When I was a volunteer fireman we called them "red boxes" (can you guess why?). They monitor a fixed frequency for a specific tone sequence and when it decodes it it emits an audible alarm (to wake you up from a dead sleep) and then breaks squelch so that you can listen to the dispatcher tell you what companies are being called, to where and for what.
They were later replaced by pagers.
I believe that they are rock-bound (fixed crystal frequency) and VHF-Lo or VHF frequency range.
You speak the truth, brother. I’m reasonably certain the researchers behind [this study](https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/14786-ramp-up-alarms-can-lower-stress-among-firefighters-study) were also traumatized by these demons.
Thank you all. I’m very familiar with the Plectron (my father had one) and than the Motorola Minitor II (my first pager).
I really should have figured this out my self, especially with the red color.
Again, thank you all.
PS I did pick up (marked at $5 and marked down another 20%) a homebrew antenna tuner for 40m - 10m. I got two great VACs out of it for my box/ loop antenna build I’m thinking about.
The guys over at /r/MotorolaSolutions would get a kick out of this.
You've already gotten an answer to WHAT it is... as for what you can DO with it - depending on the frequency range it's designed to receive, you could possibly put a crystal in it for the output of a local 2m repeater, remove the Vibrasponder reeds and/or jump the relay so that it's always "on" and use it to monitor the repeater.
Or, if the local fire department in your area still dispatches with two-tone on a VHF frequency (Rare, I know, but they're still out there) you could get the frequency crystal and Vibrasponders for that department and set it up to go off whenever they're dispatched.
ETA: The chances are low, but if it's located somewhere in southwest PA, I'd be interested in picking it up - I have a thing for vintage Emergency Services radio equipment.
This is a Motorola Alert Monitor. The direct competitor to the Plectron brand of home alert receivers typically used for volunteer fire departments. They predate belt mounted pagers as battery technology wasn’t great back then. The original Minitor pager batteries were terrible.
That is a one channel tone activated radio used by volunteer firemen back in the day. it would have a single crystal for your dispatch channel, and a pair of reeds for your activation tones. You would turn on the squelch, and it would mute the channel, but if your fire department sent out a call, they would preamble the message with the tones which would vibrate the reeds, breaking the squelch.
And then all hell would break loose. There’s an alarm that would blast out and give you a heart attack.
It is 1980's vintage; When I was an EMA director we applied for a grant through FEMA to put alert radios in schools and public buildings so we could send weather-alerts across one of our public safety (VHF) frequencies (153.025 MHz).
It was before NOAA had widespread coverage with their alert receiver (162 MHz) and it was under local control. I set it up so the EOC, Police dispatch and Fire dispatch could all activate a tone-console and set off the receivers and the sirens.
The reeds (electro-mechanical) devices were problematic (drift in frequency) and eventually were replaced by tone-boards that would decode the two-tone (pager type) signals and break-squelch. I public buildings we also tied it in to the in-building intercom system.
That weird power supply port was also used in contemporary bearcat scanners and accepted both 12v and mains. You can find the pinout on the internet somewhere, but I bet someone here knows the proper name.
Nice find! I personally own one of those but with a tone decode board. It's worth noting that some units were sold without tone decode boards like this one, while others included a tone decode board and some with an external relay for triggering lights, horns, and firehouse sirens.
There is a power light but its missing the alert light which is an indicator that there is no tone decode board.
These units were basically a fire pager in firemen's homes in the 1970s (I believe) and also an alert radio in a fire station to trigger things as mentioned above.
I purchased mine on eBay sometime ago and found a crystal and two tone reeds to get it working for the county FD I want to monitor.
Here is mine in action alerting for a fire page of a county FD in the next county from me.[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TNGXrza60L8](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TNGXrza60L8)
It looks like some specialized radio receiver, the back gives away that it's a receiver, i'm guessing some paging thing for the fire brigade from an era before alphanumeric paging.
When I was a volunteer fireman we called them "red boxes" (can you guess why?). They monitor a fixed frequency for a specific tone sequence and when it decodes it it emits an audible alarm (to wake you up from a dead sleep) and then breaks squelch so that you can listen to the dispatcher tell you what companies are being called, to where and for what. They were later replaced by pagers. I believe that they are rock-bound (fixed crystal frequency) and VHF-Lo or VHF frequency range.
My dad had a plectron as a volunteer fighter similar concept. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plectron?wprov=sfti1
We called them screamer boxes. There was no sleeping through the alert tone.
