HELLO,
i recently got a veetronix alert reciever programmed to alert our fire siren, tone set 1 which is a 1+1 format on tones 2688/834 will work, and alert, but the second set of tones 2688/701 will not alert the reciever. i set up minitor and programmed it to both set of tones, it wont alert either on the second set of tones. I called dispatch and he said he is putting out the tone numbers he gave me. The frequency is 425.400mhz, yes we are close to the canadian border here in Buffalo so thats what we use for our fire dispatch. please let me know.
quik call alerting
Moderator: Queue Moderator
I'm not familiar with the Veetronix. You should probably call their factory support people and see whats up. 2688, 834 and 701 hZ are Plectron tones. Moto has Plectron reeds for pagers now, but, back in the old days, they didn't have an encoder that would do non-Motorola tones.
The old Plectron receivers weren't horribly picky about the tones that activated them, and some old Moto service techs found Motorola paging tones that were close enough to trip the Plectron receivers. Is this the case now? The Veetronix may be tighter on the tones it needs to hear.
I'd also double-verify your programming and reeds are right, and that your dispatcher is indeed transmitting the correct tones.
Just a thought.
The old Plectron receivers weren't horribly picky about the tones that activated them, and some old Moto service techs found Motorola paging tones that were close enough to trip the Plectron receivers. Is this the case now? The Veetronix may be tighter on the tones it needs to hear.
I'd also double-verify your programming and reeds are right, and that your dispatcher is indeed transmitting the correct tones.
Just a thought.
i might also add, that the radio was bench tested when programmed, and did alert on both sets of tones which the programmer had set the encoder up for. so this must mean that dispatch is setting off a different set of tones, anyway i can tell what tones come over a radio, is there a computer program out yet? let me know.
Gocart878 wrote:snip... so this must mean that dispatch is setting off a different set of tones, (is there) anyway i can tell what tones come over a radio, is there a computer program out yet? let me know.
Record the paging tones from your receiver speaker. There are several computer programs that can "Edit" to find the tone frequencies.
Cool Edit comes to mind, there may be others. The has bee some discussion on thei here, in the past..Search "Cool Edit".....
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FF/EMT/KC2NFB
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the tones you have set in the veetronix may be wrong but also the duration of each tone might be to short.
when my department changed from minitor II's (crystal) to minitor III's and up (synthesized, which is how the veetronx works) we had to make the duration of each tone longer for the new pagers to trigger. it takes the sotware in the pager a few ms to lock in the tone. i have tryed this with my service monitor with the synthesized pagers and if i cycle through the tones fast the pager will not trigger. around 400 to 500 ms for each tone we found will give the best results.
when my department changed from minitor II's (crystal) to minitor III's and up (synthesized, which is how the veetronx works) we had to make the duration of each tone longer for the new pagers to trigger. it takes the sotware in the pager a few ms to lock in the tone. i have tryed this with my service monitor with the synthesized pagers and if i cycle through the tones fast the pager will not trigger. around 400 to 500 ms for each tone we found will give the best results.
Another thing to consider is tone timing. Most of the Moto encoders do a 1 second (1st tone) and 3 second (2nd tone) sequence. At one time, Minitor pagers would "beep" for the duration of the second tone after a few milliseconds of sampling. If the second tone went for 8 seconds, you got 8 seconds of beeping after the pager decoded.
Plectron did this much quicker. "Fast Duotone" operated on 0.75 seconds (1st tone) and 0.25 seconds (2nd tone) with timing clocked by a capacitor network in the old Plectron boxes. The actual tone frequencies weren't very selective but the timing WAS important. Many multi-format tone encoders that do Plectron tones will duplicate Plectron timing unless instructed otherwise.
Once Moto began making Plectron reeds for pagers and alert monitors, the single biggest cause of failure was the tone timing on the encoder. Moto receivers couldn't (and still probably won't) handle Plectron's snap of the finger alerting sequence.
With today's programmable encoders, you just get out the laptop and fix it to accept whatever Motorola (or Veetronix) needs to decode. 1 second/3 seconds is pretty standard these days, but I know a few places where 2 seconds/4 seconds is used to allow a longer decode time.
To recap:
1. Make sure your programming is correct on the pagers and the Veetronix.
2. Make sure your dispatcher is sending the correct tone sequence.
3. If things still don't work, check the timing on the encoder and compare to what your receivers must have to properly decode.
Good luck!
Plectron did this much quicker. "Fast Duotone" operated on 0.75 seconds (1st tone) and 0.25 seconds (2nd tone) with timing clocked by a capacitor network in the old Plectron boxes. The actual tone frequencies weren't very selective but the timing WAS important. Many multi-format tone encoders that do Plectron tones will duplicate Plectron timing unless instructed otherwise.
Once Moto began making Plectron reeds for pagers and alert monitors, the single biggest cause of failure was the tone timing on the encoder. Moto receivers couldn't (and still probably won't) handle Plectron's snap of the finger alerting sequence.
With today's programmable encoders, you just get out the laptop and fix it to accept whatever Motorola (or Veetronix) needs to decode. 1 second/3 seconds is pretty standard these days, but I know a few places where 2 seconds/4 seconds is used to allow a longer decode time.
To recap:
1. Make sure your programming is correct on the pagers and the Veetronix.
2. Make sure your dispatcher is sending the correct tone sequence.
3. If things still don't work, check the timing on the encoder and compare to what your receivers must have to properly decode.
Good luck!
your steps are exactly what i am following, other departments in the area alert on plectron tones, and they are using the minitor 4 and 5 radios, as well as multiple veetronix recievers and work very well. we use the 1second A and 3second B tone sequence. i am recording the tones today, so we will have an answer shortly.
i recorded the tones, and played them back on my Pc through a tone detector, the Tone B actually turned out at 553.9, so i set the radio out to that and it programmed it to 554.5, did a test with dispatch and it alerted. Presto, we are in business. thanks guys for all your help. what a big step down from 701, and its not even a plectron tone. figure that out.