Supervised personnel monitoring system

A monitoring assembly for monitoring mobile objects (12), said assembly comprising:

• control means (20) for producing an audio control signal indicative of audio information;
• transceiver means (16) for receiving said audio control signal and for transmitting over radio frequencies a command signal indicative thereof and for receiving a data signal;
• a plurality of transponder means (14) having an identification code associated therewith and for transmitting a data signal and for receiving said command signal including an identification number;
• said transponder means (14) including audio transducer means for receiving said command signal and for providing audible communication to the association mobile object based on said command signal when said identification code equals said identification number.

A method of monitoring a source of transmission, the method including the steps of:

• periodically transmitting a data signal during preassigned time ranges:
• receiving the data signal and identifying which of the sources of transmission is transmitting based on the pre-assigned time range;
• establishing cycles of sequential time ranges wherein each time range is associated with a different source of transmission and occurs at least once during each cycle;
• an dividing each of said time ranges into at least two time windows for allowing reception of a command signal during one of the time windows by a mobile object and for allowing transmission of the data signal during the other of the time windows by the source of transmission only associated with the time range during each cycle independent of receiving said command signal.