Gold Elite QCII alerting

[Jay911]

Hi all,

There are a few departments we dispatch for who want their tones sent twice in succession whenever we tone them out. The reason, I think, is that they don't get any alerting sound when whatever pagers/radios they have (not Big M) open up with the first set of tones, so they want a second set to make some noise.

Right now we're resorting to dialing into a telephone interconnect (MRTI or similar) to send the 2 sets of tones, then either voicing the call over the phone, or hanging up and voicing by transmitting on the resource (depending on how the MRTI is set up).

I would really like to get them onto a one-touch QCII button like I do with the departments who are "normal" and have only one set of tones, so I just hit the paging icon, and then transmit on the resource. That also allows me to multi-select that resource and our trunked alerting resource, if rigs from multiple areas are responding... if I'm paging by phone, I can't do that.

With regards to the second set of tones to generate noise, I don't think the people would go along with the IIE option we discussed in this board a week or two ago, firstly because they're used to the 1.0/3.0 timing and secondly because "It sounds different", I'm sure.

Something dawned on me today for a way I can do this (I hope), and I need someone to confirm it for me. I was thinking I could create a paging group that simply had the right set of tones in it, twice (or 3 times or 8 times or however many they wanted). For example, if their radios open by B230 (1230 in "Centracom notation"), and they want that twice, could I create a group that sends 1230 and then 1230 again, and have it function the same way a paging icon for a single set of tones for another station works?

If you need clarification, ask and I'll try to explain again from the start. Thanks in advance

[The Pager Geek]

Yes. Just create a page group consisting of 2 groups that happen to be the same tones in ADM:
"Agency name" 1 (1230)
"Agency Name" 2 (1230)

Then create a group page:
"Ageny Name"

Then create a Page icon with "Agency Name"

tpg

[wavetar]

Yes. Just create a page group consisting of 2 groups that happen to be the same tones in ADM:
"Agency name" 1 (1230)
"Agency Name" 2 (1230)

Then create a group page:
"Ageny Name"

Then create a Page icon with "Agency Name"

tpg

Tim, it's been a while since I set up a group page, so my memory is fuzzy. If the two Agencies use the same paging resource (BIM) and have the same tones, I believe the Centracom will assume it only has to send one set of tones. That's what seemed to happen when we made a group with several members, it would send the different tone sets sequentially, and any tone sets that happened to be the same would only be sent once.

Of course, this might depend on exactly what Centracom version you're running too...who knows.

Basically, if Tim's method only sends a single set of tones, then put a different set in for the second 'alerting' tones. Let us know how it went.

Todd

[nmfire10]

So the compertitive mode that makes the alert sound after the tone sequence won't be sufficient??

[RKG]

If the target group of concern wants the second set of tones only for getting people's attention, and not to operating a tone-decoding device, then how about tpg's solution with Agency Name 2 defined for a different ID?

[wavetar]

So the compertitive mode that makes the alert sound after the tone sequence won't be sufficient??

He was looking for alternatives to that, by the looks of it.

With regards to the second set of tones to generate noise, I don't think the people would go along with the IIE option we discussed in this board a week or two ago, firstly because they're used to the 1.0/3.0 timing and secondly because "It sounds different", I'm sure.

[The Pager Geek]

We do it here in our county with an ambulance agency that felt two alerting sequences in a row would be better than one.

The centracom will do a compare to the name, not the actual codes. If it sees two of the same name, then it will only send it once. Instead we use the same codes with a different name. Hence we use AGEN1 and AGEN2 as the names for the two individual set of tones. (1230)

Then in the group section of ADM, add a group called "AGEN" and include AGEN1 and AGEN2. Since the centracom compares names and not tones, it sends them ok.

tpg

[nmfire10]

Ah, well there ya go.

[odat]

You can't just send alert tones? (Top of the screenwith the lightning bolt and musical notes). They HAVE to have THEIR tones sent again??? Heck, just page them twice!

[Jay911]

Heck, just page them twice!

Sure.. then you have the same problem we have now, where some agencies use MRTI style paging exclusively, some use MRTI paging for alerting and then expect the voice transmission over the radio (the MRTI hangs up on you), and some need the simple, one-touch pushbutton feature I'm trying to accomplish.

And you get a dispatcher that says "Okay, stations 83 and 85 we page out properly, stations 82 and 84 we push *twice*?? .. and station 86 we have to phone them first?..."

Why not just set up a solution that makes it a uniform, simple operation that the dispatcher can use each and every time? Push the paging icon, wait until the noise stops, push transmit and talk. That's the best way to do it with this setup.

(IMO, the best solution would be to not spec half-a radios that won't give alert tones, but that's not my call to make.)

[astrotac]

Why don't you have the techs send an SP tone request and have Motorola upgrade operations burn them a new BIM EEPROM that will send the paging tones followed by the warble (800 hz followed by 1500 hz) tone? That way all the dispatcher needs to do is press the paging icon, the console will do the toning and warble, then you talk. Bango - problem solved for $800.00.

[Jay911]

Bango - problem solved for $800.00.

Unfortunately I think this would be the problem right here.

The day I posted the query on if this would work, I sent a document to my superiors outlining the procedure that would have to be undertaken to get these one-touch buttons on the consoles, so we wouldn't have to go through the silly procedure of dialing the phone, dialing the overdial #, waiting for the MRTI to ring through 3 times (to generate the tones twice, I don't know what the third ring is for), have it hang up on us, and then transmit the dispatch information over the resource.

So far I haven't received a reply, or any indication that it's being investigated.

Sometimes I think I try to help out too much.

[astrotac]

Well - wouldn't $800 be worth it to shorten YOUR response time (where YOUR response time=the time between picking up the phone to receive the call and actually dispatching the call to the first responders)? Especially in cardiac-related calls, every SECOND counts..........