Regional Wireless and Topaz Merger official

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djewel73

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Announced earlier today that what started in 2007 as a divorce after plans for a unified communications trunking system throughout the Phoenix Metro area were abandoned with Mesa, Gilbert and some other communities south and east of Phoenix creating their own all digital trunking system it was announced today that finally the divorce has been settled and that the RWC and Topaz systems will be merged into the original unified system orginally envisioned prior to political idiocy prevailing. The entire article online can be read here.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/...re-radio-systems-unified.html?source=nletter-
 

wlmr

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Phoenix Fire has a VHF non-digital radio system and RWC is a digital 800 trunked system. Which are they talking about joining together with Mesa? The article seems to be talking about two different things as if they were one.
 

karldotcom

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Phoenix Fire is a member of RWC.

They dispatch in digital, and fireground is VHF analog. Reading this article seems to indicate Mesa and Co. will be adopting those procedures.
 

Phoenix805

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I thought the article was interesting, but I thought they were mixing their apples and oranges a bit. Unfortunately I don't think the writer knows much about radio systems. I always wondered why Mesa wouldn't join the regional dispatch system, and then later decided to create their own regional wireless system when Phoenix and much of the surrounding area did most of the groundwork and got a good system off the ground.
 

AZScanner

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So do we think that Mesa will still dispatch it's own units or does this mean that eventually everyone's calls will come out of Phoenix? I'd love to see the latter happen - that way users of my app would see calls for Mesa Fire as well as the rest of the valley. :)

-AZ
 

Phoenix805

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So do we think that Mesa will still dispatch it's own units or does this mean that eventually everyone's calls will come out of Phoenix? I'd love to see the latter happen - that way users of my app would see calls for Mesa Fire as well as the rest of the valley. :)

-AZ

I don't know, and time will tell. IMHO I think they will merge radio resources but continue to do their own dispatching.
 

KB7MIB

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The RWC and the Topaz RWC were originally supposed to be one system, not two seperate systems. At this time, RWC users cannot roam onto the Topaz system, and vice versa. The talkgroups aren't carrried between the two. If they link the two systems, then this roaming, and better interoperability will be possible.
 

rpgaun

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The RWC and the Topaz RWC were originally supposed to be one system, not two seperate systems. At this time, RWC users cannot roam onto the Topaz system, and vice versa. The talkgroups aren't carrried between the two. If they link the two systems, then this roaming, and better interoperability will be possible.

So, currently when a Mesa unit comes mutual aid to the RWC area are they using a completely different radio in their unit? I have many times heard the Mesa Dispatcher assign them to the RWC Talk Group for the area (IE: K7, K8, etc).
 

Astrak

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So, currently when a Mesa unit comes mutual aid to the RWC area are they using a completely different radio in their unit? I have many times heard the Mesa Dispatcher assign them to the RWC Talk Group for the area (IE: K7, K8, etc).

They don't have to carry different radio's anymore, I think pretty much everyone is using APX radio's. When the systems merge there won't be two system keys to deal with, some talkgroups will have a larger roaming area. Even before APX radio's being deployed firefighters still had to use two radio's, K deck radio's and VHF radio's.
 

KB7MIB

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I was thinking more along the lines of PD officers outside of their respective system. Mesa PD probably (but I don't know this for sure) put their site up on White Tanks due to the fact that their talkgroups won't roam onto the RWC.
 
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