all Police and Emergency comms (all eggs in the same basket) nationwide. Only ignorant or corrupt people would use the vulnerable TETRA for National Security comms. Even military personnel use TETRA radios...😂😂😂... how stupid is that....😂😂😂😂 (military guys using an equipament that cannot even perform radio silence in TMO...😂😂🙈). TETRA was the "solution" for old analog trunked networks, for truckers, delivery enterprises and so on....But as the system was too expensive and didn't work well (TETRA and other digital systems audio is just horrible, you cannot recognise the other guy's voice, along with poor coverage), the Enterprises use only GSM/UMTS/LTE..... So the Country governments were the perfect targets for the best SIGINT operation of all times....😂🙈, wasting millions in a trucker's network posing as a police/military one....🙈...
@@jplacido9999 I took a closer look at TETRA's security, and the situation is both worse and better than I expected. The cluster of known vulnerabilities in the standard is called TETRA:BURST. The authentication algorithm suite has multiple weaknesses, but some may be somewhat mitigated. The encryption method TEA1 (commercial grade) is is ridiculously easy to breach with consumer hardware and little time. Method TEA2 (used by e.g. European authorities) so far requires some sort of brute forcing, but I'd guess the attacker doesn't have to have nation state level resources if enough money and time is factored in.
@@jplacido9999 I took a closer look at TETRA's security, and the situation is both worse and better than I expected. The cluster of known vulnerabilities in the standard is called TETRA:BURST. The authentication algorithm suite has multiple weaknesses, but some may be somewhat mitigated. The encryption method TEA1 (commercial grade) is is ridiculously easy to breach with consumer hardware and little time. Method TEA2 (used by e.g. European authorities) so far requires some sort of brute forcing, but I'd guess the attacker doesn't have to have nation state level resources if enough money and time is factored in.
I was in the cops for 13 years and never used over or roger so far or active. Just call sign > division/force callsign. Then to close down "received". For longer messages received so far. For priority messages its was always call sign + urgent. Most of what you mention is MET terminology IMO. I also don't understand your comment about not using car sets whilst driving. Overall airwave is actually a very good system, it was introduced a few years after I started and its light years ahead of the old system.
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Like many of the DMR type handsets, the Supervisor/Inspector or whoever can remotely monitor the microphone of the handset, if they think there's any criminality going on (bent cop, etc).
But it can be activated for "security" reasons 😂😂😂. In contrast with ancient systems, TETRA can "switch" the radio to a purpose "group" and monitor without the knowlodge of the user (and no warrant). Lots of policen, firefighters and emergency workers monitored that way....
@@HarveyKnicks The original intention was that (and is fine👍), but soon enough they started to use it to spy on users. Some officers get distant from the radio before discussing personal things or complains about the job. I know of a President of an Institute of the State (I cannot identify) that someone tried to spy through the TETRA portable radio....but to no avail....he noticed something was wrong....and was carefull. I've even had to warn the Commander of a NATO highly critical facillity for the danger of having a TETRA fixed radio nearby at the Operations Room.....he almost died when I explained....😂🙈.... Countermeaseurs initiated immediatly....😊😊
I worked in a BTP control room, we had PC touch-screen radios, but used handhelds & mainsets when there was a failure, they didn't happen much luckily. I was a radio op (a dispatcher to our US friends) during the London Underground suicide attacks on 07/07/2005 (and again during the failed 21/07/2005 attack, and then all though the crime scene investigations). At that time, LU officers carried 2 radios, a Sepura Airwave and an underground leaky feeder radio (we called then "Channel 2 radios). Shortly after the incidents, Airwave provided vehicles at Russell Square and Liverpool Street/Aldgate, that ran cables down to the underground to give officers and SOCO Airwave capability (I guess they were mobile repeaters). We could "point to point" (PTP) officers direct using their radio numbers and officers to/from each other for private calls. They're pretty much like DMR radios available to us Hams.
In the 1990s I had a little handheld airband radio from the Index catalogue - that could pick up everything from the filth (Bath/Bristol). All encrypted now tho.
@@HarveyKnicks There was a joke in some cryptography circles that TEA2 was a code for the number of cups of tea that a decent cryptologist would have to drink while figuring out how to crack it. Systems crested out of multi-national agreements and that use proprietary encryptiion with unpublished algorithms are doomed to failure in the crypto department. Proprietary, unpublished cryptography means that it hasn't had the world's cryptographers trying to rip the guts out of it and failing or alternatively (openly) reporting weakness. As they saying goes "Anyone can create a code that they can't crack themselves" and proprietary unpublished encryption algorithms will never get the level of peer review necessary to have confidence in them. Multi-national agreements means that nations involved have (1) an interest in being able to intercept other nations traffic, so don't want too strong an encryption algorithm, (2) won't contribute their own best technology for exactly the same reason, and because it might provide valuable insights into how they protect their own secrets. Even if national cryptologic organisations like GCHQ review the alorithms used, they are not going to tip their hand by revealing that there is a weakness that if they report they also have to reveal information that they themselves regard as secret. GCHQ only revealed that they had independently invented public key cryptography as early as 1970 in 1997, 21 years after Diffie Hellman public key cryptography was openly published. It's a article of faith in cryptologic circles that cryptographic schemes that rely on anything other than the secrecy of keying material, such as secrecy of the algorithm itself, are insecure.
I've never heard a police controller say 'over' and only heard them say 'out' on talkgroup circulations. General use is a lot less disciplined than you suggest. In my area at least.
Interesting video far too much overuse of that one same clip with the courtesy tone beeping. The passion you have for radio communications in great. I’m almost a ham :)
Very interesting video Lewis. I do find the UK now seems to be the most Secretive Country in the Western World. It shows how sad those in charge really are. We have more CCTV per square mile than most places in the US. I could never really understand why the UK Authorities put a stop to Emergency Services monitoring. It was harmless fun. Some Police Officers I knew at the time they switched over, said they knew who the hobbyists were, and the criminal sort. They said that they found the hobbyists to be helpful in certain incidents, and said they couldn't understand the Authorities stance on making everything Secretive. Go to America and you can hear almost everything, from Police to Secret Service. They are more open over there. One Police Officer I spoke to said that our Governments must have a guilty conscience, and a lot to hide. In my role of Emergency Communications Operator with Civilian group I have worked with many Emergency Services personnel over the years.
My listening helped to arrest some criminals, who were caught red-handed, and also to save the life of a young passenger of a wrecked vehicle after a car crash. On both occasions, I was thanked for my assistance. I was checked only on the first occasion. That was when every transmission was unencrypted. That opportunity to assist is now lost to all police forces.
Not anymore in USA. Now they hide everything, except for routine comms avaible for the general public ir local news crews. Some small town Police forces use military grade encryption comms...😂😂😂😂
A lot of private and sensitive information and intelligence is broadcast over the air, it's entirely right that that information and those communications are protected. It would be no different to expecting to listen in to police phone calls.
