Fire Department Two-Tone Tone Out

Learn How To Receive These Special Signals

Text by John Bolduc

T
here are different ways a two-way radio or pager ca n
be signaled or aler ted. M an y of us are fami liar w ith
sub-audible CTCSS to nes that arc used to ope n the
squelch a receiving radio to al low it to receive a
d esired sign a l. This article ho wever is conce rned wi th
Analog tone Pag ing tha t w ill "tri p" pagers, beepers, a nd
m o re importantly the current generation of two-tone
decoding capa ble Un id e n sca nners. These U n iden models
include the BR330T, BCD996T, a nd BCD 396T. Currently
Radio Shack scanners do n o t have this capabi lity.
A lthoug h most Rad io Shack scanners a re ma d e by CRE,
some are buil t by Uniden. These Uniden buil t Radio Sh ack
scanners have a slightl y a ltered appearance a nd bear th e
Radio Shack na m e. Might we be see ing some U nid e n built
Radio Sh ack sca1mers in the near future with two-to ne
a lerting capability?
Analog Tone Paging
The re are va rio u s for m s of a nalog tone paging
including DTM F Paging & AN I, 5/ 6 Tone Paging & AN !,
Hexadecimal Seq uen tial Code (HSC) Pagi n g, and 2 To ne
Sequential Pagi n g. It is the 2 tone sequentia l paging tha t we
will specifically exp lo re. Two tone seq u e ntial pagi ng is a
very common fo r mat used to aler t fi re depa rtments, resc ue
squads, a mbulances a nd simila r agenc ies. You ma~' hear this
refe rred to by th e bra nd n a m e o f Motorola Qu ic kCall 1 & 2,
General Electric T yp e 99, Reach Two Tone, or generi cally as
Plectron.
The Min.itor II was a ve ry commo n pa ger s ince the
1980's carried by fire d epa r tme nt m em bers and is a
ci nd tone B tra n sm itted fo r 1.5 seco nd s.
In the Plectron Fast Duotonc to ne A is tra n smitted for
0.75 second s, no gap, a nd to ne B tra nsmi tted for 0.25
seco nds. In the Pl ec tron Slow Duot o ne to ne A is
transm itted for 3 second s, no g<ip, and to ne B tra ns mitted
fo r 0.25 seconds. In the Reach Two To ne Fast, tone A is
transmitted for 150 mill isecond s, 259 m illisecond s ga p, and
tone 13 transmitte d fo r 150 mi lliseco nds.
In the Reac h T wo Tone Slo w, to ne A is trans mitted fo r 2
sern nd s, 0 .25 seconds gnp, and tone B transmitted for 0.70
second s. The tabl es below outli ne the possi b le frequen cy of
the ton es used in the va rious fo rma ts. T h is table is sorted in
nscendi ng o rd e r by to ne to m ake frequency look up much
c,1s ie r for the sca nneris t. There a rc severa l cha rts o n the
Internet that lis t th e to nes in a log ica l bu t non ascending
fo rmn t. These ta bles a lso get in to w hat combina ti o ns of
to ne s a rc possible.
Not c vcrv combination of two tones lis ted in o ur table is
act uall y used . Ou r s implified table is concerned w ith a
q u ick look up tone frequenc ies to program our scanners. If
you considern bl y more tec hn icall y incli ned you can view
some of those ta bles nt:
ht tp:/ /www. usalcrtl lc .com/CODI NG .d oc
http://www.m idia ns.com / pdf/ tonc_s ignaling.pdf
http://www.gcn<lvc.com/ tvvo-tnne_pagi ng.htm
Motorola Quick Call II.
l\lotoroh' I o nes sorted in 'ascend
. inn va lue
~·
~

