Motorola Minitor questions

[mcooke]

I'm thinking about getting a Motorola Minitor IV or V but don't know much about how they work. I assume you purchase for the frequency band on which the tones are dispatched, which in my case will be VHF high. In my area some fire tones are two tone and other are the DTMF type tones Does the Minitor IV and V alert on both types of tones? Also, on Ebay I see many being sold without a charger. Will these take regular batteries or do I need to make sure and find one with a charger. Finally, any idea which I should look for, the IV or V and what is a good price? Thanks.

 

[TheManBornWithin]

The IV's take AAA batteries, you can use those without a charger. The V's use a custom battery pack, so you will need a charger for those.

 

[chrismol1]

Minitor IV & V are two tone
Do you need only 1 frequency or 2 frequencies?

 

[mcooke]

I would only need one frequency. All of our county fire departments are dispatched on one channel and then assigned out to response channels. There is one main response channel, however, so could I get a two-channel minitor and use the first as the alert channel and the second as simply as a monitor channel?

 

[chrismol1]

do you need stored voice?
i can get you a model number to look for

 

[mcooke]

Does stored voice mean that it saves the audio for replay? If so, that would be an added bonus but not necessary. This would be strictly for hobby monitoring.

 

[mcooke]

I just thought of another question. Can the minitor be programmed to alert on multiple station's tones, or is does it only alert on one set of tones. There are three fire stations in particular in my area that I'd like to monitor. If I can program all three station tones into the minitor that would be great.

 

[chrismol1]

Yup you can enter in up to 8 tone pairs for your use
The minitor V would be ideal with its probability scan and silent scan

Your going to want:

A03KMS7239BC - Those are the numbers you want to see
usually you'll see "BC", the letters could range from A-D, its a revision type for the pager. its not important if your only going to use for hobby.

The model number above would be a Minitor V VHF 2 Channel NSV(Non stored voice)

A03 = VHF
KMS = Minitor V
7 = Tone, voice, vibrate * or replace the 7 with a 9 to add stored voice
2 = two tone
39 = Two frequencies *38 would equal 1 frequency

 

[mcooke]

Thanks Crhismol1....do you know if there's an equivalent feature set in the minitor iv?

 

[melekec]

I'm thinking about getting a Motorola Minitor IV or V but don't know much about how they work. I assume you purchase for the frequency band on which the tones are dispatched, which in my case will be VHF high. In my area some fire tones are two tone and other are the DTMF type tones Does the Minitor IV and V alert on both types of tones? Also, on Ebay I see many being sold without a charger. Will these take regular batteries or do I need to make sure and find one with a charger. Finally, any idea which I should look for, the IV or V and what is a good price? Thanks.

The minitor IV takes regular AAA batteries if it doesn't come with a charger . The minitor V does not use regular batteries because the back is one big battery and it has to have a charger . Email me and i can tell you where to get some minitor III's and IV's for $69 in good condition. Looking forward to the email. melekec@yahoo.com

 

[JASII]

Motorola Minitor

I might also be interested in a Mintor III

 

[pcleavitt]

Depending on how important good reception is, You may wish to consider a new Watchdog. I understand they are available in 1,2 or 5 frequencies and are shipping now with a 5 year warranty.
About the same price as a Minitor 5 but I theink better quality and performance. I think Minitor 5's are on ship hold again for battery problems but can't be certain.

 

[skondolf]

one other comment - consider whether the area you are monitoring is narrow-band or not or plans on converting soon. Our county fire system is converting to Narrowband in October and all departments had to upgrade their Minitor's over the past couple years to prepare for the conversion. We were told only the Min V's were "certifiied" to receive nb signal. My understanding is the III's and IV's would capture the signal albeit with lower volume but wouldn't be certified.