M5 Scan / Alert Question

SonicSounds · Post by **SonicSounds** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:07 pm

To make a REALLY long story short, my FD is looking at having a series of members who can be dispatched by two different frequencies, either of which may be active at one time.

Is there a way to set up the M5 to alert if the QCII set is dropped on either of the frequencies?

To clarify....

151.100 Fire Dispatch
154.100 EMS Dispatch

These people are responsible for running both types of calls. Can their pager scan between the two channels, but whichever it lands on, it periodically checks the other one for the tones? In other words if it lands on Fire Dispatch and they are babbling about a pole number and wires down, will it be smart enough to keep listening on EMS dispatch? AND if some babbling paramedic is doing just that, will it listen to the Fire channel for tones?

I guess I'm asking for a 2 channel scan where whatever its on is not the priority (if that makes sense) - this may not be possible...

Jon

PNGR1209 · Post by **PNGR1209** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 5:42 pm

Priority scan is what you want but it only works one way. With it the pager will scan 2 channels for traffic. If there is some on channel 2 it will check channel 1 every n seconds (where n is programmable). If traffic is on channel one it switches to it.

If you are listening on channel 1, it will not check channel 2 until channel 1 has cleared and scan resumes.

I don't believe what you described would ever work except for putting 2 independant pagers in one case.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 7:38 am

PNGR1209 wrote:I don't believe what you described would ever work except for putting 2 independant pagers in one case.

Yep. You're screwed. Two pagers on the belt or something will be missed.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:09 pm

I believe that the M5, in Silent Scan mode, will check a channel for tones and, hearing none, keep scanning. We're using M5s for toneouts on our city and county channels, both being moderately busy, and I've yet to hear a complaint from anyone about missed tones. However, you can't have the pager configured in "open" monitor mode...

Wes · Post by **Wes** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:33 pm

Just as tvsjr stated, the Minitor V will do exactly what you are asking for in the "Silent Scan" mode.

We have several of these in service doing exactly what you described.

While in silent scan mode, if the pager recieves traffic on either channel it listens for tones, if no tones are recieved, it continues to scan, if it recieves tones, it listens to see if they match up to your tones and if not, it continues to scan. The silent scan feature is always NON-PRIORITY scan.

You can actually verify this by monitoring traffic with some other reciever while watching the pager in silent scan mode.

The yellow LED on top of the pager that indicates RX will blink for a nano second if only voice traffic is recieved before it goes back to scan, if tones are being transmitted, it will blink for a little longer to verify that it is not your tones, then the pager goes back to scan and the LED stops blinking.

I have not had one of these to not activate yet because of traffic on the other frequency.

Keep in mind that this is only the case in "Silent Scan". If you have the pager in "Priority Scan" you will hear all radio traffic on both channels in an "open monitor" mode. If your tones are sent, the pager will ONLY activate on the F1 channel. The tones sent on F2 WILL NOT activate the pager while it is in "Priority Scan" mode. (Also a side note here is to always set the priority interval time to .5 seconds or less to avoid the first part of tone A of being missed.)

If you operate the pager in "Probability Scan" it is operating in open monitor mode scanning both channels with NO PRIORITY. It will activate on F1 or F2 if the correct tones are sent. However, unlike the silent scan mode, the pager could be stopped on F1 recieveing a transmission, while your tones are being sent on F2 and if this is the case the pager WILL NOT ACTIVATE.

I would be willing to hook someone up with a codeplug if needed.

Wes

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:53 am

Yea, but if you are listening to the radio traffic on the priority channel, you aren't going to hear tones on the other channel.

FD622 · Post by **FD622** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 7:19 pm

Here's another question--- when you have the pager in "silent scan" mode, and it receives a valid QCII set and alerts, does it then scan the channels "open" (meaning you hear all the radio traffic), or does it stay on the channel that it received the tones on and wait?

Wes · Post by **Wes** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 8:03 pm

It remains open and scans in NON-PRIORITY mode until reset button is pressed. Or I believe it can be configured for auto reset. But to answer your question, It does remain open and scans both channels.

Wes