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Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 10:37 am
by lightobsession
Hi, I am new to this forum and have tried to search, but can not find anything helpful. I want to know if my Spectra is capable of toning out my FD (to open up the pagers). I have played with the RSS and cant seem to find out how to do that. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike
SPECTRA VHF RADIO D43KXA7JA5BK, DA5KX+067W
Latest (lol) RSS
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:06 pm
by tvsjr
No, Spectras won't encode QC2. You can program two separate singletones and it'll work, but that's pretty ghetto...
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:17 am
by lightobsession
Thankfully, my FD uses a single tone to page out, I just have to figure out which tone we use.
*Where would I find a single tone list?
Also, what is the purpose of single tones? Did it serve the same purpose (but older technology) as the QC?
I can program a "page" button on my radio, but what the heck does it do and where would you program it on the RSS?
I see the tone"0601" I added the max number of tones (16) just to see if I could find the right one... but... I havent had time to figure it out.
Mike
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 4:30 am
by lightobsession
PS: The tone lasts about 8 seconds. I guess its an All-Call? I hope my Spectra will do it.
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2009 2:19 pm
by Will
Single Tone is just that, a single tone on the first few seconds of the radio's transmission. Single Tone or "cheep beep" was used to access repeaters and base stations back in the days before PL.
The Spectra can send a single frequency "beep" of up to ten seconds every time the radio transmitter is keyed up.
Read your Spectra. In the Conventional Configuration look for Single Tone. Set Tone 1 to the paging tone needed, example 834.8, Also set a button on the radio control head to activate the Single Tone, or ST. Program these changes back into your radio.
Press this, ST, button, push the PTT momentarily and the transmitter will key up and transmit the 'paging' tone for the preset ST time and unkey.
Depending on the type and model of pager, the tone can be found in the pager's software or codeplug, or in the old days, the tone was stamped on the tone reed in the pager.
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:43 am
by lightobsession
Thanks Will, I will try that.
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 12:31 pm
by lightobsession
Will, I found out how to do that for the time I need. However, I cant enter freq.'s into the SingleTone list. I can only enter codes, starting at 0600, 0601, and so on. I wish there was a list of what those tones/hertz and options were. I tried a few of them and they seem to be too high pitched anyway

.
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:44 pm
by Will
The "codes" in the Spectra radio single tone list are audible tones listed by their frequency. Example: 0600 would be 600 Hz. 1004 would be 1004 Hz. Hz AKA cycles per second.
Paging codes are part of what is called a CAP code.
Quick Call II Cap Code Translation
The first digit of the 3 digit Cap Code (for a particular call) determines the tone groups from which tones A and B will be selected (or tone C as well in ...
www.batlabs.com/qcii.html - 12k
batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11003
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2009 2:43 pm
by lightobsession
Well, since it wont let start anywhere below 600hz, I guess I wont be able to do it. We use 350.5hz as our tone. Thanks Will.
Re: Spectra Fire Dept Tone
Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:13 pm
by Will
Yes you are correct the Single Tones do not go below 600 hZ.
Communications Specialists in Orange, CA makes an external encoder that can be plugged into your Spectra.