KB7MIB
Member
Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.80 (BREW; Opera Mini/6.0.3/27.2339; U; en) Presto/2.8.119 320X240 LG VN530)
KG7DOT, firefighters who use the RWC don't carry 2 seperate radios for the VHF and RWC channels. They each have one dual-band radio, which covers both VHF and 700/800 MHz. They can switch between decks (other agencies may call them banks, groups or zones), and each deck can be either VHF or 700/800 MHz.
A and B decks are VHF, K and L decks are RWC. I'm pretty sure that they have the RWC G deck interoperability talkgroups as well.
They may also have H deck (RWC encrypted interoperability talkgroups), I deck (conventional analog 800 MHz 8-Tacs/I-Tacs, and possibly a few conventional P25 700 MHz interoperability channels), and Ocean deck (also RWC interoperability talkgroups).
They may have 2 additional decks with conventional VHF analog interoperability channels, and conventional 700 MHz P25 interoperability channels.
So, anyway, your friend on the rescue will have his radio set to A deck, and his partner will have his radio set to K deck. But they carry identical radios.
And yes, a transmission on K-1 is delayed by about a second or so from the transmission on A-1. This is due to the fact that the RWC transmitter is patched into a VHF transmitter, from what I've been told, at a tower location in Scottsdale.
I've also noticed, and some of you may have as well, that when a firefighter transmits on a K-deck channel, if another firefighter's radio is within earshot, you'll hear the echo of the first firefighter coming from the second (3rd, 4th, etc) radio due to the inherent delay of the digital signal processing.
KG7DOT, firefighters who use the RWC don't carry 2 seperate radios for the VHF and RWC channels. They each have one dual-band radio, which covers both VHF and 700/800 MHz. They can switch between decks (other agencies may call them banks, groups or zones), and each deck can be either VHF or 700/800 MHz.
A and B decks are VHF, K and L decks are RWC. I'm pretty sure that they have the RWC G deck interoperability talkgroups as well.
They may also have H deck (RWC encrypted interoperability talkgroups), I deck (conventional analog 800 MHz 8-Tacs/I-Tacs, and possibly a few conventional P25 700 MHz interoperability channels), and Ocean deck (also RWC interoperability talkgroups).
They may have 2 additional decks with conventional VHF analog interoperability channels, and conventional 700 MHz P25 interoperability channels.
So, anyway, your friend on the rescue will have his radio set to A deck, and his partner will have his radio set to K deck. But they carry identical radios.
And yes, a transmission on K-1 is delayed by about a second or so from the transmission on A-1. This is due to the fact that the RWC transmitter is patched into a VHF transmitter, from what I've been told, at a tower location in Scottsdale.
I've also noticed, and some of you may have as well, that when a firefighter transmits on a K-deck channel, if another firefighter's radio is within earshot, you'll hear the echo of the first firefighter coming from the second (3rd, 4th, etc) radio due to the inherent delay of the digital signal processing.
The hypothetical "Phase III" I referred to was just a jab at the term "P25 Phase II". Still if you think about it, that seems to be the logical progression we are facing. Project 25 was around long before 9-11 but 9-11 was the excuse used to convince every major metropolitan area that they needed to blow hundreds of millions of dollars to achieve "interoperability" (phase I), then the FCC mandated that these systems be ultra-narrow band and 700MHz only (phase II) by 2016. Seems pretty convenient doesn't it? All we need now is another 9-11 (or Boston bomber, or insert-scary-incident-here) where the culprits were carrying scanners (or a smart phone) and voila, we'll be told that the scary bad men with smartphones "were probably listening to the cops and that's how they were able to harm innocent people" or some such utter BS and to keep us safe, the benevolent Big Brother a.k.a. federal government will make it law that all such communications be encrypted. End of story.
