Fire Pager Instructions
(Special instructions for the new Minitor 5 pagers are shown in red type)
All Kennebunkport Firefighters are issued a Motorola Minitor voice pager and charger. The pager is a small radio receiver set to our frequency that will ring or vibrate when it receives a special tone transmitted by our dispatch center followed by voice traffic relating to the call.
The pager is intended to be carried at all times when you are available to respond to fire calls. It can also be left on, in its charger, at night. They are designed to operate 24 hours a day, as long as they are placed in the charger for about 6 to 8 hours of that time. When the batteries need to be charged, the pager will chirp periodically. Generally, you do not have much time to begin charging the pager from the time the low battery alert first starts until it will no longer receive. For the Minitor 5 pagers, the charging time is about 1 hour. There is a 3-segment LED charge indicator on the top of the pager. Pushing the reset button will display the approximate level of battery life. When only one segment is illuminated, the
remaining battery life is very short, and the pager should be charged.
Normally, a yellow light on the charger will come on when the pager is inserted. If the light is not activated, check the power connections to the charging stand or for debris in the charging connections on the bottom of the pager. If your charger does not appear to be working, please contact the Fire Chief's office as soon as possible. The Minitor 5 chargers are a rapid rate charger. When the pager is first inserted, a red light on the charger will illuminate. After about 1 hour, this will change to a flashing green light (90% charge) and then to a solid green light (100% charge).
The pager operates with two AAA NiCad rechargeable batteries. In the event of a prolonged power outage or other situation preventing you from charging the pager, you can operate it with regular alkaline AAA batteries for a considerable period of time. Remember to remove alkaline batteries from the pager before trying to use the charger. Also, the use of NiMH or Lithium-Ion batteries is not recommended in the pager. The Minitor 5 pagers utilize a custom battery pack. There is no provision for standard batteries to be used.
When the pager is first turned on, it should either ring or vibrate depending on how the selector switch is set. You can test the volume setting any time the pager is on by depressing the reset button on the top right side of the pager. It will emit a static noise when depressed to indicate that it is on. Be aware that the volume is quite loud at its maximum setting and may startle others in your vicinity. The Minitor 5 pagers are significantly louder at high settings!
The four-position selector switch allows you to choose whether the pager will emit a ringing alert tone or vibrate when a call is received. The switch also selects a quiet position (radio traffic is only heard after a fire tone is transmitted) or an open monitor position (all radio traffic on the channel can be heard, including KEMS calls and occasional traffic from distant stations). The function of the positions and suggested usage are as follows:
Position A: rings - selective receive - normal night time position
Position B: vibrates - selective receive - quiet area use (with volume down)
Position C: vibrates - open monitor - noisy area use (with volume up)
Position D: rings - open monitor - normal daytime position
Position D: ring & vibrate - open monitor - Minitor 5 pagers only
The vibrate settings are grouped in the middle positions on the selector switch to allow for easier locating of the common use positions – just turn the switch all the way in either direction to find either position A or D.
Be careful to select position A or D if you are relying on the pager’s ring to wake you up for a night time call.
When set to the A or B positions, you can push the reset button on the upper right side of the pager to restore it to quiet operation when you have finished listening to the radio traffic.
When riding in apparatus or operating in the vicinity of portable radios being used, please shut your pager off (or switch it to the A or B positions and push the reset button) to avoid creating feedback to the radio user.
If you suspect your pager may not be working, please listen for the evening tone test from Communications at approximately 18:00 each evening. Contact the Fire Chief's office as soon as possible if you have a question on the operation of your pager or suspect it to be malfunctioning.
June 2008
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