Pager tones

[N0BDW]

Hi folks,

Sorry if this would have been better posted elsewhere, but it is a New York specific question.

I'm trying to program my Minitor V pager with my department's tones. This page:
Livingston County (NY) Fire Tone Outs - The RadioReference Wiki
gives the tones in letter format (A B etc). I need the frequency/code of the tones in order to program them in. Note I'm not talking about the frequency they are broadcast on, I know that's 46.16, I need the frequency of the individual tones themselves. Is there an easy conversion?

Thanks
Ben

 

[N0BDW]

I did find this page, but it makes no sense to me.
Quick Call II Cap Code Translation

I'm looking for the tones for Livonia to be converted.

 

[ThePagerGeek]

Which department?

 

[N0BDW]

It's a Motorola Minitor V. Looking for Livonia specifically but knowing how to do the conversion would be good too.

 

[k2hz]

I did find this page, but it makes no sense to me.
Quick Call II Cap Code Translation

I'm looking for the tones for Livonia to be converted.

The NF2G page you linked indicates it is probably a Quick Call I system with 2+2 tones for siren control, KL group and the first and last letter tone used for 1+1 pagers. QC I is a 2+2 system and QC II is 1+1 so a QC 2 type pager (Minitor) will respond to either tone of each pair.

NF2G says Livonia is EK-LN for the siren and two tone pagers would be programmed to respond to E-N.

There are 3 different series of QC1 tones "A" "B and "Z". Not knowing which series Livingston uses there are 3 possibilities for E-N assuming this actually is a QC I type system:

Series A - 441.6-1011.6
Series B - 457.1 -1047.1
Series Z - 426.6- 977.2

Unless someone knows what series code plan Livingston uses, you may need to try each one and see if it works. QC II can be even more complicated to determine tone frequencies since Motorola uses several different code plans.

 

[N0BDW]

The NF2G page you linked indicates it is probably a Quick Call I system with 2+2 tones for siren control, KL group and the first and last letter tone used for 1+1 pagers. QC I is a 2+2 system and QC II is 1+1 so a QC 2 type pager (Minitor) will respond to either tone of each pair.

NF2G says Livonia is EK-LN for the siren and two tone pagers would be programmed to respond to E-N.

There are 3 different series of QC1 tones "A" "B and "Z". Not knowing which series Livingston uses there are 3 possibilities for E-N assuming this actually is a QC I type system:

Series A - 441.6-1011.6
Series B - 457.1 -1047.1
Series Z - 426.6- 977.2

Unless someone knows what series code plan Livingston uses, you may need to try each one and see if it works. QC II can be even more complicated to determine tone frequencies since Motorola uses several different code plans.

Is there any way to tell based on the information given for Lima and Hemlock on that page? For some reason those ones have the frequencies, but the rest don't (just letters).

 

[k2hz]

Is there any way to tell based on the information given for Lima and Hemlock on that page? For some reason those ones have the frequencies, but the rest don't (just letters).

I thought of that possibility but none of the listed tones match any in the QC I series.

Lima is Plectron tones and Hemlock is QC II Group 1 tones.

QC I is 1960's technology and the encoder and decoders used reeds so there was a limited number of available codes. Motorola offered three different series of tones with the idea that co-channel systems would use a different tone series to avoid duplication of the neighboring system. I think "Z" was the most common but that does not mean that is what Livingston uses. QC I is what was used back when most counties were on 46.10 at it was necessary to use unique codes.

 

[N0BDW]

I thought of that possibility but none of the listed tones match any in the QC I series.

Lima is Plectron tones and Hemlock is QC II Group 1 tones.

QC I is 1960's technology and the encoder and decoders used reeds so there was a limited number of available codes. Motorola offered three different series of tones with the idea that co-channel systems would use a different tone series to avoid duplication of the neighboring system. I think "Z" was the most common but that does not mean that is what Livingston uses. QC I is what was used back when most counties were on 46.10 at it was necessary to use unique codes.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like it is going to be a lot easier to borrow someone's pager for a minute and read it than to try and figure out what is going on.