Motorola product. The current version is the Minitor V . ~ 96 .5 304 .7 3 13.0 321.7
Wi th this format the first two to nes a re used a rc referred to -
110.5 339.6 349. 0 35 8.6 368.5
as A a n d B and is u sed for "r egular" to ne o uts. Tones C a n d J78 6 380.0 309.8 4 I 0.8 422.1
D a re ty pically u sed as nn nd ditional call type to th e pngcr ..1>3 .7 -1--1-5. 7 -1-57.9 470.5 L
l83.5
.
or for group calls . 496.8 :'\ I0.5 ) 2,1.6 539.0 553.9
W ithout first knowing wha t the tones are, how do you 569.1 " 584 .8 600.9 617 .-l 63-1 .5
determine w hich type of two to ne sequ e ntia l system you a rc ·-
65 1.9 669.9 688 .3 707.3 726.8
monitoring? Yo u can te ll by the leng th o f the to nes a nd the
l- - --
'46.8 76 7.4 788 .5 810.2 832.5
g ap, if any, be tween the tones. - -
855.5 879.0 I-903 .2 928.1 953.7
In the Mo torola Quick Call 1 the individual ca ll tones .----------· -
9 79.9* 1006.9 1034.7 I063.2 --
I 092.4
are transm itte d for one second with gap of 200 m illiseconds 1122.5 1153.4- 1185.2 12 17.8 1251.4
between the to nes. For gro up calls n si n g le tone of e ig ht 1285 .8 13 2 1.2 1357.6 ! 1395.0 1433.4
seconds is transm itted. !-1-72 .9 15 13 .5 1555.2 I 598.0 1642.0
In t he Motorola Quick Ca ll 2 the ind ividua l call to nes a rc '
1687.2 173 3.1 178 1.5 1830.5 1881.0
transmitted for o ne second of to ne A, n o ga p, and 3 seco nds 1930.2 1989.0 20.:JJ .8 2094.5 2155 .6
of tone B. For group calls a si ngle tone of eight seco nds is I 22 12.2 227 1.7 i-2334 .6. 2401.0 2468.2
trans mitted . In the General Electric T y pe 99 for <111 *Optional T\\ O-tnne g ro up (d iagona l) alert tone~:
ind iv idual call, tone A is tra nsmitted fo r one second , no ga p ,

28 Scanning US A The ONLY Magazine Devoted To Scanning! February 2007

 Plectron tones, whether they were Plectron originated or
Motorola (Juick Call I not. Plectron was one of the first systems used to use tone
pager alerting for volunteer d epartments. The sys tems has
Motorola (o lder) Quick Call 1 three formats, single tone, double tone slow, or double tone
fast
346.7 358.9 37 1.5 384.6 398. l
4] 2.1 426 .6 44 1.6 457.1 473.2 Single Tone - 3.0 seconds of tone A
489.8 507.0 524.8 543 .3 562.3 Slow Dual Tone - 3.0 seconds of tone A, .25 seconds of tone
B
582. l 602.6 623.7 645.7 668.3 Fast Dual Tone - .75 seconds of tone A, .25 seconds of tone B
691 .8 716. 1 741.3 767.4 794.3
822.2 851.1 881.0 912.0 944.1 Reach Tone Paging
REACH format paging system similar to the Two
977.2 1011.6 1084.0 1122.1 1161.4
Tone Sequential systems by Motorola and General
I 047 1. Electric. REACH format uses an A tone of 2.0
seconds, and a B tone of 0.8 seconds. Group Call is 5
seconds. REACH tones are ou tlined in the table
below.
General Electric Type 99.

