Minitor Pager Question

[mkewman]

Is it possible to have a Fire Pager programmed so that it will activate every time fire codes are transmitted?

How much are Minitors running these days?

I'm doing some consulting for a NewsTalk Station that's interested in using Fire Pagers so they can be notified every time dispatch announces a fire/med event.

Would it be possible to get Minitors to go off every time firetones go off?

 

[nyscan00]

yes thats exactly what fire pagers do. When programmed to the correct frequency and tones, it will activate every time your local FD bangs out a Fire / Ems call. The trick is to determine the tones used to activate the pagers.

They many varieties of fire pagers.... the newest and most expensive being the Motorola Minitor V..running around $350-400

Used Minitor II's (discontinued) can be bought for under $100 but you need to also purchase the tones reeds/ crystal. Minitor III and Iv pagers are discontinued-but can still be bought cheap. Advantage with the newer pagers is you only need a comp / software to program tones , freq etc...at local radio repair shop.

 

[jim202]

You can't be much of a consultant on radio issues if your asking this question here on a scanner site. If I was the "Talk Station" I would have checked your background a little more than what is obvious. Best you go ask a radio shop that is in your area where you should be able to obtain a better technical answer.

To try and even start to answer your question, you would need to know what the pager tones are that are transmitted for the different type of calls. without even knowing the tones, in most cases, there generally is no common tone between fire and EMS pages. Could be wrong, but in my many miles of travel around the country, have never seen it done.

Jim

Is it possible to have a Fire Pager programmed so that it will activate every time fire codes are transmitted?

How much are Minitors running these days?

I'm doing some consulting for a NewsTalk Station that's interested in using Fire Pagers so they can be notified every time dispatch announces a fire/med event.

Would it be possible to get Minitors to go off every time firetones go off?

 

[mkewman]

You can't be much of a consultant on radio issues if your asking this question here on a scanner site. If I was the "Talk Station" I would have checked your background a little more than what is obvious. Best you go ask a radio shop that is in your area where you should be able to obtain a better technical answer.

To try and even start to answer your question, you would need to know what the pager tones are that are transmitted for the different type of calls. without even knowing the tones, in most cases, there generally is no common tone between fire and EMS pages. Could be wrong, but in my many miles of travel around the country, have never seen it done.

Jim

when i said consulting, i didn't mean it in a professional manner, i'm just helping them out a bit.

i'm just looking to have it activate whenever a tone is transmitted. any sort of tone.

 

[1268]

All right, here's a better answer to your question as stated earlier you will need to find out the tones for the stations you are trying to monitor, with that done I would recommend you go buy the new uniden bcd396t, it has fire -tone out and would be a better fit and if your area went digital you would still be covered. You could try it with a few pagers but I just don't think that's a feasible plan for your application. Just a suggestion. good luck!

 

[mkewman]

thank you! thats the kind of answer i was looking for. i had forgotten about the 396. that's definitly a better solution.

thanks

 

[DaveIN]

Or you could go for the cheaper BR330T with the same Tone Out feature.

 

[ResQguy]

OK, you want a radio to alert for every call that is transmitted on a given frequency? Not just a specific station? Depending on what department you're talking about, that could get annoying really quick. Not to mention, there are probably more tones used an entire department than any Minitor could hold. In fact, maybe a Minitor II "PL" model would do what you want. They have reeds installed for PL tones, not Quik-Call. They are near impossible to find, though.

 

[bemash]

What is up with Jim202. he is kinda mean ...... guys like that is why i try not to ask anything here

 

[SlipNutz15]

If you want something that will activate when the local fire departments get called out for something, purchase (you or your company) a Minitor V. They're the newest pager on the market from Motorola and they can have up to 12 tones per frequency. I'm not sure how many out of the 12 are actually dual tone banks like you will need for your county but I'm sure if you contact your local radio dealership with those questions they'll be able to answer you and program you a pager for that.

Also, not trying to be anal, but technically you need permission to have a pager for a company becasue if you're not a member of a station and you start showing up on scenes, they're going to get annoyed at you real quick. I recommend contact the chiefs of the local fire department and asking them if they mind you puting their tones in a pager so you can go to their call and do whatever you do.

Or if you want to go a cheaper route, get a hand-held scanner, put the fire frequency in your scanner and look online for the local fire department's names and numbers and listen for them when they are dispatched and through time, learn the numbers and how county dispatches and just use your scanner to monitor the fire band frequencies. Little cheaper and it still works. I know you want something that activates, I'm sure they have scanners that have an alert feature that can be activated

 

[Voyager]

Also, not trying to be anal, but technically you need permission to have a pager for a company becasue if you're not a member of a station and you start showing up on scenes, they're going to get annoyed at you real quick.

