Minitor V and Scanning Simulcast Channels

[WuLabsWuTecH]

So I have a question in regards to the scan features of the Minitor V. Reading old posts, a lot of people have asked questions about scanning 2 different frequencies, one for fire and one for EMS and how to get the best of both worlds while not missing pages. I understand that in that scenario, with silent scan, you get whichever one tones first, with priority scan, you get alerts on F1 only but will hear audio over F2, and on probability scan, you get the same thing as silent scan but your squelch also opens on any traffic.

So my questions is, how does this change if there are 2 channels being simulcast? For example, having an East Tower that transmits on F1 and a West Tower that transmits on F2. Which mode do I want to prevent missing pages?

F1 is the main tower, and F2 is a lower powered repeater/simulcaster. When in the western reaches of the county, F1 can pickup outdoors only (not in vehicles or buildings). What happens if I'm close enough to F1 still for me to pick up some static, but I actually want to hear something on F2 since it'll actually be intelligible?

My thoughts:
Silent Scan: Would be the 2-channel equivalent of Selective Call. Probably the best solution to keep the minitor silent until the right tones are received, but I'm worried that if the fidelity over F1 is too low and it's picking up static, then it won't release F1 to go scan F2 and pick up the alert over there. Or vice versa.
Probability Scan: Would be the 2-channel equivalent of Monitor but if you got static on one channel, it wouldn't release that channel and go to the second channel to listen for tones.

The only solution I currently see is to program a Priority Scan for F1. If you hear nothing but static (or a brief audible voice but then static as F2 switches over to F1 since it's the priority channel) on Priority scan, then you can assume that F2 is the channel you need to be on to hear clearly and you can move to another switch that is "Monitor F2." The biggest disadvantage I see to this is that the stored voice would never work on F2.

Anyone have any better ideas?

 

[evfd1625]

Your solution is how I have my pager setup. Usually if the F1 is all static, I can move enough to lose the signal and pickup the page on F2, or 3,4,5, as I use a Minitor VI.

 

[WuLabsWuTecH]

Your solution is how I have my pager setup. Usually if the F1 is all static, I can move enough to lose the signal and pickup the page on F2, or 3,4,5, as I use a Minitor VI.

Does this mean you don't have SV on anything but F1 then?

 

[evfd1625]

That is correct. I figured that the reliability of receiving 100% of the notifications outweighed the SV. Most of the time my pages come across reliably on F1, but the F2 has better in building coverage on the southern side of our county.

 

[weedacres]

I'd like to jump in with a follow up on this subject.
We are in the final throws (hopefully) of installing a new simulcast system. Part of that will be adding a separate simulcast paging only channel.
Paging will take place on the paging channel Freq A, and dispatch radio traffic will take place on another frequency, Freq B. Freq B will also be a backup paging channel if Freq A goes down. Most users are carrying Minitor 4 or 5 pagers.

In our current simplex system, most pagers were set up for Priority F1 scan as all dispatch/paging traffic was on F1. F2 is monitoring a tac channel.

With the new system F1 will be Freq A and F2 Freq B. Under normal conditions that should work with Priority F1 scan. We'll get tone alerts on F1 and be able to monitor dispatch voice traffic on F2.

The problem I'm having is how to configure the pager for backup paging mode. If Freq A goes down unexpectedly, Priority F1 scan won't alert on tones from Freq B.

Using Probability/Silent scan when I'm paging normally (on Freq A) is, I think, going to cause me to miss pages since the voice traffic on Freq B will grab F2 and not allow the pager to read pages on F1. If Freq A goes down, then Freq B will get the page tones and all should be well. I'm not too concerned with scheduled outages as we can page an All Hands tone for everyone to switch to the proper frequency.

I hope this makes sense, and also hoping that someone has already invented this wheel and can give me some advice.

Many thanks,, Dave

 

[Cdw25si]

I've got a Minitor V in the 154Mhz range with stored voice and the A,B,C,D dial. I know nothing about the inner workings or if it's a single channel pager or what not.. I would love to have it monitoring two counties. But is there any identification on the pager itself to say it's a single channel? If so did they make a Minitor V that would be able to carry two counties in different frequencies at once and how would I go about identifying it?? Thank You

 

[SteveC0625]

I've got a Minitor V in the 154Mhz range with stored voice and the A,B,C,D dial. I know nothing about the inner workings or if it's a single channel pager or what not.. I would love to have it monitoring two counties. But is there any identification on the pager itself to say it's a single channel? If so did they make a Minitor V that would be able to carry two counties in different frequencies at once and how would I go about identifying it?? Thank You

The model number will tell you if it is one channel or two. A03KMS7238 is a single channel pager. A03KMS7239 is a two channel pager. It is on a label under the battery. If there is another letter on the tail end after the 8 or 9, ignore it.

