Does anyone make this? (dual use pager)

[unlisted]

A fire voice pager that can do multiple voice channels in VHF, and also receive/decode/display alphanumeric pages? (on the same band of course)


Kinda continuing where this thread left off...


http://www.freeyabb.com/elightbars/view ... elightbars

 

[wkr518]

Does your current VHF system offer alpha numeric paging?


If yes: then Swissphone has digital alpha numeric pagers


If not:


Apollo paging has the VP200 new versions (VP220PRO?) with a display that has alias on what tone set is being activated on analog


example: alias County EMS can be assigned to tone set 765.4/523.9 on 154.795, Fire Control to 917.8/639.7 on 154.795


Have a seen a few in action but have not really beat the hell out of it or put it through its paces


*rumor- Motorola may be thinking of adding a Display option on the VI,but I take that rumor with a grain of sand as it stands now.


Inquiries to Paging Product Group in FL neither confirm,deny nor allude to such an option.

 

[firefighter_2000]

I forget what the model is, but as stated above Swissphone does make what you're looking for. I highly reccomend swissphone. I posted a review of the 729 recently. It can be viewed here:


http://www.elightbars.org/forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=613


Craig

 

[unlisted]

Well, I will try to elaborate a bit to make this more clear what I am hoping/wanting to do:


for the Fire Dept I have a motorola advisor 2 in the VHF high split.


for the vollie EMS agency we use VHF voice for radios- but I would like a RX only solution if possible.


and finally, I would like the two weather radio stations my area is in programmed into it as well..


Kinda like what that other person was wanting to do in the last thread.. just with alpha capabilities as well.


does that Swissphone pager do all this?

 

[firefighter_2000]

Hmm... Im not sure it actually will do that. Give swissphone a call at 800-596-1914, talk to Jake. He can help you out for sure. I know the pager I have is capable of multiple channels on both ends of the vhf spectrum. They can have tone alerts, or just monitor the channel.


Thanks


Craig

 

[jantman]

Aside from what's already been mentioned, not that I know of. Motorola makes 2-frequency pagers, but no alpha.


For the RX only with weather, you could pick up a *tiny* Icom or Kenwood or Vertex portable that will do 12 channels or so. The Icom ones at least have page receive capability, and you could probably get one used for around $100.


The whole pager market mystifies me. Sure, Swissphone and Apollo make pagers that are pretty damn cool. But why haven't Icom/Kenwood/Vertex jumped in and made something to compete with big M? At $550 for a Minitor V, I'm sure they could make the same thing much cheaper. And why not go all out, use the receive circuitry from one of their portables (or even easier one of their ham/amateur radios)?


While we're talking pagers, a few things I've wanted for years:


1) A hybrid voice/alpha pager. Our dispatch gives the location of the call, why not have something like a Minitor V with an LCD screen in it that could scroll a message entered by the dispatcher (and sent along with the voice or tones)? Just enough text to get a message through, like call type, address, and time?


2) A pager with multiple channels. Yaesu (Vertex) made a ham portable that was the same size as a Minitor and did VHF/VHF UHF/UHF or VHF/UHF simultaneously with a transceiver and a second receive-only radio. So you could monitor one frequency and still get pages (if that were built in to a pager).


3) A pager that acknowledges pages. Your pager receives a page, it transmits back some ID code to say that it received it. Or, even better, to get rid of all those IAmResponding.com-style systems, or calling the desk, has a button to press to send back a "responding" signal. Sure, no antenna, no good transmit coverage, but that could be worked on...

 

[firefighter_2000]

While we're talking pagers, a few things I've wanted for years:


1) A hybrid voice/alpha pager. Our dispatch gives the location of the call, why not have something like a Minitor V with an LCD screen in it that could scroll a message entered by the dispatcher (and sent along with the voice or tones)? Just enough text to get a message through, like call type, address, and time?


2) A pager with multiple channels. Yaesu (Vertex) made a ham portable that was the same size as a Minitor and did VHF/VHF UHF/UHF or VHF/UHF simultaneously with a transceiver and a second receive-only radio. So you could monitor one frequency and still get pages (if that were built in to a pager).


