Hazard zone communications (fires and haz-mat incidents) are assigned to one of the VHF simplex channels. There are numerous transmit and receive sites located atop various mountain peaks around the Valley that allow the alarm room to hear units on scene. Unless you are within a few miles of the scene, (mileage dependant upon your antenna and how high it is above ground) you won't hear anyone but the alarm room.
EMS and any other calls not involving fire or hazardous materials are assigned to a K-deck talkgroup. For typical medical incidents, the vast majority of status updates (enroute, on scene, enroute to the hospital, available on radio, available in quarters) are button presses on the MDC in the rig. About the only time you will hear comms on the K-decks, is if they need to special call another unit, such as an ambulance on K-6 through K-9, or it is a major medical call or mountain rescue on K-10/11/12. Most special events, as well as Central City, the local private alcohol recovery center that has a transport unit dispatched by the Phoenix FD RDC, are on K-2.
Due to the LSM (linear simulcast modulation) that the various RWC simulcast sites use, your reception of any of those sites (Simulcasts A & B in Phoenix, C in Chandler, F in Tempe, G in the West Valley, H in Scottsdale, and J in Buckeye) may suffer from multi-path interference, which essentially cancels out the signal at your scanner. (The Mesa simulcast of the TOPAZ RWC system has the same issue.) If you're not able to hear anything on the K-deck talkgroups, this may be why.
Supposedly, Uniden scanners are better than Whistler scanners at dealing with LSM systems such as the RWC and TOPAZ RWC here in the Valley. But, they aren't perfect, either.
If you have a home installation, installing a 700 MHz directional antenna on your roof, and experimenting with which direction to point it in, may help to vastly improve your reception.
For mobile/portable listening, purchasing a Unication G4 or G5 pager, which has professional grade circuitry that can actually handle LSM systems, may be your best bet.
I do not own a directional antenna, nor either of the Unication pagers, so I make due with what I can hear, which is the VHF channels for the FD, and Peoria PD off of the White Tanks and Towers Mtn IR sites. Once in awhile, I'll catch K-deck 1 or 6 off of Towers Mtn as well. (K-2 is carried on both the White Tanks and Thompson Peak IR sites. None of the other K-decks are carried on any of the other IR sites, as far as I have determined. They used to be, but it's been several years since they did.)
John
Peoria, AZ