You can only do what you want if both counties are VHF in roughly the same frequency range.

One caveat: scanning two channels for pages only works well with lower call volume dispatch agencies. The busier they are, the greater the chance that both will be on the radio at the same time which could mean a missed alert. I scan the fire and ems channels from a single county. Their combined call volume is 125 calls a day. That is so low that it pretty much guarantees that I won't miss an alert.

 

[Cdw25si]

Both frequencies are 154Mhz and my pager model # is A03KMS9238BC. I'm looking to purchase another minitor v on eBay but I need to make sure it will do multiple frequencies. I noticed my model # didnt match either of the two you posted so I dont know if that might be a model that you are familiar with or not.

 

[Cdw25si]

Also it says F1- 154.9875. Would that be the tone alert? The whole county considered F1 as the main county dispatch frequency but the county frequency is 154.2050....

 

[SteveC0625]

Both frequencies are 154Mhz and my pager model # is A03KMS9238BC. I'm looking to purchase another minitor v on eBay but I need to make sure it will do multiple frequencies. I noticed my model # didnt match either of the two you posted so I dont know if that might be a model that you are familiar with or not.

7238 and 7239 are non-Stored Voice models. 9238 and 9239 are Stored Voice radios.

Also it says F1- 154.9875. Would that be the tone alert? The whole county considered F1 as the main county dispatch frequency but the county frequency is 154.2050....

154.9875 is the radio frequency. The tones would be roughly 3,000 hz and lower. Tones are audible.

You will have to have the radio reprogrammed with the correct radio frequency and the correct tone frequencies for the agencies you want it to alert for.

 

[Cdw25si]

It's been picking up my county since it was issued and the county dispatch frequency is 154.2050. I've never heard of the 154.9875 and I had 18 years in. The county has gone 800 but still simulcasts on 154.2050 for pager activation.. I even have multiple scanners programmed at 154.2050 and it's definitely still the same as always. Just for the heck of it I programmed in the 154.9875 into my scanner and it's been dead silence so I have no clue how that frequency ended up on the pager tag..

 

[AK4FD]

It's been picking up my county since it was issued and the county dispatch frequency is 154.2050. I've never heard of the 154.9875 and I had 18 years in. The county has gone 800 but still simulcasts on 154.2050 for pager activation.. I even have multiple scanners programmed at 154.2050 and it's definitely still the same as always. Just for the heck of it I programmed in the 154.9875 into my scanner and it's been dead silence so I have no clue how that frequency ended up on the pager tag..

I'm in NC also and have never heard of the 154.9875 channel. Most likely if your pager has 154.9875 on the back white label it was a pager used somewhere else and purchased by your agency. When the pager first leaves the Motorola factory after programming the initial frequency is printed on that back label. One it's sold here and there then obviously that will change based on the department buying it to suit their needs. However that frequency label serves another purpose; It tells you the frequency band that the pager is programmed for. Since it says 154.9875 that means it handles the VHF 151-158.9975 band, meaning it CAN be programmed for 159.0000 and upwards several MHz but the reception & performance may be drastically reduced. I hope this answers your question(s)!

 

[SteveC0625]

I'm in NC also and have never heard of the 154.9875 channel. Most likely if your pager has 154.9875 on the back white label it was a pager used somewhere else and purchased by your agency. When the pager first leaves the Motorola factory after programming the initial frequency is printed on that back label. One it's sold here and there then obviously that will change based on the department buying it to suit their needs. However that frequency label serves another purpose; It tells you the frequency band that the pager is programmed for. Since it says 154.9875 that means it handles the VHF 151-158.9975 band, meaning it CAN be programmed for 159.0000 and upwards several MHz but the reception & performance may be drastically reduced. I hope this answers your question(s)!

I have 30 Minitor V's and VI's in my inventory. NONE of them came through with frequency info on a Motorola factory label on the pagers. It is possible that there's a label with a previous frequency on his pager but it dd not come from Motorola like that. He also says both of his local frequencies are in the 154.xxx range.