my first tone out! what frequency do i use

[stormtracker78]

I just got my first tone out for Cameron county! which is not yet recorded in the texas tone out database so I would like to make sure I have it correctly but I'm still learning and need some tech info I had the delay set at 5 sec and I was able to hit .yes to record the tones(tone a 2811.0 ohz tone b 2794.7hz) before it dropped it recorded them just fine but under frequency it is 144.00hz(I'm in tone out 8) that frequency was there before my scanner found the tone do I leave it or have to change it, if I have to change the frequency how do I know what frequency to put? also I have the delay now set at infinite so if I'm right when it goes off I will be able to hear audio with the squelch open and when its over I just hit hold to put back in standby mode? any advice on this would be greatly appreciated this is the coolest feature ever!! er.. well one of them.

 

[ofd8001]

There are three (3) different frequencies involved in Fire Tone Out (FTO). One is the receive frequency, which is the radio frequency on which the tones are being broadcast. The 144.00 frequency is a default/placeholder and you have to change it to that paging/dispatch frequency. (If you are talking about Arroyo, for example, that would be 155.175 MHz). The paging/dispatch frequencies are in the RR database.

The other two frequencies are the actual tone frequencies that cause activation. It appears in your case these are 2811.0 (tone A) and 2794.7 (tone B). Also there are some occasions where just a single tone is used, called a Long Tone, in which case one of the two entries should be blank.

I'm a little suspicious of the 2811.0/2794.7 tones. They are not standard tones and seem to be a little higher than those commonly used. See: https://www.midians.com/pdf/tone-signaling-charts.pdf. Motorola Quick Call II is the most commonly used tone format, but others are also used.

The delay establishes the amount of time that elapses between scanner activation and resumption of toneout standy, or the time the audio receiver is active.

If you choose Infinite, you must press Hold after a page to resume standby mode, otherwise you will infinitely hear the audio for that frequency.

Also just to mention, the scanner will either being in Fire Tone Out mode or scanning mode, but not both at the same time. In FTO, the scanner is just listening for the appropriate tone sequence and nothing else.

 

[stormtracker78]

could laptop falseify toneout?

ty so much for your reply. I'm not sure which frequency to put in since I don't know which public safety agency issued the tone out hopefully I will be able to pick it up again with the default frequency and see the actual to put in.(if that's possible) one thing I noticed is after I went to bed I left my scanner on in case the tone out was used I noticed a solid 5 bar signal when my scanner was next to my lap top but when it was movedaway no signal at all does a laptop emit those kz tones?

 

[ofd8001]

Your best bet is to check the RR database for your area for possible transmit frequencies. Then, monitor them for a while and see if tones are being broadcast. That will give you a paging/dispatch frequency to work from.

The default frequency isn't practical - it is put there by the manufacturer so there isn't a blank frequency. You'll have to come up with a viable frequency.

If you got signal strength indication, it was just a fluke, probably some kind of RF being put out by the laptop.

After you have come up with a viable receive frequency that is used to broadcast tones, you'll need to do a tone search just to figure out what is being used. If you know your local fire department, they may tell you what the tones are. However in many cases, they don't disseminate this information. Too much mischief can be made and they don't want to make it easier for that to happen.

 

[stormtracker78]

ok I will give that a shot what I don't understand if the default frequency isn't the right one how did it pick up the tones? ty again for giving me a point of reference.. here on radio reference

 

[ofd8001]

It was probably just a bunch of "gobbly-gook" coming from the laptop fooling the scanner into thinking it was fire tone out data.

That 144.00 Mhz frequency is a 2 Meter Amateur band frequency it would not be used for fire disptaching. Some of the other default frequencies are also amateur, Federal or Military Land Mobile frequencies and very unlikely to be used by fire departments for paging.