This mode decodes several types of tones which are commonly heard on the shortwave and VHF/UHF bands.
 
These buttons select which type of tone to decode:
DTMF
EIA
CCIR
XPH tones
PICCOLO - Not yet implemented
ICAO - SELCAL tones used in civil aviation
ALE - Automatic Link Establishment
The decoded information is displayed in the text window.
A brief description of the tone modes:
DTMF
Also known as “Touch Tone” which is probably a trademark of the telephone company.
This is the common set of tone pairs used to dial telephones. It is also sometimes used for paging and remote control applications.
EIA
Electronic Industry Association. Another set of tones, used for paging.
CCIR
Yet another set of paging tones.
XPH
XPH is a spy numbers station that sends messages via tones, rather than voice or morse code. It is believed to be operated by a Russian intelligence organization.
ICAO
Internation Civil Aviation Organization. This tone mode is also referred to as SELCAL, for SELective CALling. It is used to alert the pilots of aircraft that they are about to receive a transmission. When their radio receives the correct pair of dual tones, the squelch is broken. This means that they don't have to listen to hours of static between messages. Each aircraft in the world is assigned its own dual tone pair.
Some SELCAL frequencies:
3016 5598 8906 13306 17946
2899 5616 8864 13291
2962 6628 8825 11309 13354
2872 5649 8879 11336 13306
2971 4675 8891 11279 13279
3476 6622 8831 13291
ALE
Automatic Link Establishment. This system was developed by the US government, and is now in use by many organizations and counties world-wide. It is a modem system using eight tones. It exists to allow stations to contact each other, not to transmit data. This is handled by other methods after the stations are in contact. But, it is still possible to monitor the ALE transmissions to see what stations are on the air.
ALE mode uses tones ranging from 750 to 2500 Hz, so you may want to use the wide filter setting on your radio, to not clip any of the tones. MultiMode displays a set of eight indicators in ALE mode, one for each tone. The intensity of each indicator indicates the amplitude of tone(s) at that frequency. It is normal for them all to not light up at the same intensity:
 
For each received transmission, MultiMode displays one line of text, as follows:
[ Date Time ] [ Type ] [ Message ]
The message types are as follows:
DATA Data
THRU Thru
TO To
TWAS This was
FROM From
TIS This is
CMD Command
REP Repeat
Example Transmissions:
[12 Apr 2000 19:26:11] [ TO ] [ BOB ]
[12 Apr 2000 19:26:34] [ TIS ] [ TOM ]
In North America, 11250 kHz is a very popular ALE frequency.