Motorola Minitor

The Motorola Minitor is a portable, analog, receive only, voice pager typically carried by civil defense organizations such as fire, rescue, and EMS personnel (both volunteer and career) to alert of emergencies.

The Minitor, slightly smaller than a pack of cigarettes, is carried on a person and usually left in selective call mode.

The earliest methods of sounding an alarm would typically be by ringing a bell either at the fire station or the local church.

Other methods included specialized phones placed inside the volunteer firefighter's home or business or by base radios or scanners.

Unlike conventional alphanumeric pagers and cell phones, Minitors are operated on an RF network that is generally restricted to a particular agency in a given geographical area.

Beginning with the Minitor III series, these physical reeds or filters are no longer necessary, as the pagers now feature all solid-state electronics, and various tone sequences can be programmed via computer software.

In fact, a remote transmitter hundreds, even thousands of miles away belonging to a separate agency, can activate a Minitor (and also block it) unknowingly if the atmospheric conditions let the signal propagate that far.

The user must be cautious, however, as setting the alert tone duration too high may cover some voice information.

The vibrating motor in the newer (IV and V) Minitor pagers is quite strong in order to be felt in varying conditions, such as when performing heavy work.

As the Minitor is portable, its electronics aren't as sensitive as set top or base radios and are usually less able to pick up weak or distant signals.