Abstract: Selectable receiver addressing is used to control how messages are output from different receivers. Users selectively enable and disable personal addresses in the receiver. The receiver polls time slots where the data for enabled addresses may be transmitted. Enabled addresses are compared with transmitted receiver addresses. If the transmitted address matches one of the enabled receiver addresses, the message is output to the receiver user. If the transmitted address does not match the receiver address, the message is not processed and, accordingly, the receiver operator is not disturbed.

Abstract: A paging device references current ambient sound energy in selecting alarm presentation. In the illustrated embodiment, a low volume alarm presentation occurs in relatively quiet ambient sound conditions and a high volume alarm presentation occurs in relatively loud ambient sound conditions. Multiple levels of ambient sound energy cause a selected one of multiple potential alarm volumes. By making alarm volume presentation a function of ambient sound conditions, the paging alarm of the present invention better matches current conditions to improve the user's ability to hear the alarm and to reduce the risk of annoying others.