We also use Tetra radios on the power grid. If the power goes out, most mobile masts will go out also. However tetra radios can be used in the event of a black start as the stations are fitted with backup generators
Well into the 1980s you could listen in to police radio on normal FM band on transistor or car radio. Though often you could only hear one side of conversations. Airwaves was going to be updated by now but everything has been delayed partly due to covid but typical Government Home Office bureaucrat behaviour seems a more plausible reason. They are now aiming for 2027 for new system switch on.
An explanation regarding a UK Tetra Handset (Government Issue) was never offered/given regarding it's removal from an Amesbury (Wiltshire) Property 2018. Evidence Bag provided 😉👍
@@RingwayManchester Flats 9/11 Muggleton Road, Amesbury, Wiltshire. Salisbury-Amesbury (Alleged) Novichok 2018. Seek and You will find images of "Tetra Handset" being removed from Property within a Sealed Evidence Bag. Now it's definitely not Russian. Best Wishes Sir.
On esn theres no wonder its rollout keeps being pushed back if its anything like the public ee 4g/5g is theres even some areas in my city with practically no signal on EE i think the huwaei ban has affected it as im sure it used to have better signal when they still had huwaei masts so either the alternatives to huwaei have much worse range or they just had to remove/turn off those masts and didnt replace them yet with new masts
Knutsford? The mental image of that is the Jolly Green Giant laying in a river, legs open with little vikings pulling their ship by a chain up and across him. Later on shore, wiping the sweat from their brow, one exclaims "We will raise our families 'ere, beside these nuts we had to ford."
That was excellent Lewis! Interesting re portable use in cars. In certain UK Police TV productions showing the Police going after stolen cars, you often see the officer using his vest mounted portable from inside the car. Hardly a great way to ensure a good signal into the network and keep the battery life good when out of the car. Cannot say I have seen an officer in that circumstance use a vehicle mounted radio. But yeah TV and all that.
For the Met in London during the 80s as least, pocket radios used by beat officers were on one higher frequency range and higher power car radios on a lower frequency range. There were few automatic repeaters between the two systems and messages would have to be repeated by an operator from CO. In a built up area it would be quite likely that they might use the PR (shoulder mounted Pocket radio) system to talk to all constables in an area They had multiple receivers covering and area and a central transmitter for that area. They usually had a battery eliminator for car use to save the battery. The user could request talk-through between high frequency / low frequency systems. G3ZPS does a nice talk about Police and emergency radio systems, also on YT
@@jagohazzzard Great info! Thanks for that! Our rural ambulance service uses an in vehicle cross band repeater. VHF trunked to base and UHF to portable radios in the field carried by personnel. Maintains portable coverage where the high power of the vehicle radio is required.
You forgot to mention that TETRA radios are run from one Airwave control centre for the UK...how traffic is routed, how the network is managed, how base stations are controlled and what goes on. Also how data is sent between sites and managed.
Fantastic level of information, and love the footage. That surprised me about the use whilst driving too. Could it be to do with high speed driving, or just general covering their backs? Now, if they had some kind of mesh network...
I had cause a few years back to have to use a radio on a home office site at Manston Kent, ive never seen in my life such obsession with "etiquette" lol ..used to go mental when id reply "yeah no worries brother!" and things like "i see the mush wandering about, what a prick" .. there is absolutely no need to have this "special etiquette speech" Used to go mad they did 😂 Sometimes if i was bored id announce fake wrong doings and watch everyone running about chasing fuk all😂
Thanks for this overview, very interesting! I have been told that the vehicle mobile sets act as a "Repeater" for rhe officer(s) assigned to that car. Given the low power handheld and presumably the higher power car sets, this would seem to be a sensible set up. As a Ham, I have been asked about this by friends who assume that I am an expert on all things radio! Looking forward to more about these "official" networks. 73 Jim M7BXT
I was police radio op for 35 years but recently retired, analogue was much easier to use but obviously not secure. Airwaves has many good points and generally was good for clearer transmissions etc.
There's absolutely nothing out there that isn't Hackable. Remember those Dodgy Satellite Cards you could buy at one time ? They would work for.......well it could be a few days or many months, eventually it would run out of Codes it had to Decrypt the Signals so you'd go buy another Card and off you go again. Some people made a fortune selling them (Ahem !)
Whatever happened to the guy who used to comment on every RM video about how he was "criming the radio fans"? Seems like this is the kind of video that would trigger him to lose his mind.
I remember the home Office launch of the Emergcy Services Network project. 'Cheaper, Better, Smarter' I also remember Motorola being investigated to the tune of £1.2b they were due to be paid by the tax payer until 2026...
- Introduction to Airwave, the UK’s emergency services radio network, - Discussion of how Airwave is used and its technical details. - 02:02 🏅 Special Airwave Network for London Olympics - Overview of the Apollo network used during London 2012 Olympics, - Creation of a unique communication infrastructure for the events.
- Typical setup and locations of Airwave transmitter sites, - How to identify and features of these transmitter sites. - 05:10 🔗 Interconnected Transmitter Sites
- Explanation of the layout and connections via microwave links, - Use of overlapping clusters to ensure wide coverage. - 06:08 🕹 Hierarchical Responsibilities within the Police
- Different levels of responsibility in maintaining Airwave network, - Detailed roles from head of communications to local terminal administrators. - 11:25 📞 Communication Etiquette on Airwave
- Guidelines for precise and accurate communications, - Protocol for using urgent, active, and routine messages. - 14:44 🔌 Direct Mode Operation (DMO) and Gateways - Description of DMO providing direct communication without infrastructure, - Limitations and effectiveness of DMO, plus use of gateways for extending coverage. - 16:29 🚇 Usage in London Underground - Use of Airwave in the London Underground, - Capacity limitations for concurrent conversations in subsurface stations. - 17:00 🚓 Coverage in Vehicles and Coverage Assurance
- Coverage issues within vehicles and legal considerations, - Alternatives for communication when network coverage fails. - 18:26💡 Network Resilience and Backup Systems
- Resilience measures for maintaining communications during failures, - Redundant systems ensuring network operation during faults.
I remember back in the 90s here in Staffordshire when I used to listen to the police, there was someone who would talk back to them and keep winding them up, this went on for quite a long time, I did have some recordings of it will have to dig them out, not sure if they ever got caught, I did ask my parents to keep a eye out in the local papers that they read daily but nothing ever got published about it. Whoever it was knew what they were doing as when they switched channels to avoid the idiot they would be there waiting for them and this was across multiple police stations, I remember they would say like switch to channel 21 and the person would be there as quick as they were.
They actually say "so far" heard it a lot when the local PCSO's are ordering their McDonalds. Obviously not monitored in our area anyway. Someone else said that East Sussex (KB) still have an analogue tx in Lewes - can't find posting anymore. There is no VHF aerial there anymore so not sure about that! By the way Lewes jail has a mobile phone blocker which extends some metres outside their walls. I am told some local properties get a free phone line to compensate. Apparently Wi-Fi is also "difficult" in the area!
