Minitor 4 and alpha pager questions... Livingston county

Bdude1 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2011, 6:21 PM

A few years back I worked on a fire department here in livingston county. We were issued a Minitor 4 or 5 and a alpha pager to be alerted for fire calls.
I have two questions regarding that equipment...

1) Recently I was given a minitor 4 by a friend from ohio... I have the frequency to listen to livingston county fire dispatches (154.01) but I dont have the tones to trip the minitor if I wanted to... Does anyone have any idea how I can get a list of tones for all of the fire departments? That would be helpfull!

2) in regards to the Alpha paging... Out of total curiousity... Is it possible to intercept alpha pages from central dispatch in livingston county for fire calls? Is it legal? and if so how would one do that?

#1 is within my budget because I already have a minitor and programming kit.
#2 is not within my budget because I can not afford a pager at this time. That is out of pure curiousity.

Thank you!

Bdude1 · #2 (**permalink**) 04-28-2011, 4:05 PM

Bump!

fnnm1062 · #3 (**permalink**) 04-28-2011, 8:09 PM

If I am correct:

to get the minitor 4 programmed requires special software and you can only get it set up to trip for 1 possibly 2 tones.

the alpha paging i believe is illegal unless you have permission to get the pages

ffexpCP · #4 (**permalink**) 04-29-2011, 12:06 AM

Each channel slot in a minitor 3 or 4 can hold 4 two-tone and 2 single-tone calls.

Each channel slot in a minitor 5 can hold 8 two-tone and 4 single-tone calls.

Bdude1 · #5 (**permalink**) 04-29-2011, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fnnm1062

If I am correct:

to get the minitor 4 programmed requires special software and you can only get it set up to trip for 1 possibly 2 tones.

the alpha paging i believe is illegal unless you have permission to get the pages

I have the equipment to program the minitor 3 and 4. I just wanna get my local FD tones so I can be alerted of certain things, especially nasty weather. These have been rather dificult to find... Any help would be great! I also have a uniden scanner that can do fire tones. Looking for Livingston county. Thank you in advance.

ffexpCP · #6 (**permalink**) 04-29-2011, 7:15 PM

Not many fire tones are listed on RR. If you have an XT model of uniden scanner, you can search for the tones. It's usually pretty close.

Bdude1 · #7 (**permalink**) 04-29-2011, 7:58 PM

Update. Sold my uniden... So now I just have a pro-96 and a minitor 4....

Bdude1 · #8 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 9:12 PM

Someone has to know these or be able to find them...

fnnm1062 · #9 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 9:14 PM

might have luck if you try to get in touch with one of the fd's, or see who does their radio work. or just try some of the radio shops in the area, they may be able to help...

rdale · #10 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 9:47 PM

moses.bz - 47fire-alert shows alerts for all agencies in the county, which means he likely has the tones.

Just curious - in the two months that you had your Uniden, did you get any of them at all?

Chauffeur6 · #11 (**permalink**) 04-30-2011, 9:50 PM

Connect the scanner to the computer and record the frequency until you have the tones you want. Use Scanner Recorder, it's free and easy to use

Scanner Recorder Home Page

Once you have the audio files, import them into Audacity and use the "Plot Spectrum" function to find the Hz of the tones.

Audacity: Windows

There's a PDF floating around here detailing how to go about this, or I think I once posted step by step instructions. I'll try to find them, but it's not very difficult to figure out.

Bdude1 · #12 (**permalink**) 05-01-2011, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdale

moses.bz - 47fire-alert shows alerts for all agencies in the county, which means he likely has the tones.

Just curious - in the two months that you had your Uniden, did you get any of them at all?

Nope... I needed money so I knew I was selling. I just left it boxed up... I am borrowing a pro-96 from a friend so I will try scannerrec and audacity as soon as I fix my computer. I emailed the guy that runs that site also.

Bdude1 · #13 (**permalink**) 05-03-2011, 4:40 PM

ok... Got my computer back up and running... Download scanner recorder and audacity. Plugged scanner into MIC in. and have scanner recorder running. Any specific settings to make this work good?

