Selective call radio receivers such as pagers alert a user of a received signal that includes an address identifying that particular selective call receiver. Such devices generally incorporate a radio receiver capable of producing, for example, an audible alert which may be heard by the user. Some pagers provide the additional features of a voice message or a message visually displayed on a screen.
Each selective call receiver is identified by a specific address that typically precedes each message. When a selective call receiver receives a message preceded by that selective call receiver's address, the message is stored within a memory for subsequent presentation.
These selective call receivers are widely used by professional and other individuals in many communities. The use of such selective call receivers has become so proliferated that it has become difficult for an individual in a group, all of which are using pagers, to distinguish his or her signal from the others in the group. Accordingly, some selective call receiver users resort to checking to see if they have received a signal when someone else in the group has received a signal. More disturbingly, however, other selective call receiver users are becoming ambivalent to response tones due to the great frequency that alert tones sound in a group of individuals. This may delay response time in some situations, since the selective call receiver user may not respond to a message intended for him or her, or it may lead to catastrophic damage or loss of life in some situations such as fires, etc. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a selective call receiver for providing a distinctive alert tone to the alert user.