Minitor 3

[SVFDJ10]

I was wondering everybodys opion on the Motorola Minitor 3. I'm a captain for a jr. fire department and are looking to purchase a couple.

[BFD847]

We use them. We have had them about 1 1/2 yrs now. I can be pretty rough on them and have not broken it yet.

[NYSmokey]

SVFDJ10,

As I write this I am on my third Minitor III in as many years. I don't feel that I have been overly rough with them. I have hit them against the door frame a few times I think that their quality could be better. The knobs feel like they could easily break and it is often tough to tell which function you selected (audible or vibrate). There has been a problem with one of the internal components I guess and the charging stands. Motorola had to do a recall of all of our pagers to address both.

I know that I have missed calls because my pager has not tripped. Missed one today. Wires down. This may be a problem on our end. We use high band paging and I put some fault on that equipment. The county didn't spend enough money on the radio system and I'm not sure about the strength of the signal.

So what exactly am I saying?? Shop around. RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH. Don't let anyone sell you on them until you've seen them and given them a trial run.

Good luck!!

[mark440]

I have had my Minitor III since December of 2000. I have not had one problem with my pager. I like it, it stands my abuse. I am not overly abusive, but I do not sit mine in a glass case either. It withstands "normal" wear and tear. 'Nuff said

Stay safe,

*Mark

[WagonBoy19]

SVFDJ10,
A little while ago I purchased 6 minitor 3 pagers for my department. I have one of them and for the most part it works ok. The craftsmanship is about half of what it was with the Minitor 2's- I can actually turn my knobs on my pager a full 360 degrees and i did even force the thing- on mine there is no clicks between the A,B,C,D positions so I am never quite sure if my pager is open or closed. The reception in our area is about 80% of what the Minitor 2's pick up. And I have actually had it turn off a few times without any indication why. I have tested it time and time again with everything coming back in working order. These problems are not exclusive to me only. BUT in the end compared to what else I have tried and seen on the market, they are the best NEW pager out there. I mean thats not saying much but thats my opinion. We are now in the process of getting a group of trial Alphanumeric pagers to see how they work as an alternative. I hope this helps.

[ 10-18-2001: Message edited by: Ross Johnson ]

[esd17]

We purchased 10 Minitor III's about 1 year ago. Only 1 worked perfectly out of the box. 5 have been sent back to Motorola twice for numerous problems such as, falsing, missed calls, nobs falling off, and poor reception. The other 4 are being shipped back as we speak for the same problems. The one I have is the one with no problems. When the work properly, they are great. As far as the problems with the nobs turning on you without you touching them. I have found that if you wear the provided case they are OK. I will tell you that Motorola decreased the mHz deviation for the tone codes. This tries to eliminate falsing. The Minitor II's were 3 mHz variation, and the Minitor III's are only 1.5 mHz. So just make sure that your base station is putting out the proper tone frequencies or you will have alot of problems. Hope I was some assistance. Have a good day.

[bobsnyder]

We have six Minitor IIIs (one for each officer). Mine is the only one that hasn't been back to the factory, and most have been back more than once without resolution of their problems. I like the features they offer, but I'm extremely disappointed with their overall performance, both in terms of their reception/activation in the field and in terms of their physical durability (buttons, cases, etc.).

Of course, I don't like our HT1250 portables, either, as I don't think they're sufficiently rugged for the fire service.

Motorola has been a disappointment recently...if we go after any mobiles or portables in the near future, I'm going to push for giving Kenwood a try.

[da6499]

Go to:

http://www.motorola.com/home/

Type Minitor III into the search and scan the results.

[shoney6308]

OUR DEPT. IS SWITCHIN TO THEM NOW. THEY ARE REPLACING THE MINITOR II AS THEY ARE EITHER BROKEN OR NEED REPAIR. I THINK THE MINITOR III'S SUCK,SUCK,SUCK. WE HAVE HAD A LOT OF GUYS MISS CALLS BECAUSE OF THEM. THEY KEEP SENDING THEM IN TO GET FIXED SO THEY WILL WORK. I AM HOLDING ON TO MY MINITOR II AS LONG AS I CAN AND TAKING VERY GOOD CARE OF IT SO AS NOT TO HAVE TO SEND IT IN FOR REPAIR.

[MFD]

most of the guys at my dept have monitor 2's a few have 3's and the guys with 3's want there old 2's back or swap guys with 2's. i'm pretty tough on my 2 and it hasn't had any problems. I'm probably gonna wait for the monitor 4 to come out before i replace mine.

[BFD196]

All our officers, and paid members have III`s. At first we had to send them back because they weren`t set properly or something. None of the III`s went off for a reported structure fire, luckily it was nothing. Since that incident, they`ve been fixed, and everyone likes them. The vibrate feature is especially useful.

[AC1503]

I wish I had a Minitor 2 instead of the Monkeyrolla Crap Minitor 3.

[EFDems841]

I have both a minitor II and III. Ilike the features of the III, but DEFINATELY not as durable as the II's. I'm always afraid I'll break off a knob. our first batch of III'S was one of the first to be recalled..we didn't get them for 2 years.
Bob Snyder, a question for you. What don't you like about the HT1250's? I've had one for 2 years and haven't had a problem with it. I think its very durable. It lasted a week without a problem in sub-zero temps for a river recovery, and has been in numerous structures. Just want to hear what you have to say about them, thanks

[Malahat27]

My Dept has had the Min III's for a little over 2yrs now, and with the exception of a couple of people who seem to always have reception problems we have not had any real complaints. I recently traded mine: it was only set to receive my unit's tone out in Selection "A" or to scan in Selection "B" to "D". I now have one that has the vibrate mode programmed into it. Both units work very well, howeve when the vibrate mode was programmed, I have found that it will vibrate in "C" or "D" for my unit tone out, but it will still "tone" out for the other districts. Not quite what I wanted as I find myself attending a lot of briefings and lectures throughout the day, and I often forget to turn it down - my fault there.

But overall we have had no major problems and aside from reception problems associated with geography - mountains and lots of rock, we have not had any complaints of note thus far.

One thing that you may want to look into is getting the carrier cases for them. It reduces the possibility of breaking the switch knobs off, and it also prevents selector knobs from accidently switching to another mode if it gets bumped, we have all experienced that once or twice. Not a big deal 'cuz you still get your tone out when you need to hear it.

Overall assessment, its a pretty good unit to have. Well that's my 2 cents worth.