GE Type 99 tones sorted in ascending value

49 5.0 5 12.0 530.0 549.0 ! 588.0
: 609 .0 63 1.0 I 653 .0 676.0 ! 700.0
5 17.5 532.5 547.5 562.5 577.5 725 .0 750.0 776.0 ; 804.0 832 .0
592.5 607.5 622.5 637.5 652.5 862. 0 892.0 923.0 956.0 990.0
667.5 682.5 697.5 712.5 727.5 1025.0 l 06 J.O l 098.0 1137.0 1177.0
757.5 772.5 787.5 802 .5 817.5 12 19.0 126 1.0 1306.0 1352.0 1400.0
1449.0 1500 .0 1553.0 1608.0 1664.0 :
832.5 847.5 862.5 877.5 892.5
1723 .0 1784.0 1847.0 19 12.0 !980.0 I
907.5 922.5 937.5 952.5 967.5 2049.0 212 l.O 2196.0 2274.0 2354.0
2437.0 2523.0 2612.0 2 704.0 2799.0
Plectron Paging 2898.0 3000.0 3 106.0 3215 .0 3329.0
Much like facial tissue is referred to by the brand name 3446.0 3568.0 3694.0 3824.0 3960.0
Kleenex, signaling tones have often been referred as
Zetron Tone Paging
Plectron Tones sorted in ascending._, value
282.2 294.7 307.8 321.4 335.6 588.0 609.0 631.0 653.0 676.0
350.5 366.0 382.3 399.2 41 6.9 700.0 725.0 750 .0 776 .0 804.0
435.3 454.6 474 .8 495 .8 5 17.8 832.0 862.0 892.0 923 .0 956.0 I
540.7 564.7 589.7 6 15.8 I 672.0 990.0 1025.0 106 1.0 1098. 0 1137 .0 i
701.0 732.0 765.0 799.0 83 4.0 l] 77.0 1219.0 1261.0 1306.0 1352.0
87 1.0 910.0 950.0 I 992.0 I 992.0 1400.0 1400.0 1449.0 1449.0 1500 .0
1036.0 1082.0 1130.o I l t 80.0 1232.0 1500.0 1553.0 1553.0 1608.0 1608. 0
1287.0 1344.0 ] 403 .0 1530.0 1598.0 1664.0 1723 .0 1784.0 1847.0 1912.0
1669.0 1743.0 1820.0 1901.0 1957.0 1980.0 2049.0 2121.0 2196.0 2274.0
1985.0 2073.0 2164.0 2260.0 2361.0 2354.0 2437.0 2523.0 2612 .0 2704.0
2465.0 2575.0 268 8.0 2807.0 2932.0
3062.0 Zetron uses a series of tones for its Fire Dispatch &
Alerting system.The tones are outlined in the table below.
29 Scanning USA The ONLY Magazine Devoted To Scanning! February 2007
SECODF/Digital Dial Alerting Okay, we've talked abou t tones until we are blue in the
This sys tem is used in some the EMS community to alert face. But how do we as a hobbyist d eterm ine what the tones
hospitals to incoming patients from ambula nce companies. are to p rogram into our fire tone ou t detecting scanners.
The 2 standard tones used are 2805 & 1500. This system was Asking may work, but many fire fighters don 't know
also used by the older IMTS mobile telephones, prior to what the tones are in their pagers. You no rmally would have
cell ular p hones. The syste m sends a steady tone, and pulses to pop a p ager open to determine wha t the tones are. A
this tone very similar to pulse telephone d iali ng. dispatcher, fire dep a rtmen t radio tech nician, or higher
ra nked officer might know the tone. Some migh t tell you,
Brief introduction to pager Cap Codes
a nd some might eye you w ith suspicion . Worse you, I've
The table u sed in this examp le is an extreme
experienced being told totally incorrect information. Let's
simpli fication of a more complex set of table used to
no t resort to that mode .
determine valid combina tions of alert tones.
The lnternet and va rious "groups" are not yet a very
A Cap Code is a number uniq ue to a pager and allows a
good source for tones, although there are pockets of
dispa tcher to page directly with it and not other pagers .
abun da nt data for limited a reas.
With the design of most formats comes a set of tables that
Let's figure out the tones on our own. May be not the
