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Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 6:08 pm
by KC9MDQ
Howdy gang. I'm a volunteer FF ( and dept. radio geek) and I have a department issued Minitor V pager. I also personally own a couple of Minitor II's that came from a neighboring department. Here's my pickle: the battery life of my Minitor V is, shall we say, rather sudden. Rather than spend money to get a spare battery, I'd rather get a tone reed for the Minitor II since the B tone is the same as the other department. I also have spare batteries for the Min II and we all know about the sensitivity. I'd like to have the II as a "standby" pager for when the battery dies on the Min V. So, I need a tone with the frequency of 822.2 Hertz.
Is there anybody here than hook a brother up? MODS,if this should be in the FOR SALE forum, I apologize. . . . I wanted to check availability first.
( And yes, I checked the department's radio bin first, but most of the guys traded in their Minitor II's for upgraded models, and the guys that still DO have them won't part with them unless forced to.)
Re: Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 6:38 am
by Al
Another option for you: If you care to spend $20 and you don't care about intrinsic safety, you can buy a battery tray for your Min V that will take drugstore alkaline AAA batteries. Some say that the AAAs last longer than a charged NiMH OEM battery pack.
Re: Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 7:15 am
by SteveC0625
KC9MDQ wrote:Howdy gang. I'm a volunteer FF ( and dept. radio geek) and I have a department issued Minitor V pager. I also personally own a couple of Minitor II's that came from a neighboring department. Here's my pickle: the battery life of my Minitor V is, shall we say, rather sudden. Rather than spend money to get a spare battery, I'd rather get a tone reed for the Minitor II since the B tone is the same as the other department. I also have spare batteries for the Min II and we all know about the sensitivity. I'd like to have the II as a "standby" pager for when the battery dies on the Min V. So, I need a tone with the frequency of 822.2 Hertz.
Is there anybody here than hook a brother up? MODS,if this should be in the FOR SALE forum, I apologize. . . . I wanted to check availability first.
( And yes, I checked the department's radio bin first, but most of the guys traded in their Minitor II's for upgraded models, and the guys that still DO have them won't part with them unless forced to.)
If you don't find a reed here, there's is always Ebay. There are several vendors who have constant listings for them
although their available inventory fluctuates as they buy and sell them. And on any given day, you never know what you might find as many departments are just getting around to selling off their old gear on Ebay. It's worth a look and maybe even set up a saved search or two with daily email notifications of new listings.
Edit to add: Forgot to mention Gary at G&G Communications. He's always got reeds for sale.
I have a Minitor II in a charger amp at home. Even with narrowbanding, that old workhorse just keeps on trucking. If the right radio comes along some day, I'd love to swap it for a Min-II SV model.
Re: Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 8:34 am
by KC9MDQ
Al- Thanks for the tip. I appreciate it, but was also trying to not spend money on a equipment that doesn't belong to me (been there, done that, was a lead driver and instructor for taxi/wheelchair transport company and I always got snookered into fixing the radios for free, my fault I'm a pushover I guess.) Since I got the Minitor II's for free, I'd rather throw a few bucks into them.
Steve- I do indeed have a Fleabay watch list for Minitor II's, but some of that stuff is priced right up in Crazy Land. I thought I'd test the waters here and maybe try to do a trade or something, since hams usually don't shaft each other with wanton abandon.
Re: Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 3:45 am
by SteveC0625
KC9MDQ wrote:Steve- I do indeed have a Fleabay watch list for Minitor II's, but some of that stuff is priced right up in Crazy Land. I thought I'd test the waters here and maybe try to do a trade or something, since hams usually don't shaft each other with wanton abandon.
I did not think that $5 to $10 per reed was particularly pricey for an item that has not been manufactured in many years, but none of today's listings happen to have the 822.2 reed.
822.2 is the old QC-I LA tone. It is not used in any other tone system that I have on file here and that makes it a very, very rare item. Given that fact, you may not find one for cheap anywhere.
The NLN7834 tone reed was also used in the Director II and Quick Call II pagers so you may want to try a wider search.
Re: Minitor II tone reed
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2014 1:47 pm
by KC9MDQ
Another member of the board helped me out with this problem. The thread can be locked or deleted. I send a thank you to the mods for approving the thread in the first place.