DTMF SQUELCH PAGING

I thought I'd write a short segment on DTMF SQUELCH FOR PAGING.
There may be some folks who are not familar with this feature on our radios and it may come in handy for some 
of you. You may have heard 3 tones on your radio during a Skywarn net or during bad weather or some other 
emergency event. This was one of our Skywarn operators alerting the others to "listen up", as there is a need 
for them to be alerted and on the radio.
You'll have to check with your manual on your particular radio and see if this feature is available. 
I have a Radio Shack HTX 202 that is set for this mode and it's always on during the approach of bad weather.
The DTMF paging lets us leave a radio on a certain frequency such as 146.94, which is the Skywarn net freq here.
You will not hear any conversations unless one of the operators punches in the proper tone sequence which 
will break the squelch and make all later transmissions heard by that particular radio. This is a very good feature 
as you can leave the radio on at night or other times and you will not be bothered by any normal conversations
or by the "blippers and bloopers" hi. 
The reason I am writing this is because this feature will be of great value to any of you who listen out for your kids,
or other family members, who may be living out of town or traveling and they can raise you if they want even at night. This feature works with simplex transmissions as well as through repeaters. One thing, the repeater must be set to pass tones. The 146.61 will not pass tones at this time, unless it has been changed.
It's nice to be able to leave the radio on without being disturbed until the code is punched in. This code, which is
111 in the case of skywarn, can be set to whatever you want as long as the receiving radio is properly set to that 
tone. Again see your manual for proper settings and to see if this feature is available for your radio.
And please, do not enter the 111 unless it is an emergency. This code is available to all so anyone with a need for assistance may alert somebody. If the tone is misused, we will have to change it and only the Skywarn operators will know what it is. Hope this information will give someone a new use for their radios.