relate to a cap code. Cap codes are typical three d igits lon gs.
exact tones, but tones that are accura te enough to make
In our sample of a typical setup, the first digit in the cap
those scanners trigger on a fire tone out as reliable if no t
code tells you w hich tone table to refer. The Ca p Code
more than a Minitor p ager.
determines w hich two tones within the table, Tone A and
What do you need to determine the tones? A fa ir ly up to
Tone B, the d ispa tch encoder w ill sen d to acti va te a
da te personal computer runni ng v\/indows, any scanner
particular pager. Tone A is indicated by the second d igi t in
with a headphone or audio out jack, and a freque ncy
the cap code an d tone B is indicated by the th ird digit in the
rea di ng/ cou nti ng software program.
cap code.
Ri ght of the bat l am going to recommend the program
If you see a cap code of 123 yo u will look at the first
WTune. You can downl oad Wtune a t
digit, \•vhich is a one. This means to refer to tone table one.
http :/ /www .cipoo.ne t/ w tune_e.ht ml. Word of caution, l
Referring to Table 1 the d igit 1, in this example, means that
fo und Windows Me gave me some problems running the
Tone A is selected from Table 2 Group 3 and Tone B is
program .
selected from Table 2 Group 4. Consulting Table we read
The great advantage to this program is you can prod uce
down the column for tone gro up 3 (from the firs t digit of our
a text file listing the dominant frequency at mu ltiple small
cap code table 1) to the digit 2 (the second number of our
points in ti me. A fire tone our would produce a steady
cap code) and come up with Tone A as 296.5 . For Tone B we
listing of one, two, or fo ur dominant tones over many, many
would consu lt grou p 4 to d igit 3 (from the third number of
intervals in the text file. The d ispatch audio portion would
our cap code) and come up with 378.6.
show the dom inant frequency jumping all over the
TAB L E I place at each interva l.
An alterna tive program to use fo r determining
tone
i l st Digit of Cap Code Group for Tone A Group fo r Tone B http://www.techmind.org/ frequencies is tuner12. You can download it at:
aud io/ tuner12.exe
II l 3 4
This program does not provide text logging.
2 2 I I
So how do I do this?
I
' '1
.) I I 2
Connect on end of an audio patch cord to your
I 4 4 I '1
.)
scanner, the other end to the audio input (or -
m icrophone inp ut jack if you don't have an audio
TA8LE 2 inpu t jack). When you turn yo ur scanner on, you will be
monitori ng the scanner a udio through the com puter
Group l Group 2 Group 3 Gro up 4 spea ker. Tu rn your sca nner on. Start the Wtune program.
You can either sta rt logging to the text file immed iately
II Number FreQ Freq Frea Fre q or if you are going to be ri ght at the computer yo u can start
logging the ins tan t yo u hear a tone coming across. l would
I 349.0 600 .9 288.5 339.6
I suggest you be at yo ur comp uter throu ghout the logging
,..,
L.. 368.5 634.5 296.5 358.6 process. The disad vant£1ge of logging immediatel y is that
'1 you ge t a large fi le or text to sort through . Howe~er, if you
.) 389.0 669.9 304.7 378.6 wai t to you hear the a lert tones, you w ill have to start the
4 I 4 J0.8 707.3 3 l 3.0 399.8 logging the very ins ta nce yo u hear the fi re <J lert tone. In
either case, I strongly suggest you stop the logging once you

