Interesting CHEV4EVR. ThanksCHEV4EVR wrote: You will probably find by March next year every district, including Peel will be on digital. Once each metro district is rolled out then goodbye analogue. The current digital radios have performed almost without fault. A test run showed a car halfway to Gero could access the digital network. I have used to portable to speak from Joondalup Health campus to another portable at Peel Health Campus so the network is impressive.
Even with tests using the amateur digital system (D-Star) it seems clear that digital is the way to go for the future. Range and noise immunity are far, far better than FM. Obviously as an added bonus the police get to use encryption, talk groups, and all sorts of fun new stuff.
It's funny because the 468Mhz analogue network was started because, in response to Cyclone Tracey, police vehicles from different states who went to help largely couldn't talk to each other on the ~79Mhz radios they used at the time. I think with digital in almost all states now, we're going back to this being a problem. I hope they keep a few analogue channels going 'just in case'...