cellphone is my pager we use a feature called etxt that sends us details of call backs (im part of a small paid brigade ) and also pagers us for the advanced rope team .we do also have normal pagers but they are just motorola basic ones .
I personally have A minitor 3 and a minitor 4. The 3 is for the ambulance and the 4 is for the fire department. I know that our FD lets explorers have pagers after they have made all meeting/drill requirements for the 1st 6 months of their service. After they have made their requirements they get a pager (minitor 2). If they fail to meet the quarterly requirements after the 6 months of probation they get their pager taken away. We can also get a program called rip - and - run. This is a program where you can get fire dispatch text messages sent to your phone in case your pager isnt working.
I have a home base scanner and its a Uniden Bearcat and I have a hand held as well both I bought out of my own pocket seeing as I'm a volunteer.Our station is too tight to get us one so basically the ones of us who have them all bought them out of our own pockets.Another local vol. company tried to get me to join them.They said they would give me a nice Hand Held if I joined them.Around here where I live everyone knows everyone.
I.E. They know if you steal and what not and if you have a bad rep then first of all when it comes to even getting voted onto the department it wont happen.We require a criminal background check before anyone is considered.
we use infostream EAS xstream pagers. All messages are sent in written form so we can have a copy of the address and other info with us when we return from jobs. We also get weather alerts and other administrative info sent to us via these pagers. We also have a SMS alerting system because we cannot get our hands on enough pagers.
We don't have Jrs/explorers but once you have passed mimimum skills you get a pager if one is available or are put onto the SMS system.