30 Scanning U SA The ONLY Magazine Devot ed To Scanning! Febr uary 20 07

 get a tone out.
Every time you start, stop, and start logging again, you
generate a brand new log file .
So you could be generating a
second log from your scanner
w hile reviewing the text of the
first log file. The log fil es a re
saved to your Windows
Desktop, for better or worse. If
you're not tidy your Windows
d esktop will be overflowing
00:00:08:49 I 1266.8 Hz I 07# I +31
00:00:09:02 I INFO> no input signal or out of range
_Jwtune - version 2.3.2.0 · --.. :·,.:..,, .
File Settings View Colors About
3 --.
...
-15 - - - - - -- - - - - - • - - ---
.
- - - - -- - . -- -- - -- - - - - - .. -- - - - - - - -- - --

wi th Wtune log files.

You could walk away from
your computer and read the log
30 , --- - - ---1-,1 ------ ---~--------- ----1--------- ----
file later. I strongly suggest if
you do this, you monitor a ., II -1 0 L-j -,. ·45 : I : :
single channel on your scanner. I I l.._1 I L... 40 1k 2k 3k Hz
This ·way any "hits" you get will s~
belong to that frequency. If yo u ~
do log in the una ttended mode Snapshot Freeze
and you scan multiple ~ N ote Transposit1 on-- - . . -Fiecord selection- - Spectrum
frequencies you w ill not be able .t..5 freq Special
to tell which channel generated
1440 ij JNone
which fire tone out tones. T
would suggest that if yo u are
logging your scanner
You can ignore the last three colu mn of the file. We are
unattended, that you concentra te one frequency at a time.
ma inly concerned w ith the second column, the dominant
EXAMPLE OF Wtune screen frequency. It appears tha t there is one second of the first
The left is a digital readout of the dominant frequency. tone from time interval 05:07 to 06:07reading1199.7 plus or
On the graft is shown the dominant fire tone out tone, and minus a few tenths of a Hertz. The second tone follows
to the far left of that you can see the CTCSS tone displayed . im mediately in this case las ting not quite three seconds
EXAMPLE OF WTune Log File 06:07 to 09:02 read ing 1266.8 pl us or minus a few tenths of a
Hertz.
Wtune version 2.3.2.0 session file You now have two to nes to program into you fire tone
capable scanner. Note, ho'vv to program yo ur particula r
------------------------------------------ scanner is not the intent of this article.
time I dominant I closest I cents dB You r curiosity is now getting the better of yo u and yo u
I freq uency I note I misma tch I say to yourself, get I wonder w hat these tone match any of
------------+-----------+---------+----------+----- the tone on two tone sequential tone charts. Well "bad news"
00:00:00:00 INFO> sta rt of logfile is often the tones yo u don't match the charts. They kind of
00:00:05:07 1199.8 Hz I D7 I +OS I 0 fall in between a couple of official tones. Or perhaps tone A
00:00:05:40 1199.7 Hz 07 I +21 I 0 matches near exactly the tone on one cha rt and tone B
00:00:05:65 1199.8 Hz D7 I +28 I 0 matches nea r exactly the tone on a different chart. At this
00:00:05:82 1199.9 H z 07 I +31 I 0 point I do not ha ve an explanation for this.
00:00:06:07 1266.7 Hz 07# I +32 I 0 The good news is that the tones I've acquired, even the
00:00:06:24 1266.8 Hz D7# I +31 I 0 ones that fa ll into lim bo off the charts, have worked 100%
00:00:06:49 1266.9 H z D7# I +31 I 0 percent of the time when progra mmed into a Uniden
00:00:06:57 1266.8 Hz 07# I +31 I 0 scanner. 1 don't know how much tolera nce the Uniden
00:00:06:82 1266.9 H z D7# I +31 I 0 sca nne r have on programming the fire tone out tone, but I'm
00:00:07:57 1266.7 H z D7# I +31 I 0 guessing they are a little bit liberal and may have a slight
00:00:07:99 1266.9 H z D7# I +31 I 0 cha nce of falsely a lert the scanne r on an adjacent tone.
00:00:08:07 1266.8 H z D7# I +31 I 0
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
00:00:08:24 1266.9 Hz 07# I +31 I 0
The "good " is th<it you don't have to solely rely on your
00:00:08:32 1266.7 Hz 07# I +31 I 0
sca nner as the source of "scanne r" audio for Wtu ne to work
3 1 Scanning USA T he ONLY Magazine Devoted T o Scanning! February 2007
