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paging system design

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2003 10:26 pm
by DAL-COM
When designing a fire paging system, what should the minimum field strength be? For instance what does Moto require for its Minitor 4 pager?
Thanks

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 3:08 am
by nmfire10
I'm not sure numbers but you should be aware it will probably take more to function with a Minitor IV than it would have with Minitor II. You can have a minitor II in one hand a box of minitor IV's in the other... The II will go off and the IV's will just look at you with a blank stare. I guess whatever the IV is would be a good minimum. Anything else would probably work great if the IV can hear it.

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 7:29 am
by Jim202
You might be able to answer the question yourself. If you can take a portable radio and hear the normal traffic with it, the pager should work.

Just don't count on the Minitor IV. Piece of junk. Go find another brand before you put thos into your system. Motorola has stayed good to their current reputation of selling trash when they came out with those pagers.

You didn't state if your going to use a current radio system or install a new one for the paging. If you have tone squelch now in all your radios, then stay with it. Just don't send the CTCSS when you send a page.

If your using a repeater, then that sets up another set of issues. Maybe installing a second CTCSS tone for the paging in the repeater. This way all the radios don't have to listen to the pages being sent. Maybe you want everyone to hear the tones. I just don't like getting woke up in the middle of the night for a page that is ment for others.

Jim

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2003 6:05 pm
by DAL-COM
A while ago I sold some Nova pagers to a department that had used Minitor 2 for years. The Nova is similar in design to a Minitor 2 so I expected them to work, where a Minitor 3 would not. Bench tests confirmed that (at least in my crude fixture) the Nova was more sensitive than the 3, but not as good as the 2. Now I am told that the Novas are missing pages. I hear they are shopping for M4's which will, I believe fail to work. So I am interested to know what the field strength should be. Maybe I will have to call Moto............

My experience with Vertex VX180 paging portables is that they will work in many cases where no pager will, probably due to their having a real antenna instead of a loop like a pager. Not many Vol FF want to lug a portable around though, even with a lithium battery.