17:02 Using a handheld two way radio while driving does NOT contravene road traffic legislation, the legislation states that it is prohibited to use any handheld interactive device other than a two way radio and then goes on to state that a two way radio is a device which operates on any frequency other than 880 MHz to 915 MHz, 925 MHz to 960 MHz, 1710 MHz to 1785 MHz, 1805 MHz to 1880 MHz, 1900 MHz to 1980 MHz or 2110 MHz to 2170 MHz.
@@RingwayManchester Police policy and legislation are not the same thing, its completely legal to use a handheld two way radio while driving, search for The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2003 There was an amendment in 2022 but that amendment did not remove the exemption for two way radio.
The authorities should be more concerned about knife wielding migrants over radio nerds but going after the real problem is taboo and doesn't get you the promotion.
Obscurity does not ensure security. There have been other talks published here including the hardware required and more but this is interesting before it is surpassed.
I can guarantee 100% this is how things “should be done” as per home office guidelines. But it’s definitely not How things are done. For instance your line manager asking “do you have your radio, do you know where it is” every month they don’t actually check the radio. The pool radios definitely don’t get stored behind 2 locks, that’s not something that will be followed anywhere. I agree there’s some places that have them in locked cabinets but with the Motorola desktop charger being the most common kit for pool radios no one’s locking that huge thing in a cupboard. The network is ancient and flawed. It can’t cope with doing PABX and too many talk groups chatting at once. During events they tell you not to use point to point or PABX to reduce the stress on the network. Most handsets are old, battered and seen better days ( some look like a dog had been let loose with it) the batteries last 1 hour and officers have to keep several batteries in their stab proof vest to keep them warm. They definitely do not say “over” controllers usually say “control out” after a broadcast .
I worked for Airwave for 8 years during the rollout and testing. Had a lot of fun, quite a bit of airborne Air Ambulance air to ground testing, 75,000 miles in two years in a company Land Rover Defender and a memorable 47 hour straight working day when we had an issue once.
As a UK police officer, in my experience Airwave has for the most part been fairly adequate. On occasion the comms can be extremely poor however. Many of the cars in the service I'm in used to be fitted with "Gateway" mode using DMO rather than TMO, whereby the radio handsets an officer might use with a lower power output would relay to the TETRA network via a more powerful transmitter in the vehicle. This was useful in an underground car park if the vehicle was left outside on the street for instance, but had line of sight to the mobile handsets. Unfortunately they seem to have removed the "Gateway" button on the DIN panel in all of the cars over the last few years, and I wonder if the Gateway system is even still active, back during my training in 2016 (as a special constable) and then 2017 as a full time PC - we weren't even taught anything about Gateway mode, nor how to use it.
Having been to numerous hospitals there have been plenty of near misses involving a lack of comms coverage in the hospitals, some parts of the hospital receive no coverage at all and others do.
The part you read about the force being charged per second is true, when I joined as a probationer officers used to call each other for the sake of it, or to discuss trivial matters. It quickly came to light by supervisors who reminded us that each transmission costs money, whether that be a point to point call or a transmission across the whole talk group.
As for the "Roger, so far" part - we recently had an officer transfer to us from a county force, he used this terminology a lot and none of us understood why he was doing it, until he explained it. He quickly stopped doing it as radio comms in the force I'm in are more casual.
I've only ever had to press the "red button" once in my 7 years of service. It's laughably called the "Chicken button" by people I used to work with!
Pinned - interesting to hear from officers!
from previous employment noticed Airwave Radios hate being Underground where GSM is very patchy
How has it handled the recent sunspot activity?
@@rog2224 Seemed absolutely fine to me.
@@andrewbeadle9168 That I can mostly agree with. Recently went into an underground car park looking for a collapsed male - lost comms. As mentioned at hospitals it's notoriously bad, and i've had people make off from me and been unable to even transmit due to no coverage.
An interesting difference between commercial cellular and (this) TETRA implementation is the utilization of receiver diversity. The reason why three stacked (collinear) antennas are used in a 120 degree configuration is because it gives several dB “equivalent” of gain in urban areas where multipath is the main cause of signal degradation. In cellular, 120 degree sectors are used for capacity, and they use 3 highly directional panel antennas per sector, unlike here, where three omnidirectional antennas are used. Historically, transmit was done on a fourth centrally placed collinear omnidirectional antenna.
You're passion, preparation, and knowledge in this hobby is unmatched. Awesome job.
You are preparation too.
You are indeed!
Totally agree!
You are passion!
Is he really? 😉 English are difficulty languish to spoke also.
In Norway, hand terminals are 2.5 watts and car terminals are 10 watts, we also use the tetra system. like that RW pd logo
@@sondrerisan6333 Nødnett dNk. I use 3w mtp6650 ht with srg3900 10w mobile set.
2.5W TETRA terminals are decently rare. What model are they using?
Even my Motorolas only do 1.8W.
@@2ftg the different emergency services use slightly different models, but the manufacturers are Motorola and Sepura
These models are in use.
Motorola
Mtp 3250 this is being phased out and is being replaced by mtp 6650 has also seen mpx600 in use. when it comes to sepura, I don't know much about the models. voluntary search and rescue organizations use mtp 3250
@@2ftg My Motorola MTP6650 is (Class 3) RF 3W Hi setting. The Sepura SC20/21 HT series also Class 3 RF.
Implemented for fringe coverage areas.
I love Norwegian forest cats.
TETRA took all the fun away from scanning
Lost radios are a huge problem and the procedures don't work. Initially (2007-2011) the Met alone thought they were losing about 200 a year until a bulk audit showed it was more like 350. More recently in 2022 the lost figure was 1,100 of which 742 turned up so a net 360 and we'll have to see whether another audit finds more gone.
I'm in the Met. A lot of "lost" radios aren't lost at all, simply buried away in a DS/DI's locker in their office, or someone on long term sickness or restriction and they haven't needed to use their radio for months or even years. I was recently restricted on light duties for a period of 6 months and used my radio no more than 10 times in those 6 months. I was frequently receiving emails about "low radio usage" and if I required the radio any longer. When I returned to response team recently I had more radio usage in one shift than in the entire 6 months of restriction.
I remember the old MTH800 radios, they were decent enough but the batteries were appalling, you'd easily need 2 and sometimes 3 to last an entire shift. The newer Sepura radio batteries are MUCH better and last a lot longer, a battery only on 60% charge will easily last a normal 9 hour shift.
If a newer public safety radio on any system is lost or stolen, I thought it could be disabled remotely or "stunned" via OTAR.
@@wes11bravo I think what he's talking about is the psychical theft/loss of the radio. Yes the radio certificate can be revoked, thus cutting it off from the network. But the stolen radio can be reprogrammed to work on another network. Loss/theft of the psychical radio itself is not as big of a deal as someone using that radio with it's security credentials to gain unauthorized access to the network.
@@thefiestaguy8831
Great comment.
