Batboard

Anybody here have any idea what the capcodes for the 2-tone alert tones they used on the Emergency Tv Series?

Thanks

yep yep yep.... coughsearchcough

http://batboard.batlabs.com/viewtopic.p ... ergency+tv

ty ACES... LOL
I have no idea why i didnt see that. Maybe its becuase im very tired. LMAOO

Donna

Try here. He has detailed info. on Motorola's Quik Call tones from L.A. County.

http://www.policeinterceptor.com/emerg.htm


Tim Bell

Hi Tim and thanks for replying.
I have tried the link you provided but he says nothing about the cap codes.
Cap codes are what encoders use to tell pagers what tones it will be sending and they will be decoding.

An example of this would be like for a 2 tone sequence of 330.5 (tone A) and 368.5 (tone B),the specific cap codes that would be entered into the decoder that sends the tone sequence is "102". This 102 is nothing more than a special language,so to speak, telling the decoder which tones it should send and at what frequency.

Donna

Quik Call (1) is an obsolete format. ( I'm sure it's still in use someplace). If you're using a newer encoder designed for two-tone paging, it's not going to encode Quik Call 1. It can probably be special ordered in an encoder from Zetron, and others, etc. In that case, the manufacturer would have to supply the correct capcodes.

Quik Call didn't have standard "capcodes" in paging plans. On the original encoders, the operator depressed buttons labeled from C to P. For the Emergency tones, he/she would depress LP on the top row and HK on the bottom row, then press the code start button to send the page.

Vern

Hi Vern,

What would be the closest cap codes in 2 tone format to reproduce those as close as possible?
Also,would you know of anybody that would have one of those older Zetron encoders like that that theyd want to sell or donate?

The scary thing is my FD (and all the other ones around here) use QCII for pagers and QCI for Siren tones...lol

LOL... you guys are quite lucky. We are kind of stuck with the Motorola Plan E (Standard) tone system becuase of our budget. We dont use pagers though becuase of all of the "dead spots" here and the very rough terrains,even though we have a few problems with our 2 ways too. :-S

We happened to come across several of the older SC siren controllers here awhile back that Federal Signal had obsoleted a few years ago. Luckily we was able to put at least 2 of them back in service BUT we also just aquired one of the AR A1 air raid siren controllers which we will be replacing the SC's with and just storing the SC's as a backup.
One of the SC's are the DTMF type which is what we preferred becuase those are less hassle and we could set off the siren signals just by our radio keypads while onscene or whatever but we havent got that one quite configured yet(needs a few replacement electronic components), while the other is the 2-tone type which is what we are configuring as of now.
What we wanted the Emergency tones for was becuase several of our firefighters thought it would be cool to add those as general alarm tones as well as the tones we use for setting off the siren. LOL
After speaking with Mike Soiullard of Midian Electronics in Tuscon,he said we wouldnt be able to use those particular tones because they was in a different toning format back then in which our encoder doesnt support unfortunately. :-O
He also said that we could set the 2-toning sequence up in the encoder to sound similiar to the Emergency tones with the type of toning it supports but he never said how. LOL
Before we aquired this newer(to us) system.we was just using a standard pushbutton to set off the siren.This has become a very big step for our alerting sytem.

firechief40 wrote:He also said that we could set the 2-toning sequence up in the encoder to sound similiar to the Emergency tones with the type of toning it supports but he never said how. LOL

Quik Call uses four tones, two tones followed by two tones. I don't see how an encoder can reproduce that with by sending Quik Call II. There are Zetron encoders on ebay from time to time, but they may not be set up to send Quik Call I. At this point, contacting Zetron might be your best bet.
There was a discussion on here recently about using a "storage device" to play back wav files when a button was pushed or a relay closed. This may be a more practical solution. Hook it into a PA amplifier and play it over the station speakers.

This area has been using siren tones for a long time. My FD wants to get a new encoder/decoder but I am not sure how easy it is going to be to find a QCI decoder around. I have the feeling if we do this we are going to have to get new siren tones either DTMF or QCII.

Do you operate off of a repeater? Or are you on Low band? We operate off of low band so we have many dead spots as well :-/

-Bob

firechief40 wrote:LOL... you guys are quite lucky. We are kind of stuck with the Motorola Plan E (Standard) tone system becuase of our budget. We dont use pagers though becuase of all of the "dead spots" here and the very rough terrains,even though we have a few problems with our 2 ways too. :-S

We happened to come across several of the older SC siren controllers here awhile back that Federal Signal had obsoleted a few years ago. Luckily we was able to put at least 2 of them back in service BUT we also just aquired one of the AR A1 air raid siren controllers which we will be replacing the SC's with and just storing the SC's as a backup.
One of the SC's are the DTMF type which is what we preferred becuase those are less hassle and we could set off the siren signals just by our radio keypads while onscene or whatever but we havent got that one quite configured yet(needs a few replacement electronic components), while the other is the 2-tone type which is what we are configuring as of now.
What we wanted the Emergency tones for was becuase several of our firefighters thought it would be cool to add those as general alarm tones as well as the tones we use for setting off the siren. LOL
After speaking with Mike Soiullard of Midian Electronics in Tuscon,he said we wouldnt be able to use those particular tones because they was in a different toning format back then in which our encoder doesnt support unfortunately. :-O
He also said that we could set the 2-toning sequence up in the encoder to sound similiar to the Emergency tones with the type of toning it supports but he never said how. LOL
Before we aquired this newer(to us) system.we was just using a standard pushbutton to set off the siren.This has become a very big step for our alerting sytem.

