Abstract: A selective call receiver (106) has a frequency synthesizer (708) for scanning a plurality of frequencies to determine a control channel to receive a signal and a receiver (704) for receiving the signal representative of an available frequency associated with a geographic region. The signal includes a channel identifier (404), a frequency assignment (406) and an active channel indicator (408). A processor (712) associates the channel identifier (404) with the frequency assignment (406) in response to the active channel indicator (408) indicating an available frequency of the geographic region and a memory (720) stores channel identifiers (404) associated with frequency assignments (406) designating available frequencies (408).

Abstract: A method and apparatus remotely retrieves messages intended for an acknowledge-back pager (400, 700) in a communication system including a fixed portion (100) and the pager (400, 700). The communication system has provisions for interconnection with a user by telephone. The fixed portion (100) accepts (502) a selective call origination from a caller, including a message intended for the pager (400, 700) and sends (504) the message to the pager (400, 700) in response. The pager (400, 700) stores (506) the message within a pager memory (418). Thereafter the fixed portion (100) accepts (508) a selective call origination from the user, including a predetermined retrieval code associated with the pager (400, 700). The fixed portion (100) sends (510) a predetermined retrieval command to the pager (400, 700) in response, and the pager (400, 700) retrieves the message from the pager memory (418) in response.