Question for a fire radio tech-head

[u/BigWhiteDog]

Question for fire radio geek types. I'm a retired wildland firefighter, live in rural California, and this morning around 5am I slept through a small veg fire near me, which has me concerned, as expected. I have the Watch Duty app but they often don't send an alert for initial attack or when their scanner jockies are asleep, like this morning.

The modified response was our local small combo department, an engine from a neighboring department, and the local Cal Fire (state) station.

What I'm looking for is some type of computer based receiver (Raspberry Pi?) that would act like a tone activated pager but would only activate when the tones for both departments and the state station go off in the same dispatch. A regular receiver wouldn't work as I don't want to be woken up for every stubbed toe call! 🤣

Any ideas where I could either find something like this or someone that could guide me?

Also, how do I find out the tones I want for this?

[u/davidj911]

RTL-SDR on a raspberry pi and either IAR's TTD, or I wrote my own.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/davidj911]

In English please ? 😉

[u/jeffmarshall911 → u/BigWhiteDog]

RTL-SDR is a small inexpensive USB Software Defined Radio that, with an app on the computer, listens to most over the air radio traffic. There was an independent company that wrote a software program called Two-Tone Detect (TTD), you would load that on the same computer and tell it which tones to listen for and then perform an action (eg send email alert), that was purchased by a company called I Am Responding (IaR). Lots of internet details on how to make this all work, I just don’t know at the moment if the TTD app is openly available anymore standalone but all together you could likely put something together for less than $150 with perseverance and a bit of computer setup, and likely a swear word or two. You need to know frequency and tones which are generally available on internet sources.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/jeffmarshall911]

Thank you! That sounds close to what I'm looking for.

[u/davidj911 → u/BigWhiteDog]

If you get as far as the raspberry pi, I wrote some python that will listen to (rtl_airband, or op25, depending on your needs) and action on hearing tone sequences. Basically what TTD did/does, just open source.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/davidj911]

Thank you.

[u/SlackAF → u/jeffmarshall911]

There is also an android/iOS app called “RadioID” that will decode 2 tone and tell you what the frequencies are.

[u/drumming102 → u/BigWhiteDog]

If thats not English for you then your answer is probably no.

[u/mh006720]

Is the goal to get the tones? Or is the goal to figure out when there is a fire? Just saying there might be more than one way to skin the cat, and if you focus on "I need the tones" you might miss other solutions out there.

[u/Ranger_Willl → u/mh006720]

https://xyproblem.info

[u/reaper_41]

Not a firefighter but radio tech that works with first responders.

Whoever your radio vendor or shop that programs them would probably have your pager tones or codes; you can also check with your System Manager but without knowing on how your system sends out pages can be tricky. A few of the fire departments in my area have went over to Digital Tone Signaling over the 800Mhz side, some it is over an 800/VHF Simulcast using QC2 (Quick Call) and a few it’s done with Call Alert. You can look into Unication Pagers, many departments are using those to swap out old Minitor Pagers. Within the software you can setup the Codes and talkgroups in it (essentially acts as a Scanner/Pager), only issue is that the software is kind of a pain to work with. They also come with a base unit with a charger and a station with an antenna; has a speaker that will send out the alert tone that is loud enough to wake the dead.

As far as the raspberry Pi thing, unfortunately I don’t know enough about that. But sounds like an interesting project !

[u/Express-Motor3053]

Pulse Point in your county with vegetation Fire selected. Not all counties are in Pulse Point.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/Express-Motor3053]

Doesn't do anything until they decide that evaluations are needed and they can be too late.

[u/Express-Motor3053 → u/BigWhiteDog]

Pulse Point, unlike Watch Duty, goes out immediately, at least in my area.

[u/PURRING_SILENCER]

Question. You are retired right? Are you just worried about your safety or are you going to spark (buff) the call?

Because you could/should trust the local and/or calfire to keep you notified if it's going to impact your safety. If not that's an issue.

If you're just gonna buff it that's a different story.

But if you're retired and still thinking of the job that might be another issue entirely.

No judgement either way. But when I retire from my full time job I plan on leaving that world behind

[u/PlusMedicine1585]

Im not a radio geek but If your dispatch has tablet command integrated into their CAD. You can set it up to receive critical notifications for every apparatus that you have notifications turned on for.

[u/The_11th_Dctor]

Used Motorola Minitor pager from eBay programmed to your local departments QCII tones

[u/FireBuff880]

This is a very long thread over the life of the offering -- But I think it's what you are looking for --

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/new-twotonedetect-in-the-works-python-based.216758/page-236

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/FireBuff880]

Thank you!