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Two-Tone Station Paging/Decoding

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BlueDevil

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What economically reasonable options exist out there for a decent Two-Tone State Paging/Decoding system besides the Federal Signal and ComTekk equipment?

Our department is looking to upgrade our system to something that has a few more options for station alerting. We would like a system that has customizable alerts so they are more gentle on our members heart rates in the middle of the night.

Let me know what your department is using.
 

FedFyrGuy

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"Economically reasonable" may be an issue. There are a number of interface devices that allow an alerting radios to trigger different tones or messages that can be rebroadcast over a station PA system. Some used standard tone patterns (including some heart friendly versions) or voice / tone combinations that you customize. Obviously, if you are reusing existing infrastructure - PA system, speakers, alerting radios, UPS power sources - you have a savings there. I have seen and used two such devices:

Multiple message alarm annoouncer with 9 messages
System Enhancement Products - Tone Generator

If you are attempting to accommodate volunteer or off-duty personnel carrying pagers, that is a whole different situation.

If you have a knowledgeable "radio guy" in the department - he could implement any of these equipment changes. If not, I strongly suggest working with a local radio shop or company that does station alerting in your area. This is a critical function, and many times is best left to professional.
 

Mr_Boh

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"Heart saver" type tones are typically part of pricier systems. I'm not a huge fan of them because their CAD integration can be a bit of a struggle but Westnet has a modular system where you can start with a single control box and expand from there. It will let you start with the two tone and work your way up to larger and more complex IP systems.

Locution and Purvis will pretty much want a million+ multi year contract. You could also try Phoenix G2.

We've done home brew systems in the past but the problem I have is I can't find a company that makes a tone generator that has good heart saver type tones. I'm sure someone has to have something like the Bogen tone generator that lets you used custom audio files. We used those in conjunction with a Minitor in the amplified base. It's just the Bogen tones are either too soft or too harsh.
 

kb4mdz

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CDM1250's are about a $0.25 a dozen on the used market. I've been involved for several years with replacing a bunch o' Federal Informers (which would occasionally get stuck in stupid mode, randomly) with CDM1250's, and feeding the trigger output from Pin 4 to trip a relay and feed audio to a PA. Once we went to the CDM's the incidence of 'no alert' service calls practically disappeared.



What else are you looking for?

Look around here for other posts by me about my circuit; or I can send you the diagram. One hint: It's a good idea to put this all in a locked box or cabinet to keep fingers from frobnicating the controls.
 

ramal121

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I've used some radios that do two tone decode and have the ability to change the alert tone but basically you are just changing a beep pattern. Have done this with both Icoms and Kenwoods.

If you want more choices you can use an outboard tone or chime generator and have the radio set it off. Of course this would be in a system with a PA amp and speakers where you have the chime going to it's own input so you can set the volume independently.

Ones I've used or had my fingers on are:

Valcom V-9927A
Viking MTG-10
Federal Signal UTM module
 

BlueDevil

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Our station already has a PA system with speakers installed throughout the station. Our station has a generator but we could afford a UPS if necessary.

Obviously "economically priced" is subjective. To clarify I don't think we can afford to spend thousands of dollars putting scrolling reader boards throughout the station or put interface control panels in all the station bedrooms.

We really don't have any issue with the Federal Signal Station Informer hardware that we have right now except it lacks a wide selection of alerting tones. If it had more alerting tones to choose from or even had the ability to upload a custom alerting tone we would probably be ok.
 

gesucks

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use TwoToneDetect TwoToneDetect
Take old computer and scanner or radio output in to computer.
Software can do unlimited number of different tone sets.
For each set it can then play a custom wav file.
It can then also email out the calls to your members

PM if you have questions on it. I use it and love it. I have no interest or ownership in it. It is free
 

ramal121

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Our station has a generator but we could afford a UPS if necessary.

Not the generator I was referencing. Go here:

https://www.fedsig.com/resource-library?resource_category[0]=277&product_category=286&title_selective=UTM%20SelecTone®%20Universal%20Tone%20Module&sort_by=title&sort_order=ASC&page=1

and see if there is something you like better. All you would have to do is turn off the audible alert in the informer and use this tone module to input an external alert sound into the PA amp.

Edit: link doesn't work right. Use the product pull-down to select UTM and you will get sound samples you can play.
 
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