On Direct Mode (if the network goes down or you don't want the americans and russians earing the comms) the TX power will always be at maximum...and you need 5 to 10 batteries for one hard shift....🙈
TETRA has been always monitored by americans and russians (among others) that can ear all comms and most importantly the location of all units.....the perfect SIGINT operation.....
Recently a civilian found lots of failures in the TETRA security, including the version for police/fireman/rescue.....
Some were fixed, others are not able to be solved...
@@appliedengineering4001
You are right...
Every time a unit transmits, a unit ID is sent, even Baofeng has this feature. Everything is recorded and timestamped somewhere. There is a kill signal to disable stolen radios, along with other features.
Every digital radio does baofengs dont send a radio I d its just a tx code
@@StraightOuttaUrbex ANI is a radio identifier transmitted as a DTMF code. The UV-5R has that capability.
@@redactedname5038 dtmf is not a radio I d like digital tetra is digital not analogue therefore very different im licensed and been using radios long time uv5r does not operate the same
Loved listening to them and mobile phones
@@shackwishprice6924 yep couldnt beat it but these days still plenty to hear with a digital scanner and dmr radio yes i know digital scanners are certainly not cheap mine was 350 pound! cheaper option so you can hear shopwatch etc retevis rt3 for less than 100 its a no brainer
A quick look at the society around me and i conclude that 'national security' was a concept eroded into non existence during the period 1945 to the end of the so called cold war.
I enjoy your videos, thank you.
🎯
That never ended"
"Up the cycle track" got a bit annoying but very good otherwise. Thanks
I couldn't help but skip past it eventually.
I was told reason cant be used whilst driving is that Airwave has a telephone capability unlike CB so inference is could be being used to make a call, however most do unless a vehicle set fitted. I have called a colleague in London from Hampshire
@@mikemcmikeface Yes it has duplex call functionality when routed through the dispatcher to the pstn.
Airwave HTs are exempt from mobile phone law as the primary function is a ptt radio for the ems.
I use Airwaves as a paramedic. I didn't know a tenth of this information ha ha. I know that any lost or stolen radio can be "stunned" so that it fails to connect to any talk group, and this can be done remotely.
We were taught some of it in my trust. Dmo is super handy when your on the 10th floor of a high rise and your crew mate goes to grab the carry chair/ extra kit etc. Do you know about the issi number you can use to point to point your crew mates radio?
@@lightsoutforever I have used it odd times and yes, it has saved miles of walking ha ha
Whenever a Radio is stolen they are "Stung" where a signal is sent to them to immediately shut them down and pretty much self-destruct them
In Australia, any transmitter site can be found on the acma's site locator site, its really handy for finding the P25 Trunked NSW PSN Network sites and any site I want to find ^^
@@VolatileDoor6 There are similar sites in the UK with Mastdata and Site finder.
Hey! You anticipated the comments being full of claims of breaking nation security but instead, most comments are simply hollering about your new awesome logo!
We had mobile gateways in the Met. Maybe one or two cars on the borough which had two radios in them to use as a gateway. The instructions to set them up looked complex and I don’t know if any being used personally
If there is an Airwave issue , Airwave have Mercedes Vito vans and Landrovers with radio kit and pump up masts on them to deploy to an area. There are photos about of the vehicles which have blue lights on them too. I can point you in the direction of them
Any bit of kit that has anything more complex than a "Set the knob to 'A' in this situation, 'B' in that" and so on, is doomed to failure at the hands of coppers or squaddies. What an engineer thinks is "straightforward setup" is often perplexing in the extreme to normal folks and terrifying to the "I lost one and broke the other" brigade.
@@ianmason.
You are totally right.
I'm a police/firemen/Red Cross/Civil Defense/Mil comms guru and even radio comms instructors call me in the phone to remember them of how they go from TMO to DMO or how to activate the Gateway function.....😂🙈
"Repeater mode" (on selected firmware enabled mobile radios) never used even once ...🙈....
@@jplacido9999 Engineers designing user interfaces is a recipe for disaster. Anyone who has used CAD software will understand this intimately.
@@ianmason.
You are right, sir....👍
@@ianmason. to be fair it was Sepura, Motorola and Cleartone that designed the interfaces not Airwave. There was a lot of conversation around the difficulties in using gateways and DMO in real life applications.
Ahhh tetra... Great in theory... a problem in practice. I've inherited ~150 radios from the tetra network that was shut down in my country a couple years ago (a couple other hams have the hoards of radios from their cities)... So many sites, so little coverage. DMR and P25 are taking over with good reason... They don't offer FDX calling... but as it turns out, that's less important than being able to actually communicate.
What is it with that waveform that hurts range so badly? We use P25 here and the range is very impressive, even simplex/direct.
@@Porty1119 TETRA has a ridiculously short delay spread so it's intolerant of multipath. It can only tolerate 15 us vs 28 us for DMR, 48 us for P25 Phase II and 60 us for P25 Phase I. This was not a coincidence: P25's C4FM and LSM modulation was specifically designed for simulcast systems. Essentially, both modulations were designed to quickly change states and hold it.
@@straightpipediesel also tetra is not pure FM, it has an AM component. Especially so in the later qam implementation. This means linear amplifiers are required... End result much, much lower efficiency, so where a DMR HH will be 5w, tetra will be 2w. Where a DMR mobile will be 25-50w, tetra will be 10-20w.
Also having an AM component, fading due to moving around will harm signal integrity.
@@straightpipediesel
👍👍👍
@@ranga2050
👍👍👍
Tetra made me go straight after I could not use scanners any more! It was fun listening to 451.575 on the weekend 😉if ya know ya know😂😂
Lol 😂🎉😊
The use of personal sets whilst driving isn't necessarily against the Road Traffic Act. Indeed some forces train officers to use these during pursuits.
someone watching this video looking for threats to national security
😅
shuushhh
Someone is always watching.
Don't tell them, Pike!
looking for hate speech
@@belstar1128Plenty saddo's browsing to be offended and call someone a racist or a nazi lol
As someone who works at Vodafone I find this information super interesting.
I hope to progress my career into managing 1 of the key critical infrastructure accounts which we look after at my company.
Just like the 800 mhz systems in the US. When you turn on your Motorola APX radio. It is constantly sharing data with the repeater sites. To include what you are doing on the radio. When you key up the mic, your radio 4 digit code flashes across the dispatchers console along with every radio on that channel. They can even be GPS tracked if you are down or the radio gets lost. If the radio gets stolen, it can be "bricked" remotely the next time it is turned on and tries to shake hands with the system.
The system didn't work that well at Grenfell for the Fire Service. A noisy analogue signal is better than no digital signal at all!!!!
The Fire service doesn't use TETRA for on scene comms, only for vehicle to control. Firefighters at an incident either use Analogue or DMR UHF depending on the area.
LFB Were literally using UHF FM fire ground radios then
@@HarveyKnicks I believe they previously used Entel radios however they have recently upgraded to a dual mode DMR/Analogue radio by Tait.
ESN will already be out of date when it's put into use.
