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Comment by mikesta.45 on February 9, 2009 at 6:54am

I agree with leo it is a good back up if for some reason while all that goes on during responding to a call you can miss the numerics or street you can look @ your phone get the info without having to get on the radio and ask for the info again and not tying up the radio

Comment by Robert on February 6, 2009 at 8:16pm

we all carry radios with page function. They work very well for us because we are paid on call and we need to know who is enroute and what they are bringing.

Comment by Dave on February 6, 2009 at 5:53pm

My company officers have portables,We cant afford minitors or pagers,lol....What we have for calls,Unless you bought your own radio or minitors,is the fire siren,that dont even work half the time,lol..So around here,you better have your own radio or listen closely for sirens...We have EMS that most people get pagers,but if you do fire only...your screwed!

Comment by LEO AFD389NY on February 6, 2009 at 1:04pm

In the county that i live in in NY we have both. You have your department issued pager, plus if you have a cellphone you can have the text sent to your phone. The text is a nice backup.

Comment by Chuck Beecher on February 6, 2009 at 11:36am

We do both voice & alpha works out good for us so far

Comment by Logan Wildblood on February 6, 2009 at 10:30am

thanx for all the information its really useful. if yall think of anything else just post it

Comment by Greg Ramsdell on February 6, 2009 at 8:09am

A pager system is going to be more reliable than trying to use a SMS system.
The SMS still have to be routed through a cell phone service where as pagers, being not as popular these days, have less competition in the transmit arena. That being said, a SMS will eventually get to you as the phone reports back to the service that the message was delivered. Most pagers are one-way, the message is transmitted and your device received it or it didn't. You'll never really know.
Although there may be catastrophe concerns, my opinion is that the paging system is much more reliable. Again, it has to do with non-mass usage. Your cell towers will become overloaded much faster.
Our county was offered alpha-numerics and I actually prefer them over the Minitors. Maybe it has something to do with working with software and gadgets but I find the old school paging system just that, old school. Yes it works, usually. And if SMS messaging was more reliable I would be touting that. Problem is that the dispatchers need to buy in on the pagers and many think it takes too much time. Not all of our calls are alpha paged out, depends on whose sitting on the desk.

Comment by George on February 6, 2009 at 6:57am

iso rating will not work with cell text as your primary means of dispatching. We use a program for text messages for non emergency information. Pagers for all calls. We have a neighboring department that uses radios with page function for there calls but not sure how well that works. I know the radios are less expensive than the pagers.

Comment by mikesta.45 on February 6, 2009 at 6:42am

my company in Delaware uses cell phone for text pages but we still have our minitor pagers. I never rely on my cell there have been several alarms that I or other members never received . We also use the text pages for other company functions.

Comment by Rob on February 6, 2009 at 3:50am

Utilizing text paging is a great supplement, but not so good as a primary means if you are a first out agency. I was on a department that does nothing but support functions and they switched to all text paging a few years back. It works well for them, but like I said they are not a first out type agency. Lots of departments around us have it set up so at least officers and some all members get a text page for anything above a basic medic call and it does help. Not so sure I would go to an all text pager based system since I have seen flooding, tornadoes, wind events, ect. take out paging/cell systems faster than public safety radio systems, mostly because they have less robust back up power sources and are public use and in the event of a big event they will get over loaded and cause a cascading failure your are caught right in the middle of.

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