Technically, legally, or any other "ly" way you want to add, you don't need anyone's permission to receive a transmitted signal. Look at the FTO mode of the BCD396T. Do you think everyone is asking permission before programming the tones of interest in their scanner? A pager is the same as any other receiver.

That said, they are under no obligation to provide you the tones either. Many times, they don't even know what they are! But, there are programs such as Counter.exe that can read them right off the air to get close enough for look-up in a standard tone table.

That said, if you start showing up at their scenes without a good reason, you are asking for a lot of trouble from several standpoints. Having the receiver of pager is one thing. Interfering with the duties of PS personel is quote another. If you have a reason to be there, fine. If you don't, make sure you keep your distance. Note that a pager makes no difference in this regard. Even if you have a 1970s scanner with one channel, the same applies.

Joe M.

 

[sking128]

Wait a minute guys, he didn't say he was going to show up. He is doing it for a Radio Station. So don't give him any grief.

But with taht said, speaking form the fire side of the house, it is quite annoying when civillians start showing up and doing theings like "un-authorized" traffic control. It tends to create more porblems than it solves.


Steve

 

[jmp883]

I think a better option for media people would be a 'buff pager'. A good buff paging service will put out all major confirmed incidents-FD/PD/EMS as well as traffic and weather alerts on an alpha-numeric pager. Many of the dispatchers of these paging services are emergency services dispatchers, firemen or other related emergency service workers. Many of us are also radio/scanner buffs.

The service I dispatch for one covers NYC, southern NY and CT, all of NJ, and eastern PA. We also send out major incidents from around the country and even international events.

As an emergency services dispatcher I can verify that right after a major incident starts we get the media calling, usually stating '....what can you tell me about the ..... I see on my pager'

Look into that option. It'll be a lot quieter and cheaper than carrying a fire pager. Using a scanner is a great idea but if I was a reporter I wouldn't use the scanner until I'd been alerted to an incident via the buff pager.

Just my thoughts.......

After posting I see that mkewman is an IPN dispatcher. Hey...show your clients your pager, you just might get a few new customers! :wink:

 

[Voyager]

But with taht said, speaking form the fire side of the house, it is quite annoying when civillians start showing up and doing theings like "un-authorized" traffic control. It tends to create more porblems than it solves.

Doesn't CO have laws to deal with that? In PA it's called impersonating an officer unless the person is an emergency service worker, road crew, or other select persons authorized to direct traffic. Unfortunately, one of those exemptions is a person so ordered by a police officer or fire chief to do the job. But, that really puts the liability issues on the fire.

I've thrown people off fire scenes for rubbernecking (technically, for obstruction or interference with the ability of public safety personel to perform their duties).

Joe M.

 

[RDCat]

CAN MKEWMAN CONTACT ME DIRECT...
RON_CATHERS@HOTMAIL.COM
IPN QUESTIONS------

 

[twolf816]

a little off topic but; we switched our system to 3 fire depts on a frequency, but with different tones. does anyone know anything about the old moto keynote? can it be reprogrammed easy? or at all? thx

 

[traperjeff]

Is there group or fourm dedicated to minitors? And how availble is the software for programming the new minitors....

 

[Al42]

thank you! thats the kind of answer i was looking for. i had forgotten about the 396. that's definitly a better solution.

thanks

Since what you want is a receiver that will receive anything the department transmits (you can't get a receiver with infinite tone capability - even the 396 can only monitor 10 tone-outs), you want a scanner that covers the frequency used by the local FD - but with carrier or PL (or DPL - whatever they use) squelch. That way, when they transmit, you hear. That's a lot cheaper than a 396. It's probably even cheaper than a 246. The cost would depend on what frequencies they use - VHF, UHF, 800? Trunked or conventional? Tone or digital squelch or none?

There's no such thing as a "tone decoder" - something that decodes whenever any tone is transmitted. You could build one, but there's nothing commercially available that I know of.

 

[Admin0140434]

i think everyone is missing this point from his post...

i'm just looking to have it activate whenever a tone is transmitted. any sort of tone.

if you want it to let you know when ANY tone goes off, just leave the pager in OPEN mode... it wont go BEEP BEEP BEEP... it will just start toning out and transmitting