I (think) I can break down that cover image to this video. Its not so secret because there is a big ass antenna sticking out, but in the US a building that size generally doesn't require a permit to build. Its not as secret as it is... budget friendly.
the bit on resilience made me smile and automatically the thought "not a hope" popped into my head :)
yOu’Re CoMpRoMiSiNg NaTiOnAl SeCuRiTy!!!1
Cheers mate, love your videos.
Can you do something like this for the US emergency services. They usually are unencrypted mobile vehicle and portable on oerson hand helds to a central repeater to the dispatch. Hovering around 155mhz and 46mhz. I know there was talk of them going to trunkated signals for years. Havent seen it in my area yet. There is some means of the units identifying themselves since it shows up on a scanner and can be filtered by that.
There are around 18,000 police agencies in the US. They all get to pick their own radio systems.
In my city it's encrypted digital, and has been for years. We periodically manage to find encryption keys and mirror it on internet feeds for anybody to listen to, but after a few months they typically figure out it's happened and change the keys. As long as nothing is actually stolen to get the keys it's legal, as is listening to unencrypted transmissions on older systems that are still in wide use in some places.
The newer systems tend to use higher frequencies, around 800MHz is common. The analog TV shutdown meant more frequencies for the cops, and those are almost always digital and encrypted.
US emergency services in my state are predominently P25 trunks on 850MHzish. P25 radios are readily available.
Connecticut is pushing hard for everyone to get on their Connecticut Land Mobile Radio Network ("CLMRN") P25 trunked system. I haven't paid any attention in the past few months, but they have hit some bumps in the road with radio compatibility and coverage. Also, they don't provide encryption. But, users can use encrypted radios if they are system compatible. Some towns have jumped on the bandwagon. Others are going their own way.
I found this transmission on 11102 kHz SW at 21:43 Indian time. It was a long beep followed by some Digital mode.
Best investigator and elucidation I have ever experienced on Utube 👌
Lewis, I can't believe you would risk national security like that!! 😂
It's funny to me when people want things to be secret but record it in public records. My favorite example is how (I think it was Massachusetts) mandated fire controls for elevators which theoretically should only be able to be used by firemen. However, in the same regulation, they specified the bitting for the keys. So now anyone who wants their own fire control key for elevators in MA can easily get one made.
At the current rate, ESN will be out of date when (if) it rolls out
Use of handheld devices in vehicles is exempted in road traffic legislation for emergency use, and that includes civilians too. Some devices are covered in legislation simply by frequency, which used to rule out most mobile phones, but not things like ham radio, or tetra. Needless to say, legislation around technology is always far out of date, often badly drafted. The current legislation is based on any "interactive data" which can cover both ham radio and tetra, with the emergency exemption still in place.
I recall that the olympics airwave system around Weymouth (for the sailing events) was not encrypted.
Ahh talk of the ESN network...... will it ever happen 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for the video. As a government radio engineer on a P25 TDMA system here in the US, i enjoyed learning about how things are done in the UK.
Thank's for the video Lewis! 🙂
Awesome Lewis Nice Job 73
Fascinating stuff and as thorough and well-researched as always. My Dad worked for the Home Office Directorate of Telecommunications (latterly DTeLS) and was heavily-involved in the planning, provision and improvement of the legacy VHF and UHF schemes used by Police, Fire and 'others'. There were a number of quite innovative solutions employed for getting the most out of the old analogue system which whilst clunky, did work well. It's a shame we can't listen in anymore but I think that's likely for the best these days...
Fantastic video, really enjoyed that. Thank you. As a sort of side note, if anyone is worried about the security angle of these transmitters and revealing their location, I can assure you that if you attempt to tamper with one of these sites you will get one hell of a surprise.
Great point. They’re considered just as vital and a national infrastructure in the same way the cell towers are.
I assume you mean some sort of electrical current protection.... electric fence esque?
The sites are constantly transmiting, so they are perfect targets for ARM missiles....
But there is no need for missiles:
Amwricans and russians monitored all TETRA comms from the beginning, so it was the perfect SIGINT operation.
They could ear/record all comms and get the location of all units....
In the event of a war, they will block/ destroy all thr network remotly (remember attacks on Vodafone and others ? it is the same) and will blind all the Forces (Police, Firemen, Rescue, etc.).
Direct Mode is not an option (super-short range, batteries draining very fast...)
Never put all eggs in the same basket...that's what Airwave is....
You'll see....
@@thefiestaguy8831I would guess you will have some police, or higher ranking, security personnel attending pretty damn quickly too!
Yeah... they're probably using them extensively now to quell the widespread protests against illegal immigration and associated crime...
I can guarantee 100% this is how things “should be done” as per home office guidelines. But it’s definitely not How things are done.
For instance your line manager asking “do you have your radio, do you know where it is” every month they don’t actually check the radio.
The pool radios definitely don’t get stored behind 2 locks, that’s not something that will be followed anywhere. I agree there’s some places that have them in locked cabinets but with the Motorola desktop charger being the most common kit for pool radios no one’s locking that huge thing in a cupboard.
The network is ancient and flawed. It can’t cope with doing PABX and too many talk groups chatting at once.
During events they tell you not to use point to point or PABX to reduce the stress on the network.
Most handsets are old, battered and seen better days ( some look like a dog had been let loose with it) the batteries last 1 hour and officers have to keep several batteries in their stab proof vest to keep them warm.
They definitely do not say “over” controllers usually say “control out” after a broadcast .
Wow this is interesting cheers!
In Belgium its called "Astrid" (All-round Semi-cellular Trunking Radio) and in the Netherlands "c2000".
In Brussels, in a park, I accidentally filmed a building of a police unit. 2 police officers came up to me and I had to hand over my cellphone +pin code so they could delete the footage !!
and you complied?! Oh you silly euros..
It was due to be EOL a few years ago, but the 4g replacement service radios are still being developed, and (realistically) never going to be at a uaeable state to replace the tetra network. There are multiple forces that have stated the requirements for the replacement aren't nearly enough for what they need. Theres some info out due to FOI requests on this af anybody wants to investigate this further
Great video !!! Learning quite a bit from your work my friend !
The Olympic Park Radio Control Centre was located at Project Park, North Crescent, just off Cody Road Canning Town, all equipment including Tower have been removed after the Olympics
A number of years ago in my radio days I was picking up a repeater from a shop that handled radios for a lot of police agencies in my state. The owner (apparently not seeing me on the premises) was talking to police department about how he had set up a talk group for them on his commercial trunked system. I'm guessing they wanted to stay off the radar of their own system. I wonder if that occurs elsewhere.
Was this in the US? Yes, that's a thing over there. Not here in the UK though.
@@Ayrshore Yes
@@Ayrshore Yes, there are a few agencies that lease time on commercial trunked systems. It's really a bad solution unless there's no viable alternative.
I think it's safe to assume that if it's possible to do it they will be doing it whatever they publicly claim. We've learned in recent years that police have secret operations that can go on for decades without them being revealed. To the point where undercover police will have babies with women under a false name then one day disappear never to be seen again.
