In the USA, the most commonly used pagers are the Motorola original Monitor, Minitor II, Minitor III, Minitor IV and most recently, the Minitor V, and KeyNote. There are other pagers such as the Spirit, BPR, and PR Series as well as the sister product to the Minitor and Minitor II known as the Director and Director II.  The Reach VIP III,  SCA Sceptar, Shinwa CheckMate, Sonar, Plectron, NEC, and DuraCom pagers are also sometimes used. Most recently, the top selling models have been the Minitor V, NOVA, and Swissphone.  In addition, many 2-way radios now have paging capability built in.  Known as Talk-Back Pagers, some of these units can not only receive paging tones, but send them as well.

 

Generally, all of these pagers, or talk-back pagers as applicable, will use a signaling format known as a 2-tone sequential, alternately known as a 2-tone, Type 99, or Quick-Call II. This format is used to allow a dispatch center to send a selected code address to an individual pager or a group of users with a common address code.

 

The code consists of two tones set in sequence. These are known as A and B tones. Typically, the duration of the first tone will be one second or less and the second tone will be three seconds or less. The tones normally fall within a range 300 to 3000 Hz (cycles if you prefer) which means they are audible (i.e. you can hear them). There are four common 2-tone systems commonly in use- Motorola, Plectron, GE, and Reach; with Motorola being far and away the typical choice.

 

The codes are identified by frequency such as 539.0 or 1122.5. This is the actual frequency in Hertz (Hz or cycles) of the tone. When a properly coded signal is sent from the dispatch, the pager assigned to that tone open up and allow reception of the voice message sent by the dispatcher. This message can be as long or as short as required although there are some limitations on the duration if the message if the message is to be recorded (more about that shortly).

 

Director, Director II, Spirit, Keynote, BPR, and PR series are Message Alert receivers which is a simple way of saying that they respond to a specific tone code address, open up, and remain open until the received message is finished. When the transmitting station at the dispatch center ceases to transmit, a hissing noise is heard on the receiver which indicates the message is complete. The user then resets his or her receiver to await the next dispatch call. The receivers are NOT designed for continuous monitoring. Continuous channel monitoring is best suited to scanners, mobile/base, handheld portable radios or pagers specifically designed for this purpose.

 

The Motorola Minitor II, Minitor III, Minitor IV, and Minitor IV as well as the Nova and all Talk-Back Pagers  have the combined capability to function either as a Message Alert or Continuous Monitor  receivers. The advantage of these receivers is the ability to function as an alerting receiver plus the ability to receive additional information enroute or at the scene without additional tone code or additional tone code activation at the dispatch center.

 

Historically, the Motorola Minitor II has been the pager of choice by public safety professionals due to the proven performance and reliability. The Director II SV is similar in quality and appearance with the notable exception that it has the ability to record messages of up to 32 seconds in length. With selectable audible or silent alert, this model was idealfor use in church or other public places. If you do not need continuous monitor capability, the standard NOVA pager is an ideal choice.

 

There was also a  standard Director II (without the SV or stored voice option) which is essentially a standard Minitor II without the continuous monitor capability. The Minitor II and the Director II are virtually identical in appearance and have similar operating specifications. Both of these pagers are more sensitive than the KeyNote Pager as well as the Minitor III and Minitor IV. The Minitor V appears to have sensitivity equal to the original Minitor II.  As an item of note, Stored Voice was available on the Minitor II but was not available with vibrate alert.

 

An optional calling capability known as single tone or group call is used on some older paging systems that were set up with a single tone alerting code known as Type 90 or original Quick-Call.

 

These systems do not use a second tone since only a single tone of long duration (typically 8 seconds) is used to alert a desired receiver. In some cases a department may have up to 9 individual codes and an all call or group call. On a group call  system, the second tone is common to all receivers (the first tone will be different). Whenever a long (8 second) B tone is sent, these pagers will respond to this long B tone as well as the normal A+B tone in sequence.  

 

There are other combinations sometimes used which allow a single pager to respond to an  A+B tone, plus a third tone used for group call. This involves a common A tone and different second tones. In this application, one pager could have a code of A+B, and a second address of A+C. Either or both of the second tones, (B or C) could be set for group call as desired. 

 

In some cases, it may be desirable to have an A tone Group Call. Pagers that have programmable decoders such as the Motorola KeyNote, the Shinwa Checkmate, the Minitor III, Minitor IV,  Minitor V, Nova, and most all Talk-Back Pagers offer this capability.

 

The Motorola KeyNote, when available is available with three different signaling formats- 2-tone sequential, compatible with Director/KeyNote, 5/6 tone that requires a special encoder, and GOLAY digital. As a general rule the 2-tone sequential format is most likely to be compatible with existing systems. If in doubt, check and be sure before you order.

Motorola Tone Charts

 

Sometimes your dispatch center will use a three or four digit code to designate your pager tone frequencies.  Your will recall that at a minimum, we need two tone frequencies in order to properly set up your pager.

 

If you are given a three-digit code such as 102 with a 122 Group call, or a similar example, you can use the tone charts below to determine your tone frequencies.  The first digit indicates the TONE GROUP.  There are six Motorola tone groups.  Code 102 would mean that the codes are selected from Group 1.  The A tone would be Tone number zero (330.5) and the B tone would be 368.5.  Code 122 simply means a long second tone (368.5).  When ordering you would tell us you're a tone would be 330.5, your B tone would be 368.5 with B tone group call (Codes 102 and 122). 

 

You will note that each tone has both a frequency and a REED CODE.  In the previous example, you could also say that your A is Reed Code 110 and your B tone is Reed Code 112.  To keep things simple, we prefer that you provide your tones as a FREQUENCY, rather than a code.  It will save us all a lot of trouble!