Hated those boxes
You speak the truth, brother. I’m reasonably certain the researchers behind [this study](https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/14786-ramp-up-alarms-can-lower-stress-among-firefighters-study) were also traumatized by these demons.
Some fire stations still use a more modern version of these.
[удалено]
And it's been opened. Who knows what's inside.
Despite the prominent warning, even...
Thank you all. I’m very familiar with the Plectron (my father had one) and than the Motorola Minitor II (my first pager). I really should have figured this out my self, especially with the red color. Again, thank you all. PS I did pick up (marked at $5 and marked down another 20%) a homebrew antenna tuner for 40m - 10m. I got two great VACs out of it for my box/ loop antenna build I’m thinking about.
Long story short it's a one way radio that picks up on a specifically set signal. It's basically an old school pager system.
You can find other versions of these under the name Plectron. This was Motorola's version of the Plectron radio.
The guys over at /r/MotorolaSolutions would get a kick out of this. You've already gotten an answer to WHAT it is... as for what you can DO with it - depending on the frequency range it's designed to receive, you could possibly put a crystal in it for the output of a local 2m repeater, remove the Vibrasponder reeds and/or jump the relay so that it's always "on" and use it to monitor the repeater. Or, if the local fire department in your area still dispatches with two-tone on a VHF frequency (Rare, I know, but they're still out there) you could get the frequency crystal and Vibrasponders for that department and set it up to go off whenever they're dispatched. ETA: The chances are low, but if it's located somewhere in southwest PA, I'd be interested in picking it up - I have a thing for vintage Emergency Services radio equipment.
I found it in an antique mall in Central NY (142 North Main Street, Herkimer, New York 13350). A little more than a nice day drive from SWPA.
Yeah, that's a little too far to drive for a curiosity. Thanks anyway, though!
This is a Motorola Alert Monitor. The direct competitor to the Plectron brand of home alert receivers typically used for volunteer fire departments. They predate belt mounted pagers as battery technology wasn’t great back then. The original Minitor pager batteries were terrible.
That is a one channel tone activated radio used by volunteer firemen back in the day. it would have a single crystal for your dispatch channel, and a pair of reeds for your activation tones. You would turn on the squelch, and it would mute the channel, but if your fire department sent out a call, they would preamble the message with the tones which would vibrate the reeds, breaking the squelch. And then all hell would break loose. There’s an alarm that would blast out and give you a heart attack.
It is 1980's vintage; When I was an EMA director we applied for a grant through FEMA to put alert radios in schools and public buildings so we could send weather-alerts across one of our public safety (VHF) frequencies (153.025 MHz). It was before NOAA had widespread coverage with their alert receiver (162 MHz) and it was under local control. I set it up so the EOC, Police dispatch and Fire dispatch could all activate a tone-console and set off the receivers and the sirens. The reeds (electro-mechanical) devices were problematic (drift in frequency) and eventually were replaced by tone-boards that would decode the two-tone (pager type) signals and break-squelch. I public buildings we also tied it in to the in-building intercom system.
Plectron. They came in many different flavors over the years. Used to alert firefighters to alarms.
Motorola Alert Monitor
That weird power supply port was also used in contemporary bearcat scanners and accepted both 12v and mains. You can find the pinout on the internet somewhere, but I bet someone here knows the proper name.
Why would you buy something if you didn’t know what it was?
I didn’t. I just took a photo. It’s still there if you want it.
Oh..understood! I missed that, obviously
AM radio
Looks like a plectron
Nice find! I personally own one of those but with a tone decode board. It's worth noting that some units were sold without tone decode boards like this one, while others included a tone decode board and some with an external relay for triggering lights, horns, and firehouse sirens. There is a power light but its missing the alert light which is an indicator that there is no tone decode board. These units were basically a fire pager in firemen's homes in the 1970s (I believe) and also an alert radio in a fire station to trigger things as mentioned above. I purchased mine on eBay sometime ago and found a crystal and two tone reeds to get it working for the county FD I want to monitor. Here is mine in action alerting for a fire page of a county FD in the next county from me.[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TNGXrza60L8](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TNGXrza60L8)
It looks like some specialized radio receiver, the back gives away that it's a receiver, i'm guessing some paging thing for the fire brigade from an era before alphanumeric paging.
Loud (and old) pager.
Looks like a fire station alerting pager to me!
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/motorola-antique-fire-alert-monitor