They even pose as "taxi networks" to be as "grey" as they can...
Even Militias do that....
On YT are some of the late 1970s /80s documentary "Scotland Yard" a couple of episodes covered the Flying Squad on a stakeouts - although filmed for TV there was a lot of radio traffic - which presumably was encrypted. At one point they were worried the gang had a scanner for picking up radio comms (was it encrypted then?) they also moaned at times "The Voda's arent working" which presumably was a Vodaphone network - mobile phone ?
@@highpath4776 That video is on YT. I know the one you’re referring to. From the 90s
At its introduction in Finland the personal TETRA radios of ambulance crews were shown to rarely but sometimes interfere with life sustaining medical systems. When the potentially affected and therefore obsoleted medical equipment was quickly replaced, no such problems have occurred.
When TETRA replaced the old communications systems, it solved many incompatibility problems between the different emergency services. In addition to voice communications, it offered data services.
The communications security of TETRA has been called into question in the preceding decades, and I think the closed source security model is deeply flawed.
Worst of all, if you think you are in a secure network (you are not), you speak "freelly" and then, the intercepting parties (americans and russians among others) will get all the intentions (and lications) instantly.
The system can also be attacked by interlaced jamming (locally) or remote cibernetic attacks that can block all Police and Emergency comms (all eggs in the same basket) nationwide.
Only ignorant or corrupt people would use the vulnerable TETRA for National Security comms.
Even military personnel use TETRA radios...😂😂😂... how stupid is that....😂😂😂😂 (military guys using an equipament that cannot even perform radio silence in TMO...😂😂🙈).
TETRA was the "solution" for old analog trunked networks, for truckers, delivery enterprises and so on....But as the system was too expensive and didn't work well (TETRA and other digital systems audio is just horrible, you cannot recognise the other guy's voice, along with poor coverage), the Enterprises use only GSM/UMTS/LTE.....
So the Country governments were the perfect targets for the best SIGINT operation of all times....😂🙈, wasting millions in a trucker's network posing as a police/military one....🙈...
The security is zero....😂😂😂....americans and russians (among others) ear all the comms and get all units locations....😂😂
@@jplacido9999 I took a closer look at TETRA's security, and the situation is both worse and better than I expected. The cluster of known vulnerabilities in the standard is called TETRA:BURST. The authentication algorithm suite has multiple weaknesses, but some may be somewhat mitigated. The encryption method TEA1 (commercial grade) is is ridiculously easy to breach with consumer hardware and little time. Method TEA2 (used by e.g. European authorities) so far requires some sort of brute forcing, but I'd guess the attacker doesn't have to have nation state level resources if enough money and time is factored in.
@@jplacido9999 I took a closer look at TETRA's security, and the situation is both worse and better than I expected. The cluster of known vulnerabilities in the standard is called TETRA:BURST. The authentication algorithm suite has multiple weaknesses, but some may be somewhat mitigated. The encryption method TEA1 (commercial grade) is is ridiculously easy to breach with consumer hardware and little time. Method TEA2 (used by e.g. European authorities) so far requires some sort of brute forcing, but I'd guess the attacker doesn't have to have nation state level resources if enough money and time is factored in.
I love the new channel logo 😎
Thank you for this very detailed and interesting video. Well done!
never clicked so fast 13 seconds upload thx RM :)
I was in the cops for 13 years and never used over or roger so far or active. Just call sign > division/force callsign. Then to close down "received". For longer messages received so far. For priority messages its was always call sign + urgent. Most of what you mention is MET terminology IMO. I also don't understand your comment about not using car sets whilst driving. Overall airwave is actually a very good system, it was introduced a few years after I started and its light years ahead of the old system.
I have no clue how people can understand transmissions that garbled.
It's another layer of encryption.
As a retired Police Officer, you soon get used to it. Ged.
Once you get used to it then you've got your 'radio ears'.
I am deeply concerned that this video might be compromising Jaffa cake transportation security. It seems to reveal critical details about our logistics that could be exploited. The safety and integrity of our Jaffa cake supply chain must be a top priority, and content like this poses a significant risk. Please take immediate action to review and address these concerns.
Like many of the DMR type handsets, the Supervisor/Inspector or whoever can remotely monitor the microphone of the handset, if they think there's any criminality going on (bent cop, etc).
They can switch cameras on and get location too.
Ambient monitoring.
When the orange emergency button is activated, the mic is open for a set period of time for officer safety.
But it can be activated for "security" reasons 😂😂😂.
In contrast with ancient systems, TETRA can "switch" the radio to a purpose "group" and monitor without the knowlodge of the user (and no warrant).
Lots of policen, firefighters and emergency workers monitored that way....
@@HarveyKnicks
The original intention was that (and is fine👍), but soon enough they started to use it to spy on users.
Some officers get distant from the radio before discussing personal things or complains about the job.
I know of a President of an Institute of the State (I cannot identify) that someone tried to spy through the TETRA portable radio....but to no avail....he noticed something was wrong....and was carefull.
I've even had to warn the Commander of a NATO highly critical facillity for the danger of having a TETRA fixed radio nearby at the Operations Room.....he almost died when I explained....😂🙈....
Countermeaseurs initiated immediatly....😊😊
@HarveyKnicks yes that too. He means to monitor without the user pressing the buttons
Not sure I'd agree that tetra is 'hidden'? Surely most people know about it? Or is it just me working in industry?
I worked in a BTP control room, we had PC touch-screen radios, but used handhelds & mainsets when there was a failure, they didn't happen much luckily. I was a radio op (a dispatcher to our US friends) during the London Underground suicide attacks on 07/07/2005 (and again during the failed 21/07/2005 attack, and then all though the crime scene investigations). At that time, LU officers carried 2 radios, a Sepura Airwave and an underground leaky feeder radio (we called then "Channel 2 radios). Shortly after the incidents, Airwave provided vehicles at Russell Square and Liverpool Street/Aldgate, that ran cables down to the underground to give officers and SOCO Airwave capability (I guess they were mobile repeaters). We could "point to point" (PTP) officers direct using their radio numbers and officers to/from each other for private calls.
They're pretty much like DMR radios available to us Hams.
You say prisons lewis we say holiday camps
Listening in to the Rozzers was fun. Now it's slightly harder...
In the 1990s I had a little handheld airband radio from the Index catalogue - that could pick up everything from the filth (Bath/Bristol). All encrypted now tho.
It's really easy now. You just have to join the police! :p
@@HarveyKnicks Police Academy was supposed to be a comedy, it's more like a documentary in some areas.
@@HarveyKnicks There was a joke in some cryptography circles that TEA2 was a code for the number of cups of tea that a decent cryptologist would have to drink while figuring out how to crack it.
Systems crested out of multi-national agreements and that use proprietary encryptiion with unpublished algorithms are doomed to failure in the crypto department.
Proprietary, unpublished cryptography means that it hasn't had the world's cryptographers trying to rip the guts out of it and failing or alternatively (openly) reporting weakness. As they saying goes "Anyone can create a code that they can't crack themselves" and proprietary unpublished encryption algorithms will never get the level of peer review necessary to have confidence in them.