3) A pager that acknowledges pages. Your pager receives a page, it transmits back some ID code to say that it received it. Or, even better, to get rid of all those IAmResponding.com-style systems, or calling the desk, has a button to press to send back a "responding" signal. Sure, no antenna, no good transmit coverage, but that could be worked on...

Swissphone makes pagers that do both 2 & 3. Im not sure if they do number one yet, and not sure if they make one that does both 2 & 3 in one. I have to agree, swissphone & apollo seem to be sort of ahead of mother /\/\... Maybe they can slap to pagers back to back like the new APX7000 radio!!! :mrgreen:


Craig

 

[unlisted]

1) A hybrid voice/alpha pager.
2) A pager with multiple channels.

Basically what my original post is asking for..

 

[kinnelonfire75]

Swissphone makes pagers that do both 2 & 3. Im not sure if they do number one yet, and not sure if they make one that does both 2 & 3 in one. I have to agree, swissphone & apollo seem to be sort of ahead of mother /\/\... Maybe they can slap to pagers back to back like the new APX7000 radio!!! :mrgreen:


Craig

about number 3...the issue is that your dept dispatcher may not have the equipment to read the "responding signal", especially if he buys a swissphone and the dept runs motorola...

 

[jantman]

about number 3...the issue is that your dept dispatcher may not have the equipment to read the "responding signal", especially if he buys a swissphone and the dept runs motorola...

Well it would have to be a whole system switch-over...


Of course my idea (in an ideal world) is that the pager vendor would sell a little box that plugs in between a computer and a spare radio/scanner, pulls the signals, and displays them on screen.

 

[wkr518]

Ok,I had a similar mission to find a VHF voice pager that also offer Alphanumeric/POCSAG decoding. No such monster.The closest thing I found was Swissfone pager models.


But it still comes down to 2 limitations:


Analog paging: voice and tones


Digital paging: addressable,POCSAG,alphanumeric


Maybe if someone designed a back 2 back pager which is essentially a analog and POCSAG pager fused together sharing same power source it might work. You can get your voice and tones on alert and turn it over for the call,run,location informations via A/N display.


Some dealers are telling me they heard at IWCE in Vegas (the big show for Motorola,Kenwood etc ) that the V series is the end of the line for Moto Voice pagers. Of course,the dealers who told me this are : 1- not Motorola Dealer, 2: sell Apollo,Icom Ports,Swissphone pagers, 3: pissed that I sell pagers into thier radio customer accounts

 

[jantman]

Ok,I had a similar mission to find a VHF voice pager that also offer Alphanumeric/POCSAG decoding. No such monster.The closest thing I found was Swissfone pager models.
But it still comes down to 2 limitations:


Analog paging: voice and tones


Digital paging: addressable,POCSAG,alphanumeric

Well I'll argue the digital paging part. I really don't think they'd have to be addressable... my thought was just to transmit something after the tones and before the voice, or after the voice. Essentially work the exact same way a Minitor does now, but throw some alpha information in there. If you want to take my idea further, I was thinking that there would be some small box that hooks up to the dispatcher's terminal via serial or USB... takes ASCII input, encodes it as an analog (i.e. "modem") signal... then keys the dispatch console and transmits it. Of course, retrofit wouldn't be a do-it-yourself job. You'd need the dispatch console to send some sort of signal to the encoder, and trigger the encoder either between the tones and voice or after the tones. I don't know how most CAD software is written (other than it's not open source, so the individual agency couldn't make the minimal changes required) but if the CAD system had any way to feed data for every call to an external program, it would be simple enough to write a small program/script to parse out the data you want (address, call type, etc.) and feed it to the encoder automatically.

 

[kinnelonfire75]

what i would live is a dual freq pager that can receive from both


46.42 and 470.925


that would make my year.

 

[unlisted]

what i would live is a dual freq pager that can receive from both

46.42 and 470.925


that would make my year.

"modded" Yaesu vx-5r? :lol: :roll: :geek:


... it would work ya know..