Bdude1 · #14 (**permalink**) 05-03-2011, 5:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bdude1

ok... Got my computer back up and running... Download scanner recorder and audacity. Plugged scanner into MIC in. and have scanner recorder running. Any specific settings to make this work good?

I recorded a fire dispatch but when I played it back it was very hard to understand what was said... Really staticky. It is playing over my computer just fine...

Bdude1 · #15 (**permalink**) 05-03-2011, 6:39 PM

Update:
I have switched from using MIC in to LINE in and it is of much better quality. Now I just have to wait and see if it works to decipher the tones using audacity. The suspense is killing me.

w8fsm · #16 (**permalink**) 05-04-2011, 1:05 AM

I got your emails but as part of the agreement for having access to the list of tones I can not disclose them... I know anybody with a scanner could get the list... It was just part of my agreement with them. In fact that is the agreement and stipulation for all of the counties that I have 2 tone alerts setup for..

thomasfd13 · #17 (**permalink**) 05-04-2011, 1:16 AM

With regards to the Alpha paging; The way our system is set up there is a database and a program that would either do a singer user page or an all call for a dept. In order to get other dispatches the admin of the system would have to add your number to other depts to be alerted. I don't know much about the newer Mintors to give you any advice on them except that you should be able to have 2 tone sequences programed. In the older models they used crystals to activate. Hope that helps out a little.

Bdude1 · #18 (**permalink**) 05-04-2011, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by w8fsm

I got your emails but as part of the agreement for having access to the list of tones I can not disclose them... I know anybody with a scanner could get the list... It was just part of my agreement with them. In fact that is the agreement and stipulation for all of the counties that I have 2 tone alerts setup for..

ok :-( no problem. I was afraid that was going to be the case. I am working towards cracking them. I just got my computer up and running and Have my Pro 96 recording 154.01. I recorded green oaks all call last night and using audacity narrowed down to the tones and I think I got them. Had to compare what I got to a tone chart and a sound chart of all the QCII tones. Programmed it into my minitor 4 and we shall see what happens next time they all call green oak.

P.S. it kinda confuses me why they would make you agree to not disclose that info when it would be as simple as having a scanner and a brain to get. I played phone tag with don arbic for a week a while back... That got me no where. I wonder if I could put a FOIA request through...? Nah... its actually kinda fun trying to crack them myself :-P

Its like hiding something that everyone already knows....

Bdude1 · #19 (**permalink**) 05-04-2011, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomasfd13

With regards to the Alpha paging; The way our system is set up there is a database and a program that would either do a singer user page or an all call for a dept. In order to get other dispatches the admin of the system would have to add your number to other depts to be alerted. I don't know much about the newer Mintors to give you any advice on them except that you should be able to have 2 tone sequences programed. In the older models they used crystals to activate. Hope that helps out a little.

Im all on top of it now. Just had to get all the hardware in order. The departments out here have Specific station tones or all call tones and then there are the special teams tones and if I can recall correctly a weather tone?

In regards to the newer minitors. minitor 3/4/5's are field programmable. All you need is software, Docking station, Computer and some knowledge of the tones or how to go about getting them. Seems like our county treats the tones like its top secret and classified but its quite the opposite.

johnvassel · #20 (**permalink**) 05-08-2011, 8:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bdude1

Im all on top of it now. Just had to get all the hardware in order. The departments out here have Specific station tones or all call tones and then there are the special teams tones and if I can recall correctly a weather tone?

In regards to the newer minitors. minitor 3/4/5's are field programmable. All you need is software, Docking station, Computer and some knowledge of the tones or how to go about getting them. Seems like our county treats the tones like its top secret and classified but its quite the opposite.

They just have no benefit to giving out the tones. Many people make money off their dispatches, why should they make it easier.
That being said, you saw how easy it is to get them. Now, if on your pc recording them you installed a program called twotonedecode.exe you could actually get the alerts emailed to your phone.