Multi-national agreements means that nations involved have (1) an interest in being able to intercept other nations traffic, so don't want too strong an encryption algorithm, (2) won't contribute their own best technology for exactly the same reason, and because it might provide valuable insights into how they protect their own secrets.
Even if national cryptologic organisations like GCHQ review the alorithms used, they are not going to tip their hand by revealing that there is a weakness that if they report they also have to reveal information that they themselves regard as secret. GCHQ only revealed that they had independently invented public key cryptography as early as 1970 in 1997, 21 years after Diffie Hellman public key cryptography was openly published.
It's a article of faith in cryptologic circles that cryptographic schemes that rely on anything other than the secrecy of keying material, such as secrecy of the algorithm itself, are insecure.
@@HarveyKnicks Yes... SLIGHTLY harder...
I've never heard a police controller say 'over' and only heard them say 'out' on talkgroup circulations. General use is a lot less disciplined than you suggest. In my area at least.
Interesting video far too much overuse of that one same clip with the courtesy tone beeping. The passion you have for radio communications in great.
I’m almost a ham :)
Very interesting video Lewis. I do find the UK now seems to be the most Secretive Country in the Western World. It shows how sad those in charge really are. We have more CCTV per square mile than most places in the US. I could never really understand why the UK Authorities put a stop to Emergency Services monitoring. It was harmless fun. Some Police Officers I knew at the time they switched over, said they knew who the hobbyists were, and the criminal sort. They said that they found the hobbyists to be helpful in certain incidents, and said they couldn't understand the Authorities stance on making everything Secretive. Go to America and you can hear almost everything, from Police to Secret Service. They are more open over there. One Police Officer I spoke to said that our Governments must have a guilty conscience, and a lot to hide. In my role of Emergency Communications Operator with Civilian group I have worked with many Emergency Services personnel over the years.
Many square miles of America are completely empty.
My listening helped to arrest some criminals, who were caught red-handed, and also to save the life of a young passenger of a wrecked vehicle after a car crash. On both occasions, I was thanked for my assistance. I was checked only on the first occasion. That was when every transmission was unencrypted. That opportunity to assist is now lost to all police forces.
probably because they don't want people to know about the bad things they are doing these days
Not anymore in USA.
Now they hide everything, except for routine comms avaible for the general public ir local news crews.
Some small town Police forces use military grade encryption comms...😂😂😂😂
A lot of private and sensitive information and intelligence is broadcast over the air, it's entirely right that that information and those communications are protected. It would be no different to expecting to listen in to police phone calls.
Those Roger beeps are so F annoying
They are. And they give away policeman not using esrphones...
@@jplacido9999 The Ambulance service also use Sepuras with the distinctive 'boop beep' pip tones.
@@HarveyKnicks
Thanks for the info 🙏
We also use Tetra radios on the power grid. If the power goes out, most mobile masts will go out also. However tetra radios can be used in the event of a black start as the stations are fitted with backup generators
if anyone wants to tamper with the nearest airwave antenna to my location, they are going to need a forty foot ladder and an invisibility cloak!
oh yeah this what I'm talking about
Or a drone.
@@jonc4403 wow, yeah. good point, didn't even think of that!
Well into the 1980s you could listen in to police radio on normal FM band on transistor or car radio.
Though often you could only hear one side of conversations.
Airwaves was going to be updated by now but everything has been delayed partly due to covid but typical Government Home Office bureaucrat behaviour seems a more plausible reason.
They are now aiming for 2027 for new system switch on.
I am a radio amateur for almost 50 years - thank you very much, very interesting to me. 🌷 Willi,DL9WR 😊
An explanation regarding a UK Tetra Handset (Government Issue) was never offered/given regarding it's removal from an Amesbury (Wiltshire) Property 2018. Evidence Bag provided 😉👍
What’s this about Richard
@@RingwayManchester Flats 9/11 Muggleton Road, Amesbury, Wiltshire. Salisbury-Amesbury (Alleged) Novichok 2018. Seek and You will find images of "Tetra Handset" being removed from Property within a Sealed Evidence Bag. Now it's definitely not Russian. Best Wishes Sir.
On esn theres no wonder its rollout keeps being pushed back if its anything like the public ee 4g/5g is theres even some areas in my city with practically no signal on EE i think the huwaei ban has affected it as im sure it used to have better signal when they still had huwaei masts so either the alternatives to huwaei have much worse range or they just had to remove/turn off those masts and didnt replace them yet with new masts
Very interesting thanks Lewis!
Knutsford?
The mental image of that is the Jolly Green Giant laying in a river, legs open with little vikings pulling their ship by a chain up and across him. Later on shore, wiping the sweat from their brow, one exclaims "We will raise our families 'ere, beside these nuts we had to ford."
Would you like a blanket lol
The Ford of King Cnut is the derivation of this lovely Cheshire town.
this was interesting, could you cover the mobile phone network and how that works ?
It often doesn't 😂😂😂😂😂😂
That was excellent Lewis!
Interesting re portable use in cars.
In certain UK Police TV productions showing the Police going after stolen cars, you often see the officer using his vest mounted portable from inside the car.
Hardly a great way to ensure a good signal into the network and keep the battery life good when out of the car.
Cannot say I have seen an officer in that circumstance use a vehicle mounted radio.
But yeah TV and all that.
For the Met in London during the 80s as least, pocket radios used by beat officers were on one higher frequency range and higher power car radios on a lower frequency range. There were few automatic repeaters between the two systems and messages would have to be repeated by an operator from CO. In a built up area it would be quite likely that they might use the PR (shoulder mounted Pocket radio) system to talk to all constables in an area They had multiple receivers covering and area and a central transmitter for that area. They usually had a battery eliminator for car use to save the battery. The user could request talk-through between high frequency / low frequency systems. G3ZPS does a nice talk about Police and emergency radio systems, also on YT
@@jagohazzzard Great info!
Thanks for that!
Our rural ambulance service uses an in vehicle cross band repeater. VHF trunked to base and UHF to portable radios in the field carried by personnel.
Maintains portable coverage where the high power of the vehicle radio is required.
You forgot to mention that TETRA radios are run from one Airwave control centre for the UK...how traffic is routed, how the network is managed, how base stations are controlled and what goes on. Also how data is sent between sites and managed.
I didn’t forget. It’s not public knowledge
Great stuff. Ever thought about covering GSMR?
Can You Listen To Railway Radio Comms?
ruclips.net/video/uAEg5IHeURQ/видео.html
I'm not sure Lewis but I think this is your best video yet! Great job!👍
Hi mike
... three hotel hotel yankee?
Damn, this has HL2 CP vibes 😢😢
Fantastic level of information, and love the footage.
That surprised me about the use whilst driving too. Could it be to do with high speed driving, or just general covering their backs?
Now, if they had some kind of mesh network...