 with. You could use Wtune in conjwKtion with on-line Goffstown FD Stn 18 2361.0 2932.0
scanners on the Internet. The "bad " part is audio is heavily Goffstown FD Stn 19 2361.0 1232.0
processes and produces a wavering reading to the log file. Goffstown EMS Al 2361.0 1530.0
You get a much greater range of frequencies when reading Goffstown EMS A 2 2361.01985.0
the fire tone out tones. You basically can gather a low, Londonderry Fire 539.0 457.9
middle, and high set of tones to program into your scanner Merrimack All Call 1185.2 1251.4
in three sets. The combination tha t trips yo ur scanner Merr imack EMS 1153.4 1185.2
during an actual tone out is the correct one. Merrimack Fire 1185.2 1153.4
You could also use recorded audio files of past Merrimack EMS Rsq 1200 1267
incidents. The "ugly" part comes in here. Unless you Motorola Alert-1 Universal Straight Tn 1000.0
recorded and play back the audio on the exact same Motorola Alert-2 Universal Hi-Lo Tone 1500 900
computer, you don't know if the playback speed is a couple Motorola Alert-3 Universal Pulse Tone 1000.0
of tenth of a percent fast or slow. My experience sho w this is Rollinsford Fire 564.7 1149.0
enough to throw your reading off by 30-60 Hertz,
depending on if your readi ng a low tone or a high tone. This Sample Tones for Pennsylvania
is enough to make yo ur readings real ugly. Pretty much Allegheny County 1050
useless. Allegheny County 800 1500
The only way to make these recording useful is if you Carnegie EMS 651.9 810.2
can read an analog CTCSS tone from the recording and Carnegie VFD 371.5 412.1
match that to what you know is the precise CTCSS tone of Carnegie VFD 313.8 496.8
the transm ission in q uestion. For instance I had some Etna VFD 746.8 832.5
recordings that were suspect as to playback vs. record Lower Valley EMS 399.8 928.1
speed. I knew the CTCSS tone for the audio I was listening Medical Rescue Team South 881 794.3
to was supposed to be 114.8Hz. I was reading the CTCSS Monroeville 707.3
tone on the recording a t 119.5. Roughly a five percent error. Monroeville 1063.2 746.8
You can do the algebra and convert you fire tone out tone Monroeville - Monroeville #1 VFD 349.0 707.3
readings off the recording to get a prettier looking final Monroeville - Monroeville #3 VFD 389.0 707.3
number. Monroeville - Monroeville #4 VFD 1063.2 707.3
Mon roeville - Monroeville #5 VFD 433.7 707.3
Sample Tones for Florida Monroeville - Monroeville #6 VFD 457.9 707.3
Oakda le VFD 794.3 977.2
Station/ User A B Wh iteha ll VFD 794.3 645.7
c D Whitehall VFD 645.7 794.3
Tallahassee FD All Call 378.6 - 8 Seconds A few of more points to point out!
Tallahassee FD -1 321.7 378.6 Some pagers have a battery save mode in which they
Tallahassee FD -2 339.6 378.6 "wake u p" every few seconds" If they hear a special long
Tallahassee FD -3 358.6 378.6 tone, they will then be in the mode to receive a regular two-
Tallahassee FD -4 399.8 378.6 tone sequential tone alert. The preamble cou ld be confused
Tallahassee FD Divl 330.5 349.0 for Tone A if you don't recognize that the preamble tone is
Lake Jackson Vol 339.6 569.1 about four times as long as a Tone A shou ld be.
Miccosukee Vol 358.6 569.1 If you enter the 15000 for tone A and 800 for tone B for
fire departments that use the Motorola "Warble Alert" tone,
Sample Tones for New York it will activate the Un.iden's fire tone alert. It could prove
Monroe Cnty Group Tone 1180 useful if can't get individual tones.
Wayne County 1180 672 The RELM RPV599A-PLUS VHF Handheld Transceiver
1159 768 is capable of two tone d ecoding.
Web Sites to consider for more information:
Sample Tones for New Hampshire http:/ /www.wpascanner.com/wiki/ indcx.php/ Tones
Amherst EMS 732.0 1232.0 http: // www.two-way-radio-tech.com/ two-way-radio-
Bedford EMS 584.8 617.4 glossary .html
Bedford Fire 617.4 584.8 http: / /www.falcon4u.com/PagingTechnicallnfo. html
Concord Fire 1050 1100 http: / /www.brad dye.com/pager.html
Epsom Fire 2100 834.0 http:/ /www.gahenryradio.com/ tonetu t.htm

32 Scanni ng USA The ONLY Magazine Devoted To Scanning! February 2007