• To anyone looking to acquire commercial radio programming software:

    Please do not make requests for copies of radio programming software which is sold (or was sold) by the manufacturer for any monetary value. All requests will be deleted and a forum infraction issued. Making a request such as this is attempting to engage in software piracy and this forum cannot be involved or associated with this activity. The same goes for any private transaction via Private Message. Even if you attempt to engage in this activity in PM's we will still enforce the forum rules. Your PM's are not private and the administration has the right to read them if there's a hint to criminal activity.

    If you are having trouble legally obtaining software please state so. We do not want any hurt feelings when your vague post is mistaken for a free request. It is YOUR responsibility to properly word your request.

    To obtain Motorola software see the Sticky in the Motorola forum.

    The various other vendors often permit their dealers to sell the software online (i.e., Kenwood). Please use Google or some other search engine to find a dealer that sells the software. Typically each series or individual radio requires its own software package. Often the Kenwood software is less than $100 so don't be a cheapskate; just purchase it.

    For M/A Com/Harris/GE, etc: there are two software packages that program all current and past radios. One package is for conventional programming and the other for trunked programming. The trunked package is in upwards of $2,500. The conventional package is more reasonable though is still several hundred dollars. The benefit is you do not need multiple versions for each radio (unlike Motorola).

    This is a large and very visible forum. We cannot jeopardize the ability to provide the RadioReference services by allowing this activity to occur. Please respect this.

800Mhz Audible Alert for fire calls

Status
Not open for further replies.

djm448

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
22
Hello... I am curious to know if anyone has some insight on a small issue we are going to run into.

We are about to go live on a new 800 Mhtz radio system, and will be using Motorola MCC7500 consoles. We currently utilize VHF two-tone paging to alert fire stations/pagers. When we go live with 800, we will continue to use two-tone paging across our VHF resources. The issue is alerting units who are not in-quarters, and are on the 800 Mhz radio channel.

We would like to send some type of audible alert across the 800 dispatch channel, but not the same two-tone paging that is being transmitted on VHF. This will need to be some type of alert that can be preprogrammed into a paging group on the console, so it is "blind" to the dispatcher who selects the tones.

I have thought of a "55511" on Digital Dial 1 format, or possibly a "0" on the single-tone 1.5 format.


Does anyone operate in a similar fashion... or have any suggestions for use of an audible alert on 800?
 

Voyager

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2002
Messages
12,060
Why not use the same tones? That said, the console should have built in a few alert tones (1 kHz solid, beeping, and a warble tone that alternates between two tones. But, those tones would have to be sent by the dispatcher. It should be trivial to change the dispatching policy to add the alert tone prior to announcement.
 

djm448

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
22
Why not use the same tones? That said, the console should have built in a few alert tones (1 kHz solid, beeping, and a warble tone that alternates between two tones. But, those tones would have to be sent by the dispatcher. It should be trivial to change the dispatching policy to add the alert tone prior to announcement.

Agree. The direction we have been given is to get away from all of the VHF tones. They (field units) do not want to hear them anymore (annoyed by their sounds maybe?). Since we need to broadcast the verbal dispatch on both VHF & 800, I would like to make everything a "paging group" where the dispatcher doesn't have to manually select up on channels in order to transmit on the proper channels. Use the foot pedal during tone transmission, and when complete it "opens up" the dispatcher's mic for verbal dispatch. If that makes sense..
 

owenbricker

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
103
Location
Mansfield Ohio
Here in ohio,counties patch the paging from VHF/UHF to a dispatch talkgroup. works well. some counties include the the two-tone, others have two-tone followed with a beep or warble with just the beep or warble simulcast to the talkgroup during paging.
 

djm448

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
22
Here in ohio,counties patch the paging from VHF/UHF to a dispatch talkgroup. works well. some counties include the the two-tone, others have two-tone followed with a beep or warble with just the beep or warble simulcast to the talkgroup during paging.

I have tested the patch theory. However I get an error when attempting to set off the VHF page. It states that it can not page while the talk group is on an active patch. However, I do not know if it would work if it is patched from a separate console. At this time due to installation just starting, we only have one 800 Mhz console to play around with.


Are the secondary tones manually set off by dispatchers, or is it automatic by the system?
 

Voyager

Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2002
Messages
12,060
What you could do is set up a Group Page in the paging terminal that goes out on the 800 MHz system - say at or near 1000 Hz, but that will be 8 seconds long. Maybe a 1+1 page with both tones around 1000 Hz. That would be 4 seconds long with a slight gap after 1 second. That way, they wouldn't recognize it as paging tones.

As for the paging tones being annoying, well, isn't that the purpose of an ALERT?
 

djm448

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 7, 2010
Messages
22
What you could do is set up a Group Page in the paging terminal that goes out on the 800 MHz system - say at or near 1000 Hz, but that will be 8 seconds long. Maybe a 1+1 page with both tones around 1000 Hz. That would be 4 seconds long with a slight gap after 1 second. That way, they wouldn't recognize it as paging tones.

As for the paging tones being annoying, well, isn't that the purpose of an ALERT?


Thanks for the feedback. Should be having some discussions soon with our Motorola engineers working on our project.
 

owenbricker

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2010
Messages
103
Location
Mansfield Ohio
Audible Alert for fire calls

I have tested the patch theory. However I get an error when attempting to set off the VHF page. It states that it can not page while the talk group is on an active patch. However, I do not know if it would work if it is patched from a separate console. At this time due to installation just starting, we only have one 800 Mhz console to play around with.


Are the secondary tones manually set off by dispatchers, or is it automatic by the system?

I believe it may not be a patch, but simulcast announcement on both systems, after page, with the alert tone on the 800 only, from the dispatch console. sounds automatic.
 

talviar

Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2002
Messages
388
Location
Uniontown, PA
Why not use the Trunked Radio System Call Alert Function and add all the radios that need paged to the group?

A caution if you do this- Put the Pager tones last in the Page Group when entering things into the Provisioning Manager or your Dispatchers will shoot you cause they will see the lightening bolts and hear the tones go out and can't do anything till the call alert list is done sending out.

Second caution- if a radio is not on- there is a brief slow down while the controller tells the console the radio is off and the radio fails to page.

Third Caution- takes a while to set up in the Provisioning Manager

PM or UCM whichever the case you are using.

We have been doing that with Gold Elite and now MCC7500 and prior to that via automated computer tie to our trunking controller terminal since 1996. All they hear when the "page goes off" is a series of beeps on the radio telling them they have been alerted. And the voice of the dispatcher
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top