I had cause a few years back to have to use a radio on a home office site at Manston Kent, ive never seen in my life such obsession with "etiquette" lol ..used to go mental when id reply "yeah no worries brother!" and things like "i see the mush wandering about, what a prick" .. there is absolutely no need to have this "special etiquette speech"
Used to go mad they did 😂
Sometimes if i was bored id announce fake wrong doings and watch everyone running about chasing fuk all😂
So how do you listen in on police these days to make these sound clips? They seem to have terrible quality at 5 kbit/s.
It’s a fake that’s been circulating for years I’m afraid
Thanks for this overview, very interesting! I have been told that the vehicle mobile sets act as a "Repeater" for rhe officer(s) assigned to that car. Given the low power handheld and presumably the higher power car sets, this would seem to be a sensible set up. As a Ham, I have been asked about this by friends who assume that I am an expert on all things radio! Looking forward to more about these "official" networks. 73 Jim M7BXT
I was police radio op for 35 years but recently retired, analogue was much easier to use but obviously not secure. Airwaves has many good points and generally was good for clearer transmissions etc.
Hmmm ask Ian David Ashby of Heysham... he knows all about stolen Tetra terminals n other 'dodgy' radios....
There's absolutely nothing out there that isn't Hackable. Remember those Dodgy Satellite Cards you could buy at one time ? They would work for.......well it could be a few days or many months, eventually it would run out of Codes it had to Decrypt the Signals so you'd go buy another Card and off you go again. Some people made a fortune selling them (Ahem !)
I hope they don't upset the blade runners😂
Whatever happened to the guy who used to comment on every RM video about how he was "criming the radio fans"? Seems like this is the kind of video that would trigger him to lose his mind.
I remember the home Office launch of the Emergcy Services Network project. 'Cheaper, Better, Smarter' I also remember Motorola being investigated to the tune of £1.2b they were due to be paid by the tax payer until 2026...
- 00:03 📡 Overview of Airwave System
- Introduction to Airwave, the UK’s emergency services radio network,
- Discussion of how Airwave is used and its technical details.
- 02:02 🏅 Special Airwave Network for London Olympics
- Overview of the Apollo network used during London 2012 Olympics,
- Creation of a unique communication infrastructure for the events.
- 03:31 🏙 Identifying Airwave Transmitter Sites
- Typical setup and locations of Airwave transmitter sites,
- How to identify and features of these transmitter sites.
- 05:10 🔗 Interconnected Transmitter Sites
- Explanation of the layout and connections via microwave links,
- Use of overlapping clusters to ensure wide coverage.
- 06:08 🕹 Hierarchical Responsibilities within the Police
- Different levels of responsibility in maintaining Airwave network,
- Detailed roles from head of communications to local terminal administrators.
- 11:25 📞 Communication Etiquette on Airwave
- Guidelines for precise and accurate communications,
- Protocol for using urgent, active, and routine messages.
- 14:44 🔌 Direct Mode Operation (DMO) and Gateways
- Description of DMO providing direct communication without infrastructure,
- Limitations and effectiveness of DMO, plus use of gateways for extending coverage.
- 16:29 🚇 Usage in London Underground
- Use of Airwave in the London Underground,
- Capacity limitations for concurrent conversations in subsurface stations.
- 17:00 🚓 Coverage in Vehicles and Coverage Assurance
- Coverage issues within vehicles and legal considerations,
- Alternatives for communication when network coverage fails.
- 18:26💡 Network Resilience and Backup Systems
- Resilience measures for maintaining communications during failures,
- Redundant systems ensuring network operation during faults.
I remember back in the 90s here in Staffordshire when I used to listen to the police, there was someone who would talk back to them and keep winding them up, this went on for quite a long time, I did have some recordings of it will have to dig them out, not sure if they ever got caught, I did ask my parents to keep a eye out in the local papers that they read daily but nothing ever got published about it. Whoever it was knew what they were doing as when they switched channels to avoid the idiot they would be there waiting for them and this was across multiple police stations, I remember they would say like switch to channel 21 and the person would be there as quick as they were.
They actually say "so far" heard it a lot when the local PCSO's are ordering their McDonalds. Obviously not monitored in our area anyway. Someone else said that East Sussex (KB) still have an analogue tx in Lewes - can't find posting anymore. There is no VHF aerial there anymore so not sure about that! By the way Lewes jail has a mobile phone blocker which extends some metres outside their walls. I am told some local properties get a free phone line to compensate. Apparently Wi-Fi is also "difficult" in the area!
17:02 Using a handheld two way radio while driving does NOT contravene road traffic legislation, the legislation states that it is prohibited to use any handheld interactive device other than a two way radio and then goes on to state that a two way radio is a device which operates on any frequency other than 880 MHz to 915 MHz, 925 MHz to 960 MHz, 1710 MHz to 1785 MHz, 1805 MHz to 1880 MHz, 1900 MHz to 1980 MHz or 2110 MHz to 2170 MHz.
The information I quoted is from the met police’s airwave policy
@@RingwayManchester Police policy and legislation are not the same thing, its completely legal to use a handheld two way radio while driving, search for The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2003
There was an amendment in 2022 but that amendment did not remove the exemption for two way radio.
Do you know anything about Stream (Scottish company) now owned by ARM hosting SIM cards for the olympics?
The authorities should be more concerned about knife wielding migrants over radio nerds but going after the real problem is taboo and doesn't get you the promotion.
that cuckoo-clock sound sure is cheerful
I'm glad someone else was hearing that! 🕰️🐦
Horrifically annoying. I hate Sepuras.
@@AyrshoreAnd it's not even in tune.
@@Ayrshore
😂😂😂👍👍👍
And policeman not using headphones will anounce their presence to the all street....😂😂😂
@@jplacido9999 happens all the time. Usually the hi-viz gives them away anyway.
Not that good or hackable trunking systems
Obscurity does not ensure security.
There have been other talks published here including the hardware required and more but this is interesting before it is surpassed.
I can guarantee 100% this is how things “should be done” as per home office guidelines. But it’s definitely not How things are done.
For instance your line manager asking “do you have your radio, do you know where it is” every month they don’t actually check the radio.
The pool radios definitely don’t get stored behind 2 locks, that’s not something that will be followed anywhere. I agree there’s some places that have them in locked cabinets but with the Motorola desktop charger being the most common kit for pool radios no one’s locking that huge thing in a cupboard.
The network is ancient and flawed. It can’t cope with doing PABX and too many talk groups chatting at once.
During events they tell you not to use point to point or PABX to reduce the stress on the network.
Most handsets are old, battered and seen better days ( some look like a dog had been let loose with it) the batteries last 1 hour and officers have to keep several batteries in their stab proof vest to keep them warm.
They definitely do not say “over” controllers usually say “control out” after a broadcast .
So as stated in the video. The word over and the word out mean different things….
Ambulance and fire also use Airwave, I don't think they were mentioned in the list at the start of the video.
i think that sample was vk control in norfolk, fisher road being in diss and the stolen bike being a cbr600