Dual site supervision is provided for a control channel cellular radio for
a fire alarm reporting system that uses logic that causes a control
channel cellular transceiver to operate in a nonstandard manner and to
use a different and second cellular base station or site that the unit
would not normally select operating pursuant to a standard cell phone
software module. The logic causes the control channel cellular
transceiver to monitor and test through more than one cell base station
or site, thereby meeting the dual communication path supervision
requirement for UL listed communications systems for stand alone fire
alarm reporting systems. The available cellular control channels are
first scanned, and the signal strength of each cellular control channel
is measured. Then the cellular control channel with the strongest signal
strength and the cellular control channel with the second strongest
signal strength which are verified as being available for the assigned
carrier are selected to report the status of the fire alarm system. A
cellular radio message on the status of the fire alarm system is
transmitted over the cellular control channel with the strongest signal
strength, or if unavailable over the cellular control channel with the
second strongest signal strength.