Do I want a voice pager, scanner, other device?

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Originally Posted by bben95

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but you could get a cheap chinese radio off ebay.
Something like the TYT UVF1 which I have does 2 tone paging and you can program the tones in yourself with free software and a cheap, standard cable.

I will give this a look around, but once again, these "cheap" options still look like they'd run me about the same price as the other things I described! If my brand name crap already isn't working that well, I don't have much faith in the chinese crap!

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Originally Posted by firefive76

Scanners are made to pick up usually from around 30MHz to 800+MHz, so the antennas and receivers for them are made this way, where as a radio's receiver and antenna are narrowed down to a certain band and made only for that band.

I don't know exactly when the HT750 began being manufactured, but I can't imagine it was much before 1999.

Your radio system probably uses all the same frequencies with different transmit PL codes to talk to different repeaters in your area. Your radio programmer could set all 3 of the frequencies up the same, so no matter which of the 3 channels your radio is on, it would still alert.

Ah, that makes sense. It has to do a lot of things rather than just focus on doing one thing well.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what a PL code is. Wouldn't they just set up the same code on all three towers? I do know that once I get into the truck, I have to swap out my portable for another portable we keep on the truck to use the truck repeater (or I can obviously use the mobile radio mounted in the truck).

This is probably getting a bit off topic, but the way it was explained to me is that there are actually two frequencies in our radios. Each channel has an in and an out (with the exception of the car to car channels). And the reason I need to change channels is that while the out channel is the same on all 3 towers and all 10 or whatever truck repeaters, each one has a unique in channel. This is why unlike a walkie-talkie, if dispatch is sending out a message, and I hit my PTT, i won't walk over the dispatcher? I don't know if this is true or not though, because I've been in the middle of transmitting and have been walked over by others many times!

[firefive76]

Originally Posted by WuLabsWuTecH

Ah, that makes sense. It has to do a lot of things rather than just focus on doing one thing well.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what a PL code is. Wouldn't they just set up the same code on all three towers? I do know that once I get into the truck, I have to swap out my portable for another portable we keep on the truck to use the truck repeater (or I can obviously use the mobile radio mounted in the truck).

This is probably getting a bit off topic, but the way it was explained to me is that there are actually two frequencies in our radios. Each channel has an in and an out (with the exception of the car to car channels). And the reason I need to change channels is that while the out channel is the same on all 3 towers and all 10 or whatever truck repeaters, each one has a unique in channel. This is why unlike a walkie-talkie, if dispatch is sending out a message, and I hit my PTT, i won't walk over the dispatcher? I don't know if this is true or not though, because I've been in the middle of transmitting and have been walked over by others many times!

PL stands for private line, also called CTCSS, or continuous tone coded squelch system. This is a subaudible tone that your radio sends out to a certain receiver listening for it, in your case, the repeater. Repeaters do require 2 frequencies, an input and output. Here is some info you might find helpful if you want to learn about repeaters: Investing in a Repeater101 - for hobbyists, fishers, hams, and amateurs

It sounds like your system is set up with all the same input and output frequencies at the repeaters, but a different input PL tone (or output PL from your radio) to key different repeaters at different locations for a wider area coverage.

[cabletech]

Reading thu this whole thing, you keep saying that you and others are basicly having the same type of problems for recieving your tone outs.

Now, with all this, I would say that your department, county, has more troubles then anyone realizes.

Has any one contacted the radio system people about the poor reception? This whole thing sounds like you have a major system problem and if the correct people are not informed, then nothing will get fixed.

And you trying to put a bandaid on a major problem will not cure it.

Think bandaid on a broken leg.

As for PL (or DPL), think electriconic door code, not the correct code door will not open, same thing in radio, incorrect code, the recieving radio will not 'open' to hear the traffic.

A repeater is in effect two radios tied together, one to recieve and one to transmitt.

As the reciever recieves the signal from another radio, it passes the signal to the other radio to retransmit to everyone else.

This type of system is called a repeater and is used to help cover a wide area, usually setup to cover around a 25-30 mile radiues of the tower.

Now this also depends on the ground terain in the area, some times there are several towers to cover the same area because of hills and valleys.

In my county in Washington state, we have 3 towers because of this and the overall size of the county.

However on the main tone out frequency, the same frequency is used county wide from all 3 towers at the same time in what is called simocast (all 3 towers transmit at the same time).

In order for this to happen, the reciever is on one frequency and the transmitter is on another frequency and a PL is used on the reciever to help prevent signals that are not wanted from getting into the system.

I think your department needs to get the radio shop to rework the system.

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Unfortunately, we are just one department in a county with many departments. A county that has no money. The repeaters on our trucks are in fact a band-aid, but it's the best we could do at the time we got them. Right now, we have 3 departments that have had to lay off people because of funding issues, two that had to cut out an entire station, and 3 more that are running on fumes. I only got "promoted" because we haven't hired for a vacancy in about 4 years.

More on topic though, my desire for some sort of alerting system is just for personal use. I like to not have to sit in the station all day (sometimes by myself) if it's nice out or if I just want to stroll to the coffee shop for a bit and read a magazine. Once station duties are done, there's no real reason I have to be at the station because as long as I'm close by, I'll still be the first one on station waiting for the other volunteers to get in. I just can't tell the difference between our tones and someone else's tones and the pagers apparently can!

[ScanWV]

Sounds like your best bet would be to use your HT750 to receive your pages. My work issued radio (Motorola HT2500) will alert when our tones are received. The only downfall to that is, at least with mine it will not scan while its in page mode.

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Originally Posted by ScanWV

Sounds like your best bet would be to use your HT750 to receive your pages. My work issued radio (Motorola HT2500) will alert when our tones are received. The only downfall to that is, at least with mine it will not scan while its in page mode.

Yeah, the research I've done indicates the same--that if I get it to alert, then it won't scan, but that's not a big deal since I only need to monitor one channel.

Regardless of what I do with my HT750 (since it's out of my hands and I can only recommend changes on it), I think i'm going to get myself a bearcat and sell my Pro-95 on ebay. With the prices the way they are right now, it's essentially a $50-60 upgrade to get something that can do the rebanding (which I need and don;t currently have with the Pro-95 which I use as a backup) and possibly the alert function as well.

Now the question is do I use the 750 to scan and the scanner to alert? Or the other way around?

[stmills]

While the HT-750 was first Approved by the FCC in 9/1998, they are still a decent radio. The HT-750 does have a more sensitive receiver on the VHF band than a Uniden Scanner, with reception being an issue I would want the radio with the most sensitive receiver.
I have used Motorola Ht's when they were approaching 20 years old and they had fewer wear and tear issues on there components than my Uniden 396 has.