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Phoenix Area Trunked Radio System Guide for Dummies

While this page is designed to help the new hobbyist, or a traveler unfamiliar with the Phoenix area, to get started listening to one of the fastest growing areas of the country, we do expect the user to have a basic understanding of radio terminology.

And please note that this is an introductory level page concentrating on basic public safety monitirng for the valley's trunked systems. There are more detailed sites available for the more experienced listener. If you want more detail on the valley's systems and users, may we respectfully suggest you consult Radio Reference, or purchase the Southwest Frequency Directory.


An Overview

There are really only four major systems in the metropolitan Phoenix area where a radio hobbyist can hear the majority of police and fire traffic. Here is a list of the systems and their subscribers (users):

Topaz Regional Wireless Cooperative (TRWC)

  • Mesa
  • Apache Junction
  • Gilbert
  • Queen Creek
  • Apache Junction Fire District.

Regional Wireless Cooperative (RWC)

  • Buckeye
  • El Mirage
  • Goodyear
  • Peoria
  • Phoenix
  • Surprise
  • Tempe
  • Chandler Fire
  • Daisy Mountain Fire Department
  • Guadalupe Fire Department
  • Maricopa Fire Department
  • Sun City Fire Department
  • Sun City West Fire Department
  • Sun Lakes Fire Department
  • Scottsdale (pending)
  • Paradise Valley (pending)
  • Tolleson (pending)

City of Glendale

  • Avondale
  • Glendale

Maricopa County Radio System

  • Maricopa County
  • Scottsdale
  • Paradise Valley

Which radio to use

The current trend in public safety communications is to use digital technology. Also, since television's move to digital broadcasting, a new band of 700 Mhz frequencies have become available for public safety systems.

In the valley, there are analog systems, digital systems and combination systems. For instance, the Maricopa County system combines analog and digital communications on an 800 Mhz system. Phoenix, Glendale and Mesa systems are fully digital and use both 700 and 800 Mhz frequencies. Small systems like Chandler are only analog.

Most 'trunking' scanners can track the 800 Mhz analog trunking systems. To track digital systems a P25 compatible scanner is required; to track the new 700 Mhz trunked systems, a 700 Mhz capable radio is needed.

We do not recommend any particular brand of scanner. We do recomend that you research your purchase carefully to ensure that you can hear the systems you want to hear. Here are links to the more popular scanners:

A final note: Scanners are not built to the same standards as professional radios and you may not be able to clearly hear what you want to hear.

Systems and Sites

We refer a lot to systems and sites. Simply speaking, a system consists of one or more sites.

A site is a specific transmitter location with a set of frequencies assigned to it. Most wide area systems have many sites. When all sites in a system use the same frequencies, the system essential becomes one site - it is only necessary to program in one set of frequencies to monitor that entire system. When each site in a system has its own set of different frequencies, you must enter each site's frequencies seperately to monitor that system.

A simulcast system transmits the same traffic on all sites in the system. The valley's systems uses simulcast technology that some scanners have difficulty tracking. This is usually because of the relative positions of the scanner and the site you are monitoring. Sometimes moving your radio's location, adjusting or changing antennas, or adding attenuation to the frequency may help (see your radio's user guide). For more details on reception issues see the appropriate radio discussion forums at Radio Reference or vist Yahoo groups for your area of interest.

What to program

Most trunked scanners require at least the data frequency (the 'control channel') to be programmed for each site. Some older scanners require all the voice frequencies to be entered as well. To listen to just valley public safety traffic(and not all users on a system) you also need the correct voice channels - known as 'talkgroups.' A complete list of frequencies and talkgroups can be found at the links on the bottom of this page.

For the purposes of monitoring the valley's public safety agencies, you need to know the system that provides the coverage for your area of interest. We have included a list of system names, locations and relative coverage areas to allow you to decide what systems you should program to hear your areas of interest. At present, not all systems are linked to each other. (In fact, there are plans to 'unlink' the TRWC and the RWC.) So, a hobbyist would need to program all of the following sites to hear the majority of public safety traffic in the valley.