If you're looking for a newer encoder that does QuikCall I tones, try and find a Zetron Model 25. If I recall correctly, the 25 could do QC1 and 2, GE Type 99, Reach, Bramco, Plectron, DTMF, POCSAG, GOLAY, burst tones and just about anything else out there. I believe the Model 25 was available in a 19" rack mount only.

http://www.zetron.com/pages/english/specpdf/25spc.pdf

Except for Zetron, I don't think you'll find any encoder manufactured after 1975 that'll pound out those venerable QuikCall 1 melodies. The QC1 format was available in one high-end Zetron product as a retrofit for old 1950's and 1960's radio systems that hadn't switched over to a non-obsolete signalling format ...

Hi Ver,
VERY good idea. Thx

Hi USSZULU,
You may want to try Midian Electronics in Tuscon. The guy to contact on what you need is Micheal Soiullard. Thier website is at: http://www.midians.com and thier quite inexpensive in alot of things and Micheal will send you a catalog of thier latest products upon the asking.
The encoder we got from them is called a "mic-coder" (UED-1B-MIC). The website will explain what it does and supports.

Hi W8,
Thats basically what we are on the market for is one of the older desktop type encoders from back in those days. Just hoping it will still be functional. LOL

From what I understand, Quik Call I is obsolete however there are a few fire departments that use it. I've noticed the airline companies use Quik Call I on HF (5.598 and 8.848 Mhz USB) to page aircraft over the North Atlantic.

I picked up a bunch of those encoders many years ago at a hamfest for around $20. I think I kept them for two days before unloading them on a friend of mine... just enough time to record all of the tones I wanted into a PC to make computer wav files.

Very bulky and tube driven... and would give you a electric shock that you would never forget if you handled them incorrectly.

Tim Bell
Silver Spring, Maryland

If you go to: http://www.emergencyfans.com you can download an audio file of them testing there tones.

Now take that audio file and slap it into something like CoolEdit96 and decode the tones from there. Then from there all you need is a tone chart (downloadable) which listed the tones fro QCI and you are set.

As for programming pagers or encoders you should be pretty much set on the pager side. For the encoders in desktop format look at the Zetron Model 15P (or sometimes B). On those encoders you can enter a custom format where you can enter your own tone and timing seq.

As for consoles if you have an Orbacom you can program in your own custom tones also.

We used quick call I to activate our outdoor warning sirens before converting the last one over to MOSCAD in 2001.

We also used a rather large console hooked up to big speakers on church buildings, schools, and water tanks. It was called an Altec Giant Voice system. It was installed in 1965 and cost a pretty penny in leased phone line charges to each speaker site. It was dismantled in the mid 1990's.

Here is the quik call unit we used 1960's - 2001 (by the way, we still use the sister to this radio remote today. It has a 1966 date stamp on the back!):



Our fire dept. used the same type unit to tone out the stations until 1992, then used zetron 25's until 1995 - when they switched everything over to MOSCAD.


Scott

emcom wrote:We used quick call I to activate our outdoor warning sirens before converting the last one over to MOSCAD in 2001.

We also used a rather large console hooked up to big speakers on church buildings, schools, and water tanks. It was called an Altec Giant Voice system. It was installed in 1965 and cost a pretty penny in leased phone line charges to each speaker site. It was dismantled in the mid 1990's.

Here is the quik call unit we used 1960's - 2001 (by the way, we still use the sister to this radio remote today. It has a 1966 date stamp on the back!):



Our fire dept. used the same type unit to tone out the stations until 1992, then used zetron 25's until 1995 - when they switched everything over to MOSCAD.


Scott

That's it! Defineatly brings back those dreadful memories of getting ZAPPED!

Years ago when the A&E Channel ran "The Fugitive" re-runs, I recall seeing one of those encoders staged in Lieutenant Gerard's office. It's strange how one can identify certain items... especially in early television productions.



Anyhow, thanks for the memories.

Tim

When I was a firefighter in Henrico County, Virginia, we used quick call to
activate a Motorola monitor, first a tube type, then solid state.

Our console had the station buttons which Motorola had connected through
a matrix to make the station tones.

The station where I was assigned was Station 5 and the first engine was
called Unit 1. When dispatched they would say "Station 5 (hesitate) 1, etc.
We had four pieces of appratus, so it could come out various ways.

No, our station tones were not the same a Station 51, we were higher on
the 2nd and 4th tones.

I will look to see if I still have a manual on the M03CNB Alert Monitor as it had a list of the tone frequencies.

Fred
KE4RBT

fmahone wrote:I will look to see if I still have a manual on the M03CNB Alert Monitor as it had a list of the tone frequencies.

Fred
KE4RBT

I live fairly close to Henrico, and remember those tones very well. I got my hands on several of the Alert Monitors, and was able to figure out the tones for the entire dept. I have the entire "Sunday afternoon test" as a series of wav files created with Cool Edit 96. I wrote down the codes someplace, but I haven't seen them in a while.

Vern,

If possible could you send me some of your quik call wav files?
My e-mail address is Hoseman292@aol.com


thanks,
Tim