 

[ka3jjz]

Ben you can find and measure these tones yourself using a common scanner (no, you don't need one of the fancy Unidens for this), a connection between it and your PC's soundcard, and some software - some of which is free. Read this;

Fire Tone Out - The RadioReference Wiki

best regards..Mike

 

[N0BDW]

Ben you can find and measure these tones yourself using a common scanner (no, you don't need one of the fancy Unidens for this), a connection between it and your PC's soundcard, and some software - some of which is free. Read this;

Fire Tone Out - The RadioReference Wiki

best regards..Mike

Thanks for the info, but I had our lieutenant program it for me. Here is how it is programmed:

https://skitch.com/bwoodruff/fkfq7/windows-7-x64
https://skitch.com/bwoodruff/fkfxn/windows-7-x64

This is for Livonia Fire (only, no ambulance).

Edit: or maybe he did include ambulance? I guess I'll find out soon.

Edit 2: Nope! No ambulance tones.

 

[k2hz]

That info makes sense for the reported fire tones.

Your "Call 1" (426.6/977.1) is QC I Series Z E-N. This means the pager would alert when the EKLN siren tones are sent.

So Livingston County does use the "Z" series QC I tones which I though was the most common version.

Your "Call 2" (651.9/524.5) is QC II code 153 - 149 so apparently that alert is sent separetly in QC II format. This is a QC II code plans that uses "Group 5" for the first tone and "Group 4" for the second tone. If this the not the ambulance it must be another fire alert code?

 

[N0BDW]

That info makes sense for the reported fire tones.

Your "Call 1" (426.6/977.1) is QC I Series Z E-N. This means the pager would alert when the EKLN siren tones are sent.

So Livingston County does use the "Z" series QC I tones which I though was the most common version.

Your "Call 2" (651.9/524.5) is QC II code 153 - 149 so apparently that alert is sent separetly in QC II format. This is a QC II code plans that uses "Group 5" for the first tone and "Group 4" for the second tone. If this the not the ambulance it must be another fire alert code?

Well, it's definitely not Livonia ambulance because they just got toned out and my pager didn't go off. The only thing I can think of, if it is a fire tone, is that it is a town-wide tone that would include Livonia, Hemlock, and Lakeville (all part of the Town of Livonia).

 

[wkredick]

We did some pagers for Livonia FD some years ago, Minitor IVs to be exact
I have on 46.16 the tone sets of
426.5/977.1 and 288.5/1403.0 and group call of 584.8
Not sure if anything has changed since then or not

 

[N0BDW]

We did some pagers for Livonia FD some years ago, Minitor IVs to be exact
I have on 46.16 the tone sets of
426.5/977.1 and 288.5/1403.0 and group call of 584.8
Not sure if anything has changed since then or not

The 288.5/1403.0 should be Livonia Ambulance then, I'm guessing?

Not sure what the group call would be, that s not in my pager.

 

[wkredick]

It could be Ambulance, not 100% sure.Give it a shot,can't hurt anything.

 

[N0BDW]

It could be Ambulance, not 100% sure.Give it a shot,can't hurt anything.

Definitely not ambulance. Could be town-wide tone (Lakeville, Hemlock & Livonia)

 

[N0BDW]

Call 2 is definitely town-wide. Calls for 3 fire departments: Livonia, Hemlock, and Lakeville. Went off today.

 

[CFFD22]

I am looking for the pager tone frequencies for Putnam County New York, Particularly Putnam Lake, Carmel, Brewster, Carmel and Mahopac. Anybody Know them??

 

[SteveC0625]

I am looking for the pager tone frequencies for Putnam County New York, Particularly Putnam Lake, Carmel, Brewster, Carmel and Mahopac. Anybody Know them??

Poke around the Wiki a bit, you'll find some of what you are looking for.

Putnam County (NY) - The RadioReference Wiki

On every county's Wiki page there is either FTO info or a link to it.

 

[N0BDW]

Here is what I've been able to figure out.

1 LIVONIA AMBULANCE PRI 1321.0 / 1403.1
2 LIVONIA AMBULANCE BKP 426.6 / 1403.1
3 LIVONIA FIRE 426.6 / 977.1
4 ? 651.9 / 524.5 (Town-wide?)
5 HEMLOCK FIRE 321.8 / 339.7
6 LAKEVILLE FIRE 346.9 / 473.0
7 ? 384.5 / 426.6

#4 I'm pretty confident is a page for the Town of Livonia (Livonia, Lakeville, and Hemlock).
#7 I've got no clue. Can anyone please check and see if based on what we know it matches up with any of the tones Dave NF2G gathered? It could be "Lakeville First Responders" but that's strictly a guess.