Inexpensive radio also work as a Pager ?

[CaptDan]

Do any of these inexpensive radios also work as a pager ?

A volunteer organization was looking to buy inexpensive 2 way hand held radios - not necessarily for critical incident use but instead of buying pagers. That way - for example when there is a request for a second crew for an EMS call - as long as one volunteer goes to the station to pick up the ambulance - the other responder or two can coordinate - via radio - who is going to the station to get the ambulance and who is going to meet the ambulance at the scene of the call.

That might not be a big issue for some, but in a somewhat rural area, the Station or Squad building might be quite a distance away so being able to coordinate the response of the volunteers is a big deal. As long as there is a qualified driver - there is no need for all the responding volunteers to respond to the Squad building. Some volunteers might live and be responding from nearby the address of the call, no need for them to drive miles away to the Squad Building, just to ride back to the scene of the incident in the EMS Rig.

So just wondering if any of the inexpensive hand held radios can also work as a pager ?

 

[Michael-SATX]

I thought I might add that I recently picked up 3 Motorola Minitor 4 Stored Voice pagers off eBay.
These were in great condition and the seller only wanted $56 each programmed and shipped !
Since lots of depts are upgrading to Minitor 5 and the new Minitor 6 pagers that handle narrow band
frequencies, there are lots of used Minitor 2,3 & 4's on the used market as cheap as 2-way radios.
I also picked up 3 Motorola Amplified Charging docking stations for my Minitor 4 pagers only $25 each!
I wish I had gotten more of these little gems to pass out to all my friends in this little rural area in TX.

 

[CaptDan]

I thought I might add that I recently picked up 3 Motorola Minitor 4 Stored Voice pagers off eBay.
These were in great condition and the seller only wanted $56 each programmed and shipped !
Since lots of depts are upgrading to Minitor 5 and the new Minitor 6 pagers that handle narrow band
frequencies, there are lots of used Minitor 2,3 & 4's on the used market as cheap as 2-way radios.
I also picked up 3 Motorola Amplified Charging docking stations for my Minitor 4 pagers only $25 each!
I wish I had gotten more of these little gems to pass out to all my friends in this little rural area in TX.

These units are just pagers as far as I can determine, is that correct ?

What I was looking for is an inexpensive 2 way radio that can be used as a pager. That way when there is a call for a second crew - the volunteers available to respond could radio in and only the person closest to to the squad would have to go to the squad to pick up the ambulance, the other responders could coordinate their response directly to the scene via 2 way radio.

The squad usually does not respond to a call with less than a 3 person crew. The duty crew usually stays at the squad building, when a they are committed to an assignment and a second call comes in, a general page is transmitted announcing that a second duty crew is needed. Some volunteers live close to the Squad Building while others do not, and are looking for a way to eliminate the Ambulance response being delayed as for example volunteers leave their home and drive sometimes between 2 - 15 miles to the Squad building - just to hop in the rig and drive back to a short distance from their home from which they initially started their response from.

The idea is that when someone arrives at the Squad building and starts the rig up, they could announce, as they do now that there are they waiting for a crew. With 2 way radios - squad members could call in and report that they are say 5 blocks from the call location and will meet the rig on scene.

Just an idea that is being kicked around - if there is such an inexpensive radio - they might be a better purchase - than more pagers.

So the basic question remains - are there any inexpensive hand held 2 way radios that can also operate as a voice pager ?

 

[Michael-SATX]

Yes, Capt Dan, these are just Motorola Minitor Pagers that only alert you to Fire Tone-Out Dispatches.
There are most definitely 2-way radios that can be programmed up for Tone-Out functionality as well as for your needs.
You may want radios this way you could also utilize them for also coordinating crews to make the scenes faster.

There will be lots of folks coming along after me with lots of recommended ideas on models of 2-ways radios 4U

Yes these are just pagers that I was mentioning. for me I love the compact size and playback stored voice feature !
My Pics show Pagers (3,4,5), Amplified Charger (Loud and Boosts reception) and Station Strobe kit to plug into pager dock station.