RWC=Phoenix system TRWC=Mesa System MCo=County System

Greater Phoenix Area System Coverage

OWNER SYSTEM COVERAGE AGENCY/ENTITY NOTES
RWC Simulcast A Phoenix metro area Phoenix Police
RWC Simulcast B Phoenix metro area Phoenix and Valley Fire Departments
RWC Simulcast C Southeast Phoenix: Chandler, Ahwatukee, Sun Lakes Phoenix, Chandler (after expected migration)
TRWC Simulcast D East Valley Cities Mesa, Gilbert, Apache Junction Law and Fire
RWC Simulcast E West Valley Cities Peoria, Buckeye, El Mirage, Surprise
RWC Simulcast G West Valley Cities Peoria, Buckeye, El Mirage, Surprise Simulcast E and G will be combined in 2010
RWC Simulcast F Tempe Tempe
RWC Simulcast X (NEW) Scottsdale Scottsdale, Paradise Valley (after migration) New system to go online in 2010
City of Glendale Glendale Glendale area Avondale, Glendale
MCo Thompson Peak Primary East Simulcast MCSO All Districts, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley Scottsdale and Paradise Vallley expected to migrate to RWC in 2010
MCo White Tanks Primary West Simulcast MCSO All Districts
MCo Central Court Primary Dwtwn Simulcast MCSO All Districts, Central Jails
City of Chandler Chandler Chandler Chandler PD Expected to migrate to RWC in 2010

The following sites carry localized traffic, and are included for those listeners who may need to monitor a specific location outside the RWC-TRWC-County simulcast footprint:

OWNER SYSTEM SITE COVERAGE USERS
RWC Quintero IR Site 502 Peoria, Quintero community only All subscribers
RWC Thompson Peak IR Site 302 East Phoenix, and Mesa area All subscribers
RWC South Mtn IR Site 203 Emergency backup All subscribers
RWC Sky Harbor IR Site 103 Aviation users at KPHX All subscribers
RWC Daisy Mtn Conv Site 902-904 Conventional at Daisy Mtn FD All subscribers
RWC Outlet Mall IR Site 204 North Phoenix All subscribers
RWC Waddell Dam IR Site 104 Northwest Phoenix All subscribers
RWC Goodyear IR Site 105 Far Southwest, Phoenix, Goodyear All subscribers
RWC Smith Peak High Site Site TBD West Maricopa County, Aguila All users
RWC Far North Mtn High Site Site TBD North Phoenix All users
RWC North Mtn High Site Site TBD North Phoenix All users
RWC Arizona City High Site Site TBD North Pinal County All users
RWC White Tanks High Site Site 208? West Maricopa County All users
MCo Oatman Mtn Site 003 Southwest Rural MCSO District 2
MCo Yarnell Hill Site 004 Northwest Rural MCSO District 3
MCo Mt. Gillen Site 005 Northwest Rural MCSO District 4
MCo Bronco Butte Site 006 Northeast Rural MCSO District 4
MCo Mt. Ord Site 007 Northeast Rural MCSO District 5
MCo Humbolt Mtn Site 008 Northeast Rural MCSO District 4
MCo Southeast Center Site 010 Southeast Rural MCSO District 1
MCo Durango Jail Site 011 Durango Jail users MCSO Durango Jail
MCo Chandler Site 012 Southeast Rural MCSO District 1
MCo Smith Peak Site 013 Northwest Rural MCSO District 3
MCo Towers Mtn Site 014 Northwest Rural MCSO District 3
MCo South Scottsdale Site 015 Southeast Rural MCSO District 1


Talkgroups

Each Agency on a sytem has its unique talkgroup (channel) assignments. Dispatch talkgroups are the busiest, with much routine traffic. Tactical talkgroups can be used for small incidents or to coordinate large events. Many agencies use a 'hot' channel to dispatch urgent calls. We recommend including 'hot' talkgroups in your scan list.

One of the reason that area-wide systems are so popular is the ability to provide interoperability - the ability for users from different agencies (and even on different systems) to communicate with each other at the scene of an incident, without relaying through a third party. Interoperabilty (mutual aid) channels can be very exiting, but there use is sporadic. A good practice is to program these talkgroups in their own folder or group and scan them regularly. You may be surprised at what you will hear!

A word about encryption and scrambling: You may also notice that some talkgroups are scrambled and you will not be able to understand the traffic on those channels. (These talkgroups are marked with the letter 'E' on the Radio Reference pages listed below.) Due to the nature of digital encryption, specific technical information is needed to convert the scrambled signal to clear speech - and that information is only released to those individuals or agencies that need it. No scanner on the market today can be converted to monitor digital encrypted communications.

Radio Reference Frequency and Talkgroup Links

We offer the following links to the most current data avaible for the following Phoenix Metropolitan are systems: