When I was at FDIC this year I posed 2 problems to the reps at the Motorola booth.
1) When you try to turn your pager down to the lowest point, It shuts off before it clicks.
2) We can monitor Channel 1 and 2, but we have to leave it on open channel. Why can't we have it on alert and still monitor both channels?
The reps stated these problems were being addressed and could be upgraded. Has that happened yet?
Minitor IV
Moderator: Queue Moderator
Hahahahaha.
/\/\'s response to the volume knob issues was "Don't turn it down all the way. Put it on vibrate if you want it to be quiet."
You can't really scan with two-tone alerting. You will miss pages because the A tone on channel 1 will not be recieved long enough when it is scanning ch. 2. Kinda like you may miss the very begining of a word or two on your scanner. Same thing, you miss part of the tone and it will not alert.
The only time it could be fool-proof is if you only used long A or long B tones and extended the time to make up for that last in scanning,
/\/\'s response to the volume knob issues was "Don't turn it down all the way. Put it on vibrate if you want it to be quiet."
You can't really scan with two-tone alerting. You will miss pages because the A tone on channel 1 will not be recieved long enough when it is scanning ch. 2. Kinda like you may miss the very begining of a word or two on your scanner. Same thing, you miss part of the tone and it will not alert.
The only time it could be fool-proof is if you only used long A or long B tones and extended the time to make up for that last in scanning,
"I'll eat you like a plate of bacon and eggs in the morning. "
- Some loser on rr.com
eBay at it's finest:
Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
Them: "A very nice CB at 900Mhz speed!"
- Some loser on rr.com
eBay at it's finest:
Me: "What exactly is a 900Mhz UHF CB?"
Them: "A very nice CB at 900Mhz speed!"
Minitor 3 and Minitor 4 pagers are a JOKE!!!!
We have elected to use the SCA Sceptar pagers and they do not have any of the above described problems as the Motorola product. In addition to not having those problems, they do not have many of the other commonly found problems as the MIII and MIV.
For Ex.
There are no channel or volume knobs on the SCA, it uses push buttons. Therefore there is no knobs to get broken off, or turned down to far. The volume control and the on/off switch on the SCA is seperate, unlike the Motorola.
The software allows the user to choose if they want the pager to beep alert and vibrate alert simultaneously. This feature is real handy also for those in a high noise environment. And it eliminates the pager being turned down to far and missing a page.
The SCA uses a break-away belt clip design. This prevents the whole back housing of the pager getting distroyed when the clip breaks. In addition to that, SCA will sell you the clip unlike motorola requiring the pager be sent back and paying 4 prices for a simple repair.
The SCA will SCAN in the ALERT mode, just like what CDJ267 asked in the above post. We use this pager in my FD and love it. We need this feature because we are dispatched by 2 different counties on 2 different VHF freqs. the pager scans in alert mode and in monitor mode. We RARELY miss a call because of it not hearing the first part of the tone. Probably becasue SCA software allows the user to change the tone timing required to make the pager alert. This takes care of that problem.
The SCA operates off a single "AA" battery. the NICD will operate the pager for approx 36-40 hrs on a charge. A alkaline battery will operate the pager approx 7 days before dying.
These are just a few of the advantages of the SCA. Email me if you have questions about the SCA and would be interested in one/some.
SCA is much more economical to repair than the MIII and MIV. At least SCA will provide the dealers with service manuals and repair parts so they can be repaired on site instead of being shipped back for that high as hell flat rate fee.
For every one SCA pager we have come in for repair, we have 10 to 15 MIII and MIV in for repair.
That is not an exaggerated number.
My 2 cents.......
Wes
We have elected to use the SCA Sceptar pagers and they do not have any of the above described problems as the Motorola product. In addition to not having those problems, they do not have many of the other commonly found problems as the MIII and MIV.
For Ex.
There are no channel or volume knobs on the SCA, it uses push buttons. Therefore there is no knobs to get broken off, or turned down to far. The volume control and the on/off switch on the SCA is seperate, unlike the Motorola.
The software allows the user to choose if they want the pager to beep alert and vibrate alert simultaneously. This feature is real handy also for those in a high noise environment. And it eliminates the pager being turned down to far and missing a page.
The SCA uses a break-away belt clip design. This prevents the whole back housing of the pager getting distroyed when the clip breaks. In addition to that, SCA will sell you the clip unlike motorola requiring the pager be sent back and paying 4 prices for a simple repair.
The SCA will SCAN in the ALERT mode, just like what CDJ267 asked in the above post. We use this pager in my FD and love it. We need this feature because we are dispatched by 2 different counties on 2 different VHF freqs. the pager scans in alert mode and in monitor mode. We RARELY miss a call because of it not hearing the first part of the tone. Probably becasue SCA software allows the user to change the tone timing required to make the pager alert. This takes care of that problem.
The SCA operates off a single "AA" battery. the NICD will operate the pager for approx 36-40 hrs on a charge. A alkaline battery will operate the pager approx 7 days before dying.
These are just a few of the advantages of the SCA. Email me if you have questions about the SCA and would be interested in one/some.
SCA is much more economical to repair than the MIII and MIV. At least SCA will provide the dealers with service manuals and repair parts so they can be repaired on site instead of being shipped back for that high as hell flat rate fee.
For every one SCA pager we have come in for repair, we have 10 to 15 MIII and MIV in for repair.
That is not an exaggerated number.
My 2 cents.......
Wes
Wes Hutchens
911 Telecommunicator/2-Way Sales & Service
911 Telecommunicator/2-Way Sales & Service
Pager Scan
WES wrote......"The SCA will SCAN in the ALERT mode, just like what CDJ267 asked in the above post. We use this pager in my FD and love it. We need this feature because we are dispatched by 2 different counties on 2 different VHF freqs. the pager scans in alert mode and in monitor mode. We RARELY miss a call because of it not hearing the first part of the tone"
The point is....if you understand how paging works and understand how scan works...you would realize that the only way you can "scan" two channels with paging, reliably for PUBLIC SAFETY purposes is with two receivers. Unless your SCA pager has two receivers built in, the manufacturer cannot guarantee that you will not miss a page when scanning.
Incidentally, our customers demo'd the SCA pagers and rejected them for poor audio quality and receive range.
The U.S. Alert Nova pager has great audio quality and excellent receive.....unfortunately, it is still only available on one channel.
The point is....if you understand how paging works and understand how scan works...you would realize that the only way you can "scan" two channels with paging, reliably for PUBLIC SAFETY purposes is with two receivers. Unless your SCA pager has two receivers built in, the manufacturer cannot guarantee that you will not miss a page when scanning.
Incidentally, our customers demo'd the SCA pagers and rejected them for poor audio quality and receive range.
The U.S. Alert Nova pager has great audio quality and excellent receive.....unfortunately, it is still only available on one channel.
Scanning two different frequencies for pages has the risk of missing pages not only because of the possibility that part of the first tone is missed, but more likely because one of the two channels is busy or the pager is receiving hash from a nearby computer on one channel. This will stop the scanning and cause the pager to look for the valid tone pair on that channel for the duration of the signal. During this time, the pager cannot receive anything on the other channel because it is locked on the first channel. The more sensitive the pager is, the more likely it is for this to happen with weak signals on shared frequencies. The ability for the pager to reject adjacent channel interference also plays a role here.
Motorola warns against scanning with a pager for this exact reason. If there is a need to page two different groups of people, they should make arrangements to page on both frequencies or move all paging to a single frequency.
Nand.
Motorola warns against scanning with a pager for this exact reason. If there is a need to page two different groups of people, they should make arrangements to page on both frequencies or move all paging to a single frequency.
Nand.