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I thought I had randomly hear some tones before but tonight I caught the attached audio clip. It's a house fire call for Gold Bar / Sultan that went out around 16:30.

Here is what I heard
http://www.daronjohnson.com/miscellaneous/tones.mp3

The first set is a short version of the Medic 54 tones.
Here is what they normally sound like
http://www.daronjohnson.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5072

And the second set is a short version of the Sultan station tones.
And here is what these use to sound like
http://www.daronjohnson.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5138

I wonder if this went out on VHF.... I was also wondering if these tones are being generated by one of the departments itself. My dept has been kicking around the idea of doing that. But I'm not sure how it would have gotten back on the 800 trunk.

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Cool score!

Zetron makes (or made?) a cool little desktop 2 tone / 5 tone unit that connects to TX audio of any radio of your choice. Zetron "Model 5".

Also, if you are trying to send tones on VHF, any ICOM commercial radio can send a single 2-tone pair, and the newer radios (F50, F70, F33, F121, etc) can send 10 different 2 Tone pairs from the radio. You need to pre-program them with software, but then sending is user selectable. A VERY cool feature for small departments.

I had a customer who once said "we are a small volunteer group, when we get called out at 2 am for a simple service call (help I fell down...) then we ALL lose a nights sleep, cuz after picking him/her up, it turns into an all-night/morning bull session". He then proceeded to say "I want the dispatch tone out to hit just a few of us, then me or an assistant chief can investigate and decide if we need to call the whole team".

I heard some more tones this morning. Eng 66 had a small 2 tone go out before it was dispatched.

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Zetron Model 5

Ya we really still make it.

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I taste copper.
Comments, views, opinions - and trails of destruction - are my own.

The Sno Co Fire Chiefs Assn has elected to resurrect the old two-tone pager tones in an abbreviated format.

These tones sent on the 800Mhz system do not activate any pagers, . . . used merely to alert crews that are monitoring that specific talkgroup - of an impending call. Most of us old "nozzleheads" are about half deaf anyway.

All actual paging is still accomplished via the POCSAG digital format.

And if you know the CAP CODES of your favorite Engine Company you too can be alerted.

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Realistic Patrolman PRO-48, Uniden BC-800XLT, Radio Shack PRO-2018, Uniden BC-895XLT, Uniden BC-245XLT, RCA RP-6100,
Realistic PRO-2006, Uniden BR330T, Uniden BCT15X

Very interesting...
SNOCOM did the same thing except they have one single short tone used for all dispatches.

Kinda cool that a shorter version of the tones are now back.

Thanks for the info.

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So let me get this straight: they're sending out 2 tone pairs that don't activate anything on the 800 system? Wow. Wasting radio resources and slowing down dispatches. Pointless in more ways that one! I guess that's what they mean when they talk about a hundred years of tradition unimpeded by progress.

Well kinda.

These tones are super short now... Like 250ms each. So it does not add that much time...

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Dispatches are not being slowed down, Digital pages of the call are sent before you here them on your radio or scanner.

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Realistic Patrolman PRO-48, Uniden BC-800XLT, Radio Shack PRO-2018, Uniden BC-895XLT, Uniden BC-245XLT, RCA RP-6100,
Realistic PRO-2006, Uniden BR330T, Uniden BCT15X

Not all Departments on SNOPAC are using the old Two Tone, Snohomish District 4 is not. 3, 7, 26, and Marysville are.

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Realistic Patrolman PRO-48, Uniden BC-800XLT, Radio Shack PRO-2018, Uniden BC-895XLT, Uniden BC-245XLT, RCA RP-6100,
Realistic PRO-2006, Uniden BR330T, Uniden BCT15X

Yup. I noticed that too.

Wonder if the others are soon to come....

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SNOCOM user agencies are also somewhat more evolved than the SNOPAC user agencies - in the regard that SNOCOM currently uses a separate dispatch talkgroup instead of announcing the voice page info on the same working channel.

And, yes, plans will include the reintroduction of those abbreviated page tones for additional SNOPAC fire agencies if they still desire that action.

I will only say this about the tones being back...

It is faster for the dispatcher to wait for the tone to end, and start talking over waiting for that stupid PDT-2000 to beep...

I cant wait to unplug that stupid thing.... In fact I volunteer to take a hammer to them. :twisted:

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Respond on Tac 3