What are my options for VHF DTMF pagers for firefighters?

[n7maq]

Hello,

What are my options for VHF DTMF pagers?

We have an area dispatch center whose director wants to move all fire pages to DTMF. They want to do this for faster page times on stacked calls. Some of the tones now are QCII single tone and they are concerned about signaling times. I think it would be best just to reconfigure the long tones to dual tones. I don't think DTMF is the best way but we at least need to have some info in case that is what they want. Most of the pagers in use now are Minitor III, IV, and V's, some Swiss phone, F/S Informer, and a few Kenwood, and Icom radios. So just going with DTMF would mean replacing most of the receivers now in service. IMHO they need to change the tones to fast Plectron timing.


I'm also open to opinions of the best way to go about this.

Thanks

Jim