Minitor II vs. Minitor V

[Guest]

I have a minitor II, as most of us do, its like a brick. Those of you with fives.... how do they compare?

[Bunkers 0]

if you want to talk about bricks, Minitor V's couldnt get any more brick like. they look heavy enough to weigh down someone's pants

[Porsha911gt3 8]

They're a more expensive, more advanced brick.

[cas2383 22]

One thing cool about the 5's is that it does have a battery meter on the top, shows the batt status every time the reset is pressed. The crappy thing is that it has a special cell phone like battery not the AAA's like the 3 and 4. One other cool feature i noticed is viberate and beep at the same time. The new 5 seems pretty durable and is about the same size as a 4, just a bit thicker. Only time will tell how it really compares, theyre pretty new.

[Guest]

They're a more expensive, more advanced brick.

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One thing cool about the 5's is that it does have a battery meter on the top, shows the batt status every time the reset is pressed.  The crappy thing is that it has a special cell phone like battery not the AAA's like the 3 and 4.  One other cool feature i noticed is viberate and beep at the same time.  The new 5 seems pretty durable and is about the same size as a 4, just a bit thicker.  Only time will tell how it really compares, theyre pretty new.

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I've heard a lot of complaints about reception, any comments?

[ltjay157 10]

I have a minitor IV and it's ok. the one feature i like on it is the vibrate alert. the reception is ok for being digital. I had to send it back to the factory because it lost the programing on it. my old minitor II had excellent reception and used crystals that were field replaceble. I hate how Motorola discontinues the radios and pagers that worked the best.

Edited April 13, 2006 by ltjay157

[Guest]

I have a minitor IV and it's ok. the one feature i like on it is the vibrate alert. the reception is ok for being digital. I had to send it back to the factory because it lost the programing on it. my old minitor II had excellent reception and used crystals that were field replaceble. I hate how Motorola discontinues the radios and pagers that worked the best. 

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i second that, if i could only buy a brand new II. . . .

[Guest]

Have a 4.....still use a 2.

Enough said

[Ging599 13]

The 2's were the best. 3's were crap. I have a 4 and am having problems with it not resetting & not vibrating. We are having problems with the 5's batteries losing charge.We will see.

[RSM2063 2]

The V's record the voice portion of the dispatch which is great for those of us who cant remember numericals. However the range has alot to be desired.

[Guest KFD236]

I have a 5 now and I think it is pretty neat. It has the battery bar at the top, it has vibrate that actually works, and mine has the call playback which is great for calls if you aren't sure what it is. And also it is good for teasing my dad. I replay a call and I just tease him with it even though he too has a 5. Another wierd thing is that unlike all the other pagers that just do the beeping for a certain time the 5 does like 8 fast beeps like all the others than a down tone and than another set of like 8 beeps or so. But the bad things are: The battery, they are heavy and its the size of my Nextel. It is like carrying around another nextel just a little heavier.

But all in all I think that 5 is great.

[dfcic 0]

I would trade my 5 for a 2 any day. But anything's better than a 4.

The 2's still seemed to have the best range imaginable, and were actually lighter and more comfortable to wear than the new 5's.

I'm hard-pressed to find anything redeeming about the 4's. My old roommate and I had a 2 and 4, respectively. We could be standing next to each other, or driving somewhere, and his 2 would trip clearly every time, whereas I got maybe 85% of the pages on my 4.

The playback feature on the 5 is fine, but a bit overrated. If you're running out the door, it's going to cut out anyhow, and then you get a playback of static - not that helpful. This is where having i-page comes in handy. Or younger members like KFD236, who can tell us nature and location when us older guys arrive at the firehouse.

[Ging599 13]

Do the low-band 5's also have the playback?

[Guest KFD236]

Do the low-band 5's also have the playback?

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Yes the low bands do

[AFD_32_4 0]

The Vs also have 8 different programmable tomes. 4 normal tones and 4 musical tones. Motorola has acknoledged that they have a problem with the amplifier bases and are working on them. the amp. bases will discharge a battery, making it useless and having to be replaced. I like the playback and the vibrate, although reception is no wheres near as good as the Minitor IIs.

Having the ability to program mutiple tones is also a great thing. You can have this pager programmed to open for several things, ie:mutual aid tones, different department tones, 2nd alarm tones. and have each one go off with a different tone. Makes it so you can tell automatically who is going out.

Fore reception, would keep a Minitor II. For options, like my Minitor V

KPF

AFD_32_4

[Guest EFFP411]

I have a II SV, and vertex standard "pager radio". most of the time i use my radio, because i get awsome reception. i can hear every tower in the county clear as a bell. I've even been as far as montrose and still got dutchess county tones clear. I only carry the minitor as a backup in case my radio dies, and because it has repeat. the radio does not. The only downfall of the repeat on it is that our dept. has 2 initial tones, and another for each station, so if its anything major i don't get anything after the third tone.(20 secs or so)

[Guest]

Our dept is upgrading from the II to to the V and a lot of the guys dont want the new one cause of reception problems, I've hung onto my II for as long as possible. Plus the V's amplified charging unit is being recalled cause it drains then kills the batteries. A couple of our guys had there batteries last two weeks before they died. The battery indicator on the top doesn nothing, it will display full and the pager will die in five mintues. Another problem with the V is the replay function. If the message isnt sent 5 seconds after the tones are dropped it wont pick up the message, only the tones.

[firemoose827 324]

I had a II for 11 years and was given a V in cobleskill....I miss my II...I loved my II...I NEED my II...the V's are big, bulky and mine has terrible reception. The battery lasts a lot longer though. I can charge it overnight and it will last 2 or three days before it dies. Just about the only good thing about them!

Jonesy

PS- the III's and IV's are pieces of s#@%! I dont know why they took something good and tried to make it better.

[Guest WolfEMT]

The 5s are garbage, plain and simple. I've written a few posts here on them, but I can't find them. Basically, the only good thing is the longer-lasting battery. Reception (or the lack thereof) is a major problem and the charger/amp doesn't work properly. They also lose their tones or go off for no reason.

[Guest]

The only other pager that we haven't had problems with besides the II is the V. We have had some for a year, and seem to be OK. I can't say that with the IVs or IIIs which broke upon opening the box.

It is a bit bigger and has huge functionality, most of which we don't use. The battery is rapid charging and the charge light goes from red to green when done. The battery also seems to last a lot longer. I never got more than 18 hours out of a II.

I like the battery indicator light on the pager. The voice storage seems to have much more capacity. It also has great range.

Because of a crowded radio frequency, we are moving to narrowband so we can be alone. Minitor IIs are not narrowband compatible so we are getting rid of them and converting everyone over to the Vs.

[Guest]

I had a minitor II and that pager has been the best so far.....It could pick up everything in my area crystal clear....No problems at all.....and you could drop it a 1000 times and it would still work great.....Then I bought a minitor III and that pager was the worse...I could only get 2-3 towns on it....Just horrible....Some towns next door I couldn't even recieve.....Then bought a Minitor IV.....worked fine no problems....Picked up good(not as good as the II but ok)....Later Bought a V....So far so good....Doesn't pick up as good as the IV or the II but still pretty good.....Only problem is it's a brick .....

But so far the II has been the best

[res6cue 67]

I find it perplexing that the III and IV had WORSE sensitivity than the II. Supposedly the V has better sensitivity than the II had, but I haven't compared them side by side to test in the real world. The horrible lack of reception by the III and IV models are well documented though. Incidentally, the voice storage model, at least for low band, has less sensitivity (weaker reception) than the standard model.

Here's a comparison chart (the lower the number, the better the reception)

Edited May 15, 2006 by res6cue