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The Phoenix Fire Department's
800 MHz Frequently Asked Questions

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How big is the 800 MHz radio system and how much of the Valley will be covered?
This system is designed to cover approximately 2000 square miles. The Phoenix portion of the system has 24 radio sites and Mesa has an additional 9 sites. The Phoenix and Mesa systems will be linked to allow your radios to roam anywhere in the coverage area. It will cover Luke AFB to Apache Junction and Daisy Mountain to Chandler/Sun Lakes and everything in between. Dedicated phone lines, fiber optic cable or microwave links interconnect all of the individual sites. This allows the data (your digitized voice) to be routed to all of the appropriate sites. When you key your radio to talk, your voice is digitized by your radio, received by one or more of the sites; the data is routed to all appropriate sites for retransmission.

How many radios will be in use and how much will it cost the City?
All City of Phoenix departments will migrate to the new radio system over the next 3 years. This means the City will be purchasing 9342 radios. Of this amount 1446 belong to the Phoenix Fire Department. The total cost of radios and accessories is around 61 million dollars.

When will the training begin and when will the radio system go online?
The radio sites are under construction now and are slated for completion this year. System testing has begun will be completed in the fall of 2003. The Phoenix Police Department and other city departments will go on-line in beginning of 2004. Phoenix fire vehicle installations are scheduled for November of 2004 and will be completed in July 2005. Our Mutual Aid partners’ installations will commence after completion of the Phoenix fire units. Mutual aid cities are to be completed by October 2005. During the installation period we will be trained on the features and operation of the radios and do coverage testing (Can you hear me now?). The coverage testing will allow us to verify that the system meets our needs before we go live.

To see the latest questions posed to the 800 MHz Team, click HERE.

Questions? Click